families with 2 kids: sleeping arrangements?

I voted other.

Currently with my 6.5 y/o and 5 y/o we mostly touch on each of the options in a given night.

A night generally goes like this...

- each child in individual bed, same room (mom lies with each for about 10 min.)
- mom goes to her bed with dp
- one child comes to join parents mid way through night, leaving other child alone
- other child joins parents
- dp leaves bed to stumble to basement couch, leaving mom and children together.

sometimes only one will join us in the night, occasionally they will spend the night in their own beds

We have had MANY sleeping arrangements since birth and we just keep changing as needs change.

We all co-slept in the beginning, then siblings and mom, then just siblings shared a bed, now they do have their own beds but sometimes invite each other over for sleep overs, cute but rarely works out.

Have fun!

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: Makes sense, but I am struggling with how I can keep things flexible while still finding efficient solutions for our small space (i.e. not covering the entire apartment in beds ).

Hey Ksenia!! long time no see

We had a king bed that DH, DS2 and I slept in with DS1 in a toddler bed next to it. When DS1 was way too big for the toddler bed, and we found that we were waking up DS2 when we came to bed, we got rid of the toddler bed and got a queen bed for DH & I that we put into the next room (about 10 ft away, with a doorway between). Then the boys stayed where the big bed together, and I often fall asleep with them and then move to my bed later. It's worked out really well since there's room for me to lie down if someone needs me but I can go to my own space when they are asleep.

Robin!

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Where's the green with envy smilie ? Our bedrooms fit one king-sized bed at the most.

My sons are 6 and 4. DS6 moved out of our bed at around a year (would put him down in his bed; sometime during the night he would wake up and I'd move him to our bed). DS4 was younger, only because he didn't sleep well with us.

We have a 3 bedroom house, but the bedrooms are fairly small. They share a room to sleep in, and then the other room is a playroom. They used to have separate rooms, but it was hard figuring out where to put toys since they share a lot of them. I bought them bunk beds that can either bunk up or stand separately on their own so that we'd have flexibility in sleeping arrangements later (Ikea has some reasonably priced ones). We don't currently have them bunked up because DS4 is quite the careless monkey, so their bedroom is pretty full with their beds and 2 dressers. I think we could get away with bunking the beds (I bought the shortest set I could find) and if we had to, we could cut down on their toys a bit and fit their toys in there, too (i.e., we could live with just the 2 bedrooms if we had to).

Hmmm...
#1: one sleep with me & DH, one sleeps alone
#2: both start out in their own bed and end up in ours
#3: one starts out in her own bed, the other climbs into the older ones bed and then they btoh end up with us...
you name it - we sleep it!

Well, I voted other because dd and ds share a room. They each have their own bed in their room, BUT... dd often wakes up and comes in with us (we're nightweaning and old habits die hard). Ds is going through a patch where he's having nightmares and so dh will often go in and sleep with him when that happens.

So, we START OFF:
Kids each in their own bed in the same room.
Mom and Dad together in their bed.

We end UP
Mom and Dad (usually) in bed, with dd.
Ds in his bed.
OR
Mom and dd in bed
Dad and ds in bed

Or as happened this morning, Mom on the floor in the kids' bedroom, dd on the floor next to me and ds in his bed, and dh snoring blissfully in our bedroom (I had to take dd out of our bed because she was tantruming because I wouldn't nurse her at 4 am.)

Frankly, I can't predict who's going to end up where!

Hi Ksenia!

at this point, the kids start out the night in bunk beds in their own room, but 99% of the time, when they get up to pee, they come in with us. Occasionally Lucy,7, will still be sleeping in her own bed by morning, but not usually.

when they were younger, we had a queen size bed with a twin bunk next to it, so Lucy could sleep up top, dexter had the bottom bunk, and mark and I had the queen...or mark had the top bunk, the kids and I all had the queen, or any other number of combinations.

When we move, Lucy wants her own room, so I think we'll put a queen in her room to serve as a guest bed from time to time, and we'll put the bunk bed in dexter's room, and he'll usually sleep on the bottom, but if we have guests, lucy can sleep in the bunk bed with him, or they can both come in to our king size bed and guests can have both the kids' rooms... it seems like a versatile set up, but who knows where we will actually all end up every night! Actually, I do know where we will all end up sleeping, which is why we invested in a king size bed *after* the kids had their own room!

happy restructuring!

Oh, I so hear you on the small space planning!! We currently have us all in one "bed" which is really a crib-converted-to-toddler-bed (purchased before I had both boys : and hadn't yet realized our true sleeping needs)attached very securely to our queen bed (also a before boys purchase). Our DS1 who is five, will this spring move to his own room, at his prompting (see, they DO want their own space when ready ) and that will see DS2 still with us in the sidecar, allowing us more room until (maybe) a DC3 joins us to start the original set-up all over again. I might buy a king bed at this time, too, it just depends if we're in the same house or not-right now it wouldn't fit! DS1 will have a twin bed and we may include a thin mattress on the floor that could roll up or something in case he has trouble at first falling asleep on his own, although knowing his strong desire for a room of his own this may not be an issue. HTH!!

ksenia, the four of us are in a king, in a bedroom that is one foot larger than the bed on two sides so it is all bed. since all we do in there is sleep, or play on the bed, it works, and leaves the other room for toys and clothes and play, and an extra bed for guests. if we were to stay in this 2-bedroom shoebox, we'd likely get a bunk for the girls when they want to sleep in their own room. our eldest has no plans to leave the family bed, though! i imagine when they go, they'll go together.

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