Transition from Family Bed to Family Bedroom

[Niranut]

Right now DH is 16 months through an 18 month deployment and when he gets home, I would really LOVE to begin to transition some of the little people out of my bed.

We've got DS (4.5yo), DD1 (3.5yo), and DD2 (2yo).  DD2 is still nursing and will stay with us.  But I would like some suggestions for helping DS (for sure) and DD1 (maybe) to transition to their own sleeping space in our room.

Our current furniture setup includes one king in the middle with a futon mattress on the floor on one side and a twin kiddie loft bed on the other side.  There is also a queen bed on the other side of the room.

Right now, everyone falls asleep on the king bed with me.  I will then move DS to the loft bed, as that's "his" bed, and DD1 down to the futon.  DS will stay in his bed about half of the time, but DD1 will usually wake up and come back with me or I end up going on the futon and everyone migrates down there.

Before DH deployed this time, we were actually making progress as each of the kids has their own mattress on the floor and they stayed there.  But once DH left, they were all back with me and I didn't want to add to the stress of the whole situation by encouraging them to stay in their own sleep space.  I also liked the closeness with DH gone, so it was a win win at the time.

Now with DH coming home soon, the kids getting physically bigger, and DS seeming to enjoy his loft bed (at least half the time), I wanted to see if there were things I could do to encourage the transition to a family bedroom.Some things I have tried in the past, with limited success, were to use this little ladybug tent we have and put that on the futon for them to sleep in.  Then we got the loft bed (mostly because is was very cheap second hand & in good shape) with the long-term goal of that being DS's bed someday. 

It really is too much with all of the kids and I on one mattress.  With DH home, I am hoping they spend some time with him at night so I can change position if I need to.  But that would mean me on one mattress and DH on another, which would be a good first step if it's works out. 

But I'm curious to hear what has worked for others.  Any thoughts, suggestions, etc.?  

Thanks!