Siblings sleeping together, how to make it work

ivymae · Jul 23, 2009

My daughters are 1.5 and 3.5, and recently decided that they want to sleep together in the queen sized guest bed (instead of DD1 sleeping in her own room, and DD2 sleeping with me half the night and in her own room half the night). I am 100% on board, and once they are asleep they cuddle and seem to help the other stay asleep, but OH MAN is bedtime a mess.

They so desperately want to sleep together, but falling asleep seems impossible without drama right now. They just can't seem to wind down with the other one so close, and a few minutes of tickling and talking is fine, but after an hour of them both whining, and tossing, and rolling over each other I am done. If I try to remove DD2 from the room to come fall asleep in my bed, they both are hysterical, and if I stand in the doorway and "shh" them every time they talk it seems to take even longer. A pillow wall does not work, nor does separate blankets, or mommy laying between them.

Is this just something we will have to stick out, or is there a trick that I not know about? I'd really like to have them sleeping together well before Fall, since we are moving into a smaller home and they will need to share a room there. Is it possible?

SandraS · Jul 23, 2009

My four year old and 1.5 year old share a big bed (it's a twin and a full pushed together, with about 8 pillows and ten blankets piled up on it! It looks so comfy!). Anyways, I really can't help you because I never put them in bed awake. They always fall asleep downstairs at their own time. Most nights go like this: around 11 or so I'll take the baby up to my bed to cuddle to sleep, while the toddler stays downstairs with Daddy. When she falls asleep, Daddy puts her in bed and then comes in and gets the babe and puts her in the bed too.

My 1.5 year old is still not the greatest sleeper, so usually partway through the night she comes back to bed with me or I go in there with them. Anyways, my point is that yes, it's great, but I have never put a babe/toddler to bed to fall asleep on their own, so I have no idea how to help you!

rainbowsprite · Jul 23, 2009

I have 2 DD's age nearly 3 and 20mo. they love sharing a room (much prefer it to our room!) and i dont even try to get them asleep at bedtime! their room has 2 seperate single beds for them but they are both fullsize so they can both sleep wherever they want together, there is also a futon mattress on the floor between their beds in case one of them falls out. they have special toys in their room that they can only play with at bedtime and we do our bedtime routine and leave them to it (listening closely on the monitor of course and immdiately going up if anyone sounds upset etc)... last night they emptied their clothing drawers and went to sleep dressed in their party trousers! they had soo much fun.. they seem to really appreciate the time together without mum & dad hovering and asking them not to empty their clothing over the floor or whatever

I do go up all the time and peer round the door to check on them but they are quite happy and fall alseep in their own time, sometimes curled up together (soo cute!!) and sometimes not, whatever they want

the only thing i have to be careful about is that they dont get a toy or something in to their bedroom during the day that i wouldnt be happy with them playing with unsupervised, i always do a thorough check before bedtime

Siblings sleeping together, how to make it work

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