sharing rooms

[sootyrupert]

We are about to put ds 4 mnths in with dd 2 years, both are good sleepers. Any advice?

[IloveMarmite]

Be prepared to back track if it turns out to be a disaster ( I had to with dd1&2). We put them together later on, once dd2 had settled down. See how you go. Good luck

[BadHair]

Make sure they both keep to their normal bedtime routines. It will probably take a little while for them to settle into the new sleeping arrangements but they should be fine.
Ds2 and ds1 were about the same age when they went in together. They had the same bedtime (7.30) which helped as they could both have a story and ds2 didn't get woken up when ds1 got into bed. It took about a month for them both to get used to it, but now they're fine.
I'm actually getting worried as ds1 is about to go into his own room and I'll have to split them up. Sharing a room has worked so well that I'm wondering how they're going to get on with sleeping by themselves.
Good luck.

[Gwenick]

We recently (last November) moved DS1 (4yrs) and DS2 (almost 1 at that point) into a room together. They had been going to bed at the same time in their seperate rooms but when we tried putting them down together it was manic.

So we seperated their bedtimes by 1/2hr - 45 minutes - the little one going down first and his brother going a little later.

However, a few weeks later we started putting them down at the same time again......the reason being is that the youngest started 'waiting up' for his brother (up to 1hr in the dark) so we figured they may as well go at the same time as each other then they can 'talk' for a while (as they were when youngest waited up) and then go to sleep earlier.

I know sometimes it isn't possible to 'backtrack' - we couldn't - even though we now effetively have a 'spare room' - the reason the 4yr old moved into his brothers room was because we discovered his bedroom was VERY cold and extremely difficult to heat to a satisfactory temp and it was affecting him - constant coughs and colds.

I ALWAYS vowed thay my children would never have to share a room - but I wish I'd done it earlier as they absolutely LOVE it. I'm sure once they're older they'll want seperate rooms again - but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it

[purpleturtle]

Ds went into Dd's room when he was about 12 weeks. Dd was just over 2. Both are great sleepers, and despite it being a tiny room, rarely wake each other up in the night.
I had some difficulty getting dd to go to bed when ds was little, but the HV helped me spot the problem. I was expecting her to go to sleep while I took ds downstairs for a feed. As soon as I started feeding in their bedroom dd was happy to stay in bed.

[zubb]

My two started sharing at about the same time, and amazingly have never woken each other up in the night. I used to rush to ds2 when if he started crying as I was sure that ds1 would wake as well, but he never did.
We didn't have any choice but for them to share at the time so it had to work!

[elliott]

BadHair, what did you do for the month it took them to settle down?
We have been trying and failing to get ours in the same room for about 6 months now (ds2 is 14 months, ds1 is 3.2). Ds1 is not a fantastic sleeper (although he can be kept tolerable if we work at it) - not infrequently he'll wake screaming in the night and this will wake ds2. Ds2 usually sleeps well at night but has phases of early waking (6ish), again we have worked hard at this and at the moment he's not bad, but if he does wake this will set off ds1. We can't 'fix' ds2's early waking without letting him cry and we can't do this while he's in the same room as ds1.
We have a pretty low tolerance for sleep disturbance so basically each time we've tried it we've given up and moved ds2 back into a separate room. At the moment we are putting them down in the same room and moving ds2 at our bedtime. it seems a bit ridiculous. is there any hope it will get better?

[Kaz33]

We have 3and a half year old and 18 month old in the same bedroom. They moved in together when DS2 was 6 months and we were desperate for DS2 to sleep through the night.

We used to put them to bed at seperate times but DS2 was just waiting till big brother came to bed. We now make a big thing of bedtime and get them both in bed and have a chat about what we have done today. That works fine.

The only problem is early wake ups DS1 used to sleep till 7/7.30 but now wake up has moved to more like 6.30 and sometimes earlier. We try and make it more sensible but it just drifts back to 6.30 and it doesn't seem to matter what time we put them to bed.

[moosh]

I was really worried when we put ds2 in with ds1 at the time ds1 was 4 and 3/4 and ds2 was 9 months. Now 5 and 11 months there were no problems. Ds2 had to get used to ds1's "fly catching heavy sleep breathing". Once he got used to that 2 days max everything went well. So go for it we live in two bedroom so they have no choice but to share. Ds2 goes to sleep first then ds2 goes half hour later. the only problem is ds2 wakes at 5.30 on the dot every morning so I do have to take him out as ds1 needs his sleep for school. But ds1 is a good sleeper and will sleep through any noise ds1 decides to produce.

[sootyrupert]

We put them in together last night, ds first and then dd 30 mins later. dd decided to sing herself to sleep but ds slept through it all. heard them for the first time at 6.50 this morning, dd singing again and ds laughing at her! Tonight has gone pretty much the same, ds down at 7pm, dd down at 7.15pm, she is still singing away and ds is still asleep! Hope he stays that way as dd likes to sing loudly!!

[Yurtgirl]

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