Adding a 2nd child to the mix

[apple o' my eye]

I am 36 weeks pregnant and wondering how nighttime works for you all with 2 or more children.

DD(1) is almost 3. We transitioned her to her own bed a few months ago and she is doing well with it, unfortunately she is a light sleeper. (one of the reasons we made the leap to her own room)

My question, do the normal noises of a nighttime newborn wake up your 1st or older children? How do you handle this?

We have her sleep with the door closed and a quiet sound machine on, but her room is right next to ours where we will cosleep with the newborn.

Thanks!!

[TwinMum3]

I'm sorry I don't have personal experience, however I came across your post and we are in a similar situation.  My son is 2 1/2 and has transitioned to his own bed without problem although he usually is in our bed by the time morning comes.   We will be cosleeping with newborn as well.  We did a lot of night nursing with my son and between that and "Happiest Baby on the Block" stuff we really didn't have a lot of loud nights.  We are hoping this routine will adapt well to our new situation.  Your daughter is a light sleeper but does she go back to sleep pretty easily?  Can you and your husband tag-team the situation if she wakes up and you're with baby?  Or does the sound machine have the option of having being turned up a little than usual to possibly "drown out" any noise (i know that may be counter-productive to being a "quiet sound machine"!).  Sorry I can't be very helpful, I just wanted to ultimately say you are not alone and good luck!

[mamaprovides]

I'm not sure what help I will be as my son is (thank god) a heavy sleeper. But we did bed share as a family from day one so it might work out to be about the same.

My son was 25Months when my daughter was born.

It woke him up for about the first month...or at least, it was the first month where it was noticeable. I'm sure after that he would just roll over and sleep through it.

um, well, the first couple of nights we just said stuff like, "yeah, babies are pretty loud, huh?" and explained what the baby needed and wanted. Since he was pretty excited about the experience and what this whole baby business was about he would sit on the bed and look on commentating like a sports announcer. We made sure he had a sippy cup of water and could watch if he wanted.

Then he became annoyed with it and said stuff like "baby loud...das annoying, mama. You need do baby stop." Then we would make sure someone would cuddle him giving him the right and extra time the next day and plenty of time to make up the sleep.

the clear and obvious difference is the year you have on me. That year may work to your benefit.

if your newborn is in your room, you may avoid incident...but then there are the nights that defy the norm. Either way, as with all births, I think the 4th trimester is the hardest on the house and then a new rhythm will be established that will work for all. My only real advice is make sure you are getting plenty of sleep for the first 6 months since that will give you the clear head you need to deal with it all in a reasonable and loving manner.

[apple o' my eye]

to Mamaprovides, I love the comments of your DS! what a cutie.

I love the advise of getting plenty of sleep, if only I could get enough sleep now! Not looking forward to even less sleep. But that is a different topic!

[sundaya]

We cosleep with DD (2 1/2) and DS (3 weeks). DD is a fairly light sleeper, but the only time DS has awakened her has been in the morning- she sleeps the lightest from about 5 or so until (pre-DS) 7:30, but now will often wake by 6 or so. There's not too much loudness going on with DS, but he does a bit of grunting/talking from time to time, and there has been some brief crying. I was really worried that DD would wake up at every squawk, so it's been a pleasant surprise. And that's with her in the same bed, separated by just me. I don't think she'd notice a thing if she was in another room altogether.