How do you get children to sleep in same room?

[platypuss]

DS1 is 3, DS2 is 6 months - so far DS2's cot is in our office/spare room but we'd like to move him into the room with DS1 as soon as is feasible. What age have other mumnsnetters done this/tried and failed? and how do you get them to bed without waking each other up? DS2 goes to bed much earlier than DS1, who is used to running in noisily and being put to bed with a story... DS2 goes through the night without a feed most nights... but sometimes wakes and cries for 10 minutes while I chew my fingernails next door. I think it's too early to put them to bed in the same room, but would like to move towards it slowly. Any advice?

ours are 2.10 and 9 months and have shared a room since dd2 was about 12 weeks. bedtime is not a problem, dd2 has a feed and then I sing her to sleep whilst dd1 chooses books etc. then we do story and song for dd1. for a good few months they went down at the same time but we are having bedtime troubles with dd1 at the mo!

for many months nights were fine too and dd1 never woke up if dd2 cried......at the mo they are both a nightmare!!! dd2 feeds about 100 times and so is in our bed most of the night and dd1 wakes up for no reason other than to whinge!!

Anyway, sorry for my rant but I reckon yours will be fine together. dd2 can sleep through the loudest tantrums right by her cot so i would say to just give it a try. my top tip is to put the cot side right up as the first night ours shared dd1 climbed in to give her sister a cuddle.

Ds shares with dsd when she is there at weekend and even if he wakes her up in the night, she never remembers it in the morning, but more often than not, she will sleep through. She's 9 so goes to bed quietly though without bedtime stories and stuff so I can't help with suggestions for your ds1's bedtime...

I am optimistic for you that it will work. Simply because my dd 3 seems to have this vaccuum in her hearing when it comes to ds' (3 months') crying whilst she is sleeping. Dd and ds sleep with me in the same bed. I believe other parents have reported the same thing.

So my advice, platy, is just to give it a go. And I don't think the story will wake ds2.

we were late moving ds2 inwith ds1. ds2 was 11 months when we moved him fromour room, in the lead up we explained to ds1 (then almost3) what was going to happen and where the cot would go. first few nughts none of us slept very wel, ds1 was far too excited to have his bro in there, ds2 was being disturbed and dp and i were woken at the slightest sound. now they don't wake each otehr up at all, which is handy as ds2 is a none sleeper at the moment and willplay inhis cot then wake every hour screamingfor no reason!!

We moved DS into DDs room when he was 12weeks, so its just been a couple of weeks. DS has woken her a couple of times and DH has had to put her back to bed whilst I sort out DS. However in the main its been no problem. The only problem is getting them both to bed around the same time. It takes two of us. However we would have the same problem even if they were in seperate rooms. Its down to DSs last feeding time that clashes with DDs story time. But thats another problem. Go for it.

Hia! sorry not to be of help, but I have 3yo dts, night times are hell!!!!! both sleep in same room (lack of bedrooms) we are currently trying the supernanny approach of bedtime routines,(strictly no talking and replacing back into bed) its not working, they wake each other up! we can return them to their beds up to 200 times in one night, and I'm pulling my hair out running out of ideas for putting twins to bed. I have 11yo DS who needs his sleep aswell as hard working DH, so its not easy.

Any tips on this thread are helpful!

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this will probably be no help or consolation, but when my ds was born he slept in the same room as us, my dd and him now share a room most nights , dd is 5 and ds is 2.9, he goes to bed first, dd has story downstairs with us, sometimes they share a bed, sometimes I let dd sleep in spare room, if ds has had a nap (so is still awake at 9pm) or if I think they are both very tired,

at first we had the travel cot up and if ds was being hard work we would bring him into our room, the problem with this was he could climb out of the travel cot, but as your lo is still quite young this might be worth trying,

I totally sympathise, there is light at the end of it all, and they love sharing, it is very sweet most mornings when they come through hand in hand to climb into our bed

i put ds2 in a bed in room with ds1 as soon as we had him sleeping pretty reliably through the night. ds2 was 15m then and ds1 was 28m. ds2 had been a dreadful night waker till then and i dreaded him disrupting ds1 who was in a great sleep pattern.... upshot is, they settled together pretty well. in fact, ds2 started sleeping much better than he ever had before...they go to bed at same time tho...not sure how it would work for us otherwise - i suppose reading the story elsewhere would be the key. now i think about it, there was a few weeks of ds2 getting out of, and having to be put back into, bed about 20 times an evening, to get him to sleep, but he had just come out of a cot (which he hated) so was prob just exercising his new-found freedom. they dont mess about at bedtime much now.

we do have to try the same trick again: ds2 is now about 11m and we want to put him in with the others (now 2.5 and 3.6) at some point fairly soon as i want the three of them to share a room for the first bunch of years at least, as long as its working, that is. (not a matter of space fwiw, but of choice)

i think you have to wait till the crying in the night is more or less over or it just gets sticky... last thing you want is several children up and crying at night (agh)

HTH - and happy to answer any other q's.

the 11mo is of course ds3, not 2.

our two girls started sharing a room when they were 4 and almost 1 - so older than your two. It was done temporarily as we needed the room spare for guests, but over a year later we still haven't moved them back! Its worked really well, but younger one was sleeping through at that point.
Stories together in the spare room, then baby goes to bed, then dd1 gets an extra story or two and she goes to bed. dd2 is usually still awake , waiting for dd1 to join her, but for us , it's worked really well. Great to have a spre room too!

We can't try yet anyway since DS2 is still 'crying down' to sleep (a long sad story about giving up the dummy - I thought it would take 4 nights (a misconception due to a Specialist Who Shall Not Be Mentioned on Mumsnet, aka The Unmentionable) and it has been 3 weeks, but too long to backtrack now). But there is a spare cot in DS1's room so I think we could start putting DS2 there for naps, as DS1 doesn't have naps anymore. I think the story-reading in a different room might be the way to go, as DS1 can be a bit hyperactive in the evenings.

we did the same as you - dd2 was in the study at first. we moved her in with dd1 when they were 1 and 3. we had tried earlier but quickly realised that there was no point until dd2 was v settled at night and content to go to sleep etc. it works really well - it makes bedtime stories and tucking in simple - ie all takes place at the same time and place. they play really well in the morning. they're also, as others here have said, very tolerant of noises and each other's fusses. obviously we do sometimes get a joint bedtime meltdown but it's no more often than if they werent sharing and not made any worse by it

please help...fast!!! i hav 4 kids aged 2,8,11 and 15. the 8 and 11yr old share a room and have a party at bedtime every night,I do have good bedtime routines with them all but the 2 girls are outta control at bedtime,often staying up past 12am,its disturbing the whole household!!!!!