advice/suggestions please - siblings sharing a room

[Maela]

I have a 2.5yo and an almost 7 month old. The 2yo sleeps in her own room in her bed, and is just starting to sleep through the night and can put herself (mostly) to sleep now. The 7mo sleeps with us. But I would like to start putting him down somewhere at night before dh and I go to bed, so we can have time alone/together and then bring him into bed with us when we go to sleep. Right now I nurse him to sleep on the couch in our family room while dh and i watch tv and I can leave him there with something scooted up against the couch so he doesn't fall once he's asleep. But I know that within a couple of weeks this isn't going to be safe anymore. He's starting to roll a lot in his sleep and when he wakes sometimes he starts scooting around right away. Anyway, he and his sister share a room (his crib that he never uses is in there). They both go to sleep at around the same time. I don't feel it's safe to leave him on our bed either (besides I'd like us to be able to use it when we want). I'm not sure how exactly to work the whole bedtime thing in the same room with a baby and toddler. Dd is really loud and plays/reads books with the lights on until she falls asleep. And ds sometimes takes a while before he actually falls asleep... And I don't even know if he'll let me put him in his crib. So I'm pretty sure they're both going to be keeping each other from falling asleep.

Basically, I'm just looking for advice from other parents with two small children that share a room. What do you do at bedtime??

[StrawberryFields]

I am sure you have already thought of this but we would just put the older one to bed in the bedroom and nurse the baby to sleep in the living room. Then when the older child was asleep I would sneak in and lay the sleeping baby down.

[Maela]

Yeah, I guess that's the most obvious option. I have this fear that he's going to wake up and cry when I go to put him down in the crib, and then wake up his sister. and then we'll be starting bedtime all over again. But I'm going to try it tonight...

Thanks!

[marrymeflyfree]

I guess I should have read the other threads before posting...I just posed exactly the same question! Like you, I fear that the baby will fuss when I try to put her in the crib or wake the older one in the night (or vice versa if the older one has a bad night!). I'm interested in hearing how it goes if you try it out...good luck!

[Maela]

So last night went well. I nursed the baby to sleep on the couch in the family room, and then put him in his crib after dd fell asleep. Both kids were asleep by 8:30 (that's good for us)! He woke up once and didn't wake dd, so yay! I brought him into bed with us two hours later when we went to sleep.
Tonight I didn't even try putting him in his crib because dd didn't fall asleep until 10:15 (a whole other problem for another thread ).