sharing a bedroom? « Back to Group Discussions

[pastormama]

We live in a small two-bedroom house.  One bedroom is for our DD (18 months), the other is ours.  I'm looking for tips or tricks on how to transition them to sharing a room.  I imagine the new baby will sleep in bed with us for awhile (DD did until about 11 months), but after that - how do you make this work?  And, we intend to have all the "baby stuff" in their shared room.  Advice from mamas who've BTDT?

[BaileyB]

I was wondering this, too. We have 3 bedrooms and only one child right now but I would selfishly like to keep the one tiny bedroom as my craft/storage/sewing room. I was thinking of having the new babe sleep in our room about the same amount of time, around 1 year and then have them move on together.

[gloomcookie]

We live in a 2 bedroom condo and haven't yet turned the second bedroom (currently an office - I work at home) into a baby/kid room (our son is 2 years, 10 months and co-sleeps). Our plan is to go ahead and make the office the kids' room just to hold their stuff and maybe have DS start napping in there. We figure we'll have both babes in our room at night for a while. Anyway, just wanted to chime in that we plan to have them share a room until we are ready to buy a house. Heck they may even still share then, depending on how it's going 

[BaileyB]

Personally, I think it is good for children to share a room. I was taking an exercise class last winter and some of the elderly ladies said they all shared beds with their siblings.

[pastormama]

Yep - I shared a bedroom and a bed with my sister.  It was great!  We are still very close.  I just wish I could ask my mom how she got us in bed at the same time, etc.  I never remember sleeping without her, but I can't recall when we started to share a bed.

[CoBabyMaker]

We haven't made the transition yet but probably will in a few months for our 2 and 4 year old.  A friend of mine has her kids in the same room and they do not lay them down at the same time.

In their apartment they would get the younger one down first and then tuck in the older when the little one was sound asleep.

Now they are in her parents basement and I believe they lay the little one down in the kids room and the older falls asleep in mama and daddy's bed.  They then move her when they go to bed, it doesn't bother their daughter and she continues sleeping.

[Lynann]

My boys share a room already. We live in a 3 bed townhouse that has a loft that could easily be made into a 4th bedroom. Right now the 3rd bedroom is a guest room (hardly ever used), and if this new baby is another boy he will just be added to the boys room when the time comes.

We moved DS2 in with DS1 once he was sleeping through the night, so that he wouldn't wake his brother in the middle of the night. Before that he slept in a bassinet next to my side of the bed. Now they love sharing a room, and won't even take naps without the other one. They ARE only 15 months apart in age though and do go to bed at the same time and both are now on only one nap a day, so it works for them to always be together.

Since we would love to have a large family we have always planned to have one room for boys and one room for girls. They only sleep in their room, as all their toys are kept/stored in the living room & back patio, and it will probably just continue that way for several more years.

[jacquelinej]

I don't have 2 now, but soon will.  I also planned to have DD share with whichever comes along boy or girl, at least for a few years.   

I was raised with 2 brothers, one older, one younger, 4-5 years apart.  There was a period of about 3-4 years, up until I was about 9 or 10, when I shared a room with them.  It was fine.  We always did private stuff in the bathroom (changing, etc) and never had a problem.  And we all went to bed at different times.  

[LisamommyRN]

My two boys (27 mos apart) share a room, and have since we put the baby in the crib. Before that he was in the cradle in our room. My older one is an easy, deep sleeper, so even if the baby cried he seldom woke up. If he did, a quick pat was all that was needed. I used to sit at the foot of his twin an nurse the little one back to sleep. Ah, memories!

Now, expecting our third, we're planning on having the cradle in our room to start, and then setting the crib up in our room, too. The other bedroom is only 9x9, we couldn't fit the (bunked) twins and a crib in there without removing the dressers. I guess we'll try to move in a couple years!

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by BaileyB 

Personally, I think it is good for children to share a room. I was taking an exercise class last winter and some of the elderly ladies said they all shared beds with their siblings.

My grammie grew up very poor and shared a bed with 3 sisters.  Two slept with their head at the foot of the bed, two slept with their heads at the top of the bed (just like the grandparents on the original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!")

I'm taking notes.  This DC will share a room with our DS, at least until they are old enough to sleep in the basement with us sleeping upstairs.  We only have 2 bdrms upstairs, and 2 in the basement.