New baby coming soon... worried about disturbing toddler's sleep.

[MommyofHero]

First of all, let me just say how much me and DH LOVE co-sleeping! :) 

Our daughter is 2 years old and our family bed consists of mattresses on the floor of our bedroom. She is a pretty heavy sleeper and rarely wakes during the night.

We will be having our second baby in a couple of months, and I was wondering what kind of experiences other people have had with adding a newborn to the mix. I'm sure the baby will be on an erratic schedule for a while, and I don't want to disrupt my toddler's sleeping habits, but I also don't want to force her into her toddler bed before she's ready to choose on her own. 

What is the solution? Tending to the baby in a different room during the night? What did you do?

Thanks! :)

[starling&diesel]

I'll be taking notes! 

[Loves2Bake]

My daughter is 18 months and we're expecting #2 in February, I'm curious how others dealt with this. I'm setting up the toddler bed within the next few weeks to see if she's interested. Part of me hopes she isn't, I'm not ready for her to leave our bed 

[To-Fu]

I have a not-quite-three-year-old son and a 7mo, and we all co-sleep in a king-sized mattress. I was so worried the older ones' sleep would be disturbed by all our comings and goings and the noisy newborn, but he slept through it all like a champ!  I think in the early days he was so keyed up from excitement during the day that at night he was just dead to the world. 

I have heard a lot of people saying similar things, that it just works out.  I was anxious to plan or problem solve in advance, but it just wasn't necessary.  We all adapted. :)

[Peony]

DD2 was 2 when DS was born and it did NOT work to have her continue in the same bed or same room. DD1 had been 3 when we added DD2 into the room, we had to do separate beds, DH and DD1, DD2 and I in another because DD2 was on O2, it was hard enough for me to sleep tangled up in all the tubing! The noise never bothered DD1, DD2 was just a different creature. We tried in the same bed with DH tending to her while I tended to the baby, and then different beds in the same room like we had done previously. She woke up with every little noise DS made, when he was up, so was she. We waited a few weeks hoping she would adjust, she never did. So we moved DH and her to another room so she could continue to co-sleep. She is now 4 and still can not sleep with her brother in the same room. We still have the same setup, DH and DD2, and then DS and I, but DH travels quite a bit now so often DD2 ends up in my room, and once again, every time he wakes up, so does she.