1 year old DS sleeps through the night 18:30-7am, 3 year old DD sleeps 19:30-7am.
DS currently still in with us due to only recently (last few months sleeping through the night without whinging for dummy).
DD desperate for her brother to move into her bedroom due to being scared of the dark, she’s got a nightlight and this has only started in the last few weeks. She has started getting into bed with us at 1/2/3am if she wakes briefly to find her Winnie the Pooh she sleeps with, she used to feel around for it then fall back to sleep. Slept in the dark on her own from 7 months old, never any problems.
So currently, we’ve got 6ft 2 DH, me and DD3 in a king size and DS in a cot pushed right up to the side of my bed because of lack of space in our room.
The plan is to buy DS a single floor bed with removable sides. DD in a standard single bed. Nothing in the room that he can hurt himself on, kallax unit, wardrobe and chest of drawers all secured to the wall properly if for some reason he did get up.
At the moment, we put DS down in our room (in the dark) in his cot and he rolls over and goes straight to sleep then DD, we lay in bed with her, read 1 or 2 stories give cuddles then leave the nightlight on for her.
How would you work this? Would you put DS down in his new bed, then do cuddles/read on sofa with DD (no TV, low lighting etc) instead of in her bed not to wake DS and then take her to bed quietly. DD says she doesn’t need night light if DS is in with her as she won’t be scared as she’ll have somebody else in with her. My worry is that DS is used to sleeping in a dark room/black out blinds and curtains (same as DD but now wants light on) and when I open our bedroom door to go to bed myself, the light from the bathroom opposite our bedroom stirs DS for 10 seconds, no big deal he goes back to sleep but I think he’d fully wake if a light was put on if DD changed her mind and still wanted a nightlight. She doesn’t like the calm/dim projectors because she also has a sudden fear of shadows etc. (We’ve explained to her what shadows are, we laugh together and make shadow puppets, we limit and control what she watches when she has TV time and she doesn’t have an iPad or similar so nothing she’s seen that’s all of a sudden made her scared. She keeps mentioning monsters too, we’ve told her that they are not real and even bought books on friendly monsters, again explaining that it’s just a made up character in a book etc).
We have no space in our bedroom for bedside tables etc it’s the only room in the house that is as it was when we moved in and I’m desperate for a little bit of luxury/candles/nice bed frame (we had to buy a cheap base for our mattress), we used to have an ottoman with winged fabric headboard etc.
I may be massively overthinking this but any tips/tricks for sharing siblings?
DH and I are getting such crap quality of sleep because of lack of space with DD getting in and I’m pushed up to the bars of the cot, no room for a superking as it is right now and no need for one if DD stops coming in. We only have 2 bedrooms and can’t afford to move yet to a 3 bed.
Just to add, we do have a motion detector camera in the corner of DD’s room that we don’t use anymore now she’s 3 as no need for it but we can turn it back on and keep an eye on DS/get notifications for movemnent. Also have a stairgate that isn’t locked because as I said, DD now runs into our room at any given time during the early hours.