So many little ones - any tips?

[UnitedKungdom]

I've a 4, 3 and just gone 2yr old and am due any day #4. Anyone else have so many at this kind of age?

I'm finding they are beginning to head off around the house to play. This is great but I still feel worried what they're up to and what they're damaging. Also, whether they are safe. Is it just that with gangs of kids like this you need to let it go a bit? The 4 and 3 yr old would quickly tell me if 2 yr old was up to something dangerous or that they know I hate (like playing in toilet or taking everything out of my bedside etc). I'm not the most relaxed person but for a house like ours, is it ok to let go a bit?

Sharing rooms - I kind of need to put the 2 and 3 yr old in together. But they wake each other up. They sleep so well separately but together the little one (very light sleeper) gets up s while hour earlier. They've never been together more than s few nights so maybe that would just improve but she's impossible to argue with when awake. Now with #4 we will need them to share in a few months. The 2 oldest could share but they've a bit of a love/hate relationship and I think long term it makes sense for the girls to. Should we just bite the bullet?

Do whatever works best at any given time re sleeping arrangements. DD1 was 5 when DS was born and DD2 came along 13 months later. We had a 3bed semi and until we moved to a bigger house when youngest was 3 we’d had various permutations of who shared with whom. If it meant more sleep for me it was a winner.

I would leave everyone where they are till new baby is 1. Just keep baby next to you in cot.

I've just moved my nearly 2 year old in with 4 year old as baby is due to arrive in the next couple of months. 2 year old is a very light sleeper and still night wakes, 4 year old generally good sleeper but can still be known to wake at night and sometimes wake before nearly 2 year old.

I was absolutely dreading it but it's turned out really well, 4 year old generally sleeps through the noise and has learnt to be (relatively) quiet in the morning and not wake 2 year old. They have a whale of a time at bedtime though, but novelty is wearing off. I wanted to do this before new baby as a) baby's soon to be room is very small and I need to store baby stuff in there!! And b) didn't want 2 year old to feel pushed out when baby came! Oh and c) didn't want to be dealing with the transition when I had a newborn too!

I wouldn't rely on the 3 and 4yo to keep an eye on the 2yo. They are too young and would be absorbed in what they are doing themselves to watch him/her well enough. I'm sure, if they came across 2yo doing something they shouldn't, that they'd tell you, but I wouldn't bank on it.

Yeah I don't really rely on them, I do still check regularly but find it hard to stop thinking about what she's upto even for 10mins. She's extremly physically and verbally able for her age, far ahead of what the other two were but I'm just wondering if people with bigger families just let it go a bit more. Growing up in the 80's and with friends with big families everyone seemed to just run wild including the little ones!

I have 4 close in age. When they were your children's age I found that I had to check on them frequently but also with the aim of encouraging independence. I think if your approach is that you expect them to keep everything undamaged and act shocked / surprised if they do, it helps. If you pop in and they are playing beautifully, do the praise bit. "You always play so beautifully," etc. If you find chaos (which should not happen if you are frequent enough) mention that they are usually so sensible, what a shame, etc. (I found that this chaos happened with dh who didn't have my popping in habit).

And no, I don't let it go a bit more really. I just clocked up lots of steps checking on them between housework, and still do :-)

Thanks clank, that's helpful. I think that suits my need to check better!

I had dd4 just after dd1started Reception.

In retrospect, the best thing I did was have picnics out for lunch most days at the park. It was easy to achieve as from 3 they went to nursery until noon, so we went to the park and had a picnic gently despite the weather! It means less cleaning up at home. It lily only dawned on me when my youngest went to a different nursery and a pArk wasn’t handy and she didn’t much feel like going anyway (she has ASD and struggled with making friends).

Stupidly, we tried to put dd3 in a separate room to 1 and 2 and it was such a stupid thing. Once we put her in with her big sisters, she began sleeping through the night! Baby always stayed in with us until a few months before the new baby arrived.

It is really much easier for your sanity if you get out and about, and have a routine to the day. We always went to a local farm for lunch every Friday and the kids had spag bog, then I just gave them sandwiches for dinner - shortcuts like that.

When they were younger, I tried to keep them on the same floor (3levels here).so all toys on same floor, tv, kitchen and toilet. They didn’t really start going upstairs until I could trust them. Two have ASD, so I still need to be on guard as I have one that tends to run away and can destroy things without much notice.

Today I’ve been fantasising about falling pregnant with quads, so I can’t have been to traumatised by 4 small ones. They are still all at primary, but my youngest is off to secondary in Sept, so it feels like a majot change in our lives....

We have 4boys aged 4, 2, 1 and 10wk, we have a four bedroom house so currently the children have their own room and baby shares with us, we have the next to me crib by Chicco which goes at the foot of our bed but eventually he will be sharing with one of his brothers, not sure who yet but baby can share with u guys for a while until u make your mind up regarding sleeping arrangements, as to playing, just ensure anything dangerous is out or reach, for our fridge we bought some locks from Wilkos which stick on which stop the little monsters repeatedly opening and closing the fridge