Kids sharing a room...?

Question

My daughter is 16 months and we found out we're about 4-5 weeks pregnant on Friday. Doing the math my daughter will be around 2 when the new baby arrives. We have a two bedroom apartment and everything will fit fine in the bedroom for the two of them but my concern is sleep disruption back and forth. For the first 2-3 months my wife will probably have the baby in with us but after that the new baby will need to move to the crib. Has anyone done this / seen it done / have any suggestions?

Answer 1

It's going to be trial and error. Only you know how deep a sleeper your eldest is, and you can't predict how good a sleeper the new baby will be.

I wouldn't stress about it now. Just prepare for the fact that the crib may need to find a home in your room until the youngests' sleeping pattern is predictable and non-disuptive to her big sister (or vice versa).

If space is your biggest concern, a bassinette takes up much less space and can safely hold an infant for up to 5-6 months old.

Parenthood is all about going with the flow. Don't try to find solutions to problems that have not yet arisen.

Answer 2

My sister and I were both in this boat when we had our kids. Anyways, your idea to have the baby in your room for first 2-3 months is great. What I did was keep the baby in our room for about that long.... at that point the baby was only waking up once or twice most at night. The lifesavor for us is we put a fan in their room once we moved the kids together, to add a little white noise. You will be AMAZED what kids can sleep through - my boys never wake eachother up and they're 5 and 4 now.

My sister had girls 15 months apart and she did the fan as well - she also arranged the cribs so the girls couldn't see eachother and even put one of those screens (like a room divider) to help divide the room a little bit.

HOpe this helps!

Answer 3

I have a 2 1/2 yr old and a 5 month old. Both boys. They have been sharing a room since my baby's 3rd week. My oldest was always a light sleeper, so I wasn't sure if it would work. I set up an extra changing table in my bedroom just in case... this works well for nights when the baby has a cold and I need to clean out his nose during the night.(He cries extra loud when you put the bulb syringe in his nose!) Or for changing his diaper when the other is taking a nap.

My oldest woke up when the baby did for the first couple nights, but quickly adjusted. Now, he sleeps right thru the baby waking, crying, and being nursed 3 times a night.

I think at this age they adjust really well :)
Good Luck!

Answer 4

We have our 3 year old son and newborn daughter in the same room. She's been in there since the day we brought her home from the hospital. It's kind of amazing, but they each sleep through the other's noises. If my son is having a tantrum in the room it doesn't wake the baby, and when she was waking up in the middle of the night he would sleep right through getting her up, feeding her, changing diaper, and putting her back down.

Obviously, at some point when they get older (probably not past the age of 6-7 for our son) we will move into a larger house and get them each their own room.

Answer 5

Yes. When I was a kid there were 4 of us in one bedroom.(3 girls and 1 boy). You might want to wait until the baby is sleeping through the night or about 1 to move it to the other room though.

Answer 6

Yes, This worked fine for us, though the age difference was three years, not two. Kids are pretty heavy sleepers at that age, and our three year old wasn't disturbed...as far as I know. They shared a room for a year and a half until we finally bought a house. They have their own rooms now, but they still prefer to sleep in the same room.

Congratulations!

Answer 7

When we had our third child, after months of sleeping in our room, we tried to put her into her crib in the same room with her older sister. As most babies do, she cried, and cried and cried.We couldn't let her cry it out like we did with our first 2 children because she was disrupting her older sister. So, we set up her pack and play in our room. She would fall asleep there because she was already comfortable in our room. We would put her down and leave our room so she would get used to putting herself to sleep w/o us nearby.After a month or so of doing this, we tried putting her back in her crib in the same room as her sister. Since she had already gotten used to falling asleep by herself in our room, this time she fell asleep after just a few minutes of crying. She's been sleeping well in there ever since. When you're at the point when you feel she's ready to sleep in her crib, try it out. If it doesn't work, bring her back in your room, and try again in a few weeks.

Answer 8

its fine for the babies to sleep in the same room. just wait for the new baby to sleep through the night before u make the room change. so when the second baby is 8 months would be about the right time to make the move.

Answer 9

well isn't 'sadness' a bit of a wench!! ignore her!
congrats on expecting a new little one. kids are awesome! and lets face it, they really are mankind's only hope! without them we'll be extinct in no time!
our son and daughter shared a room for the first few years of their life and it didn't seem to hurt either one of them. we had very few problems. obviously if one is really fussy and/or sick, the crying will keep your other child up, but we would just move the sick one in with us and work it out that way.
if you end up with a boy eventually you will want to give them their own rooms but their sharing a room won't matter for some time!

Answer 10

my four year old son and 4 month old daughter share a room and it works out well. my son is a heavy sleeper anyway. we usually let him go to sleep first and then bring the baby in there a little later. it really works well for us. good luck and congrats.