Adding a second child to the family bed

[Jumae]

I am currently cosleeping with my 9-month-old daughter and it's been working wonderfully. My husband is sleeping separately from us, partly so he can get enough sleep for work, and partly because he's a huge snorer.

I wanted to get advice from the community about what happens to this kind of arrangement when you add a second child/newborn to the mix?

My husband and I are not quite ready yet to try for a second, but we know we want a second child, and I don't want to stop co-sleeping with my first when the second arrives, or have her feel "kicked out" or abandoned.

That being said, I also don't want my daughter to get woken up every time the new baby cries.

How have other people dealt with this type of situation?

Are there any books or articles people would recommend on this topic?

[nudhistbudhist]

We are getting ready for the same situation. DS is 13 months and I'm due January. We have been preparing for the last two months. We have a king size mattress and a queen size mattress pushed to gether on the the floor. We really have a "bedroom!" The way it's been going was DS and I would sleep in the king bed, with me spending some of the time in DH's bed beside us. Then we worked up to having DH take over part of the early morning sleep with DS. The hard part was getting DS back to sleep without nursing. That's why we've started in advance of new baby's arrival.

Now, we've noticed that DS is happy in sleeping in the king bed alone. When he does wake, I pee him in the bed potty, nurse/pat him to sleep, and return to DH's bed. We actually were not aiming towards having him sleep alone. Just having daddy be able to sleep with him was what we were looking for.

We do expect DS to want one of us sleeping with him once the new baby has come. We will have DH and DS on the king, and new babe and myself on the queen. Eventually, we will be able to have the children in the same bed together, but not for quite a while. I have fibromyalgia and had a very hard time sleeping the three of us on the queen. I toss and turn and keep everyone awake

[Katie T]

Ds was 21m when dd was born we started her in the fam bed from day one ds slept threw her crying (which due to cosleeping was minimal) & she slept threw min jumping sreaching on the bed while I nursed her down for nap. It all works out

[clothdiaperingmom]

We co-slept with dd#1 till I met DH and married him.

We co-slept with dd#2 till I was pregnant with dd #3 (dd2 had just turned 4 when I had dd3). But while pregnant, I started her in a toddler bed. But it was pushed right up against my side of the bed. We eventually moved her away from the bed but in same room. She is 8.5 yrs now and just moved into another room with her older sister because we dont have room in our room for a twin bed too.
DD#3 never really wanted to sleep with us until she turned about 3ish. So we didnt co-sleep with her. She is in a toddler bed in the same room with us.
DD#4 has been co-sleeping with us since she was a couple months old, off and on as a newborn.
If I had a bed large enough, I would just have them all sleeping with me.

[peachopotamus]

CO-sleeping has been fine with us thanks to DD always STHN since day 1.
Before DS was born I wondered how it would work out but things fell into place. They get use to the noise if there is any. We sleep with white noise on so that helps muffle some sound.