Siblings sharing a room

[EandI]

Hi!

I have two daughters, a 6 month old and a 22 month old. My 6 month old is about to outgrow her Snuzpod so we are working through our next step for her sleeping. We have a cot for her which she naps in the day in her sister's room. The plan is for them to eventually share a room, but I just wanted to know whether it's too early to move her in at night too or should we move the cot into our room for now and keep her in with us?
Does anyone else have a 16 month age gap and what did you do about room sharing? How did it go?

Note: My 22 month old sleeps through the night, though is sometimes chatty before bed with her teddies and books. My 6 month old still wakes a couple of times for feeds.

Thanks for any help!

I am not there yet as still pregnant, but I'm planning on keeping second in with me until they sleep through. Although this may be more for me not getting out of bed than worrying about first being disturbed 🤣

At 5 months and 20 months my dd's shared a room. Older one in a bed. I used to stand outside the door hearing her chatting away to dsis. Was lovely!!
Now 13 +14 and those loving words are rare!!.
No issues at all.

The main thing is not whether the nearly 2 year old wakes the baby, nor whether the baby wakes the toddler. The potential problem is the toddler climbing into the cot and accidentally langing on the toddler (possibly intending in her toddler way to be a lovely sister and look after the baby) or throwing things into the cot (also quite possibly intending to give her little sister toys/ books).

That was the reason we didn't put ours in together at that age. DC1 was a climber though. We put them in together once DC2 was also toddling and able to sleep safely in a very low toddler bed.

If the 6 month old still wakes during the night, i would keep them in with you to minimise the middle of the night shuffling between rooms you have to do.

I'd also keep the little one in with you. It's a shame to put them together if the older one sleeps though.

Ours were in together at 6 months & 20 months. They both slept through but on nights when they did wake up or cried, they never disturbed the other.

Will the baby waking or you going in and out the room when the baby wakes disturb the older one?

Personally I'd keep baby in with you until they are older.

My cautionary tale is our two boys. Ones a lark and the other a night owl. It was a disaster. DS2, a hour each night to go to sleep (he was 18 months or so) and would keep DS1 awake. DS1 awake at 5:30 (aged nearly 5) and would wake DS2...both would be cranky. We lasted about two months before accepting that we couldn’t have a spare room.

Mine went into a shared room at exactly those ages. The youngest still woke every 2-4 hours but I managed to run in before he woke his brother. Mornings I had to go in quickly for the eldest who always got up at 6.30 before he woke the baby who had his longest sleep 4-8, but it worked!

We planned to our baby in with DD1 when she outgrew the crib but at 9 months she still isn't sleeping through the night so we ended up putting the cot in our room - she'll stay with us until she sleeps through so as not to disturb the toddler sleep! The cot was a tight squeeze in our room but thankfully does fit - if you can fit the cot in your room I'd probably go with that!

My age gap is 16 months (a FANTASTIC age gap might I add, well done you ) and I’m sure we moved my youngest in with her sister at about the six month mark. The carry on when they got a bit older though, I’d come in to them both in the same cot jumping up and down

You’ve got lots to look forward to OP!