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Original poster

Children sharing a bedroom

41 replies

evian · 09/03/2004 22:02

We're thinking of having another baby only thing is we live in a two bedroom house and are planning on staying here (hopfully extending in about 5yrs time)

Does it work with two children sleeping in the same room??

We would keep the baby in with us until it slept through

Are there any of you that wouldn't recomend it???

OP posts:
Sonnet · 10/03/2004 13:24

my two girls (7 and 3) have always had their own rooms - about 6 months ago DD2 started wanting to sleep in DD1's bed on the "put me up" - DD1 didn't mind and a few months ago it became official - like others have said I'll move them when they get older....

secur · 10/03/2004 13:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

elliott · 10/03/2004 13:29

Does anyone have any tips as to when/how to move baby to share a toddlers room? Ds2 is now 14 weeks, ds1 is 2 years older. We need to get them sharing at some point (to liberate our study!) but I'm not sure how to go about it.....ds2 sleeps quite well, but not through the night (2 wakings between 7 and 7 still). We've been having some problems with ds1 - he's not a very heavy sleeper and has been waking in the night recently - we're currently 'getting tough' with this. My worry is that having ds2 in with him will make him worse. I'm also not sure how to time the move with respect to ds1 goign to a big bed - currently they are both in cots but I'd like to get ds1 out into a bed this summer.
Any advice? (sorry, post a bit longer than intended!)

elliott · 11/03/2004 11:17

Anyone? Or did you all find it completely unproblematic?

throckenholt · 11/03/2004 11:46

Our 3 have been in the same room since twins were about 4 months old and ds1 was 22 months. It seems so long ago now (10 months) that I don't remeber if it was a problem - but I don't think so. DS1 was pleased to have people in his room !

He was still in a cot and couldn't climb out - not sure how it would have worked if he had been in a bed.

binkie · 11/03/2004 12:28

Elliott, from our experience and in case helpful:

  • would recommend that, if he isn't already climbing out, you keep ds1 in his cot for now. It'll mean he's dealing with only one change (ie, learning to share his room) at a time, and you won't have to worry about him going to "visit" ds2 in the night (that was our biggest concern about beginning the sharing); and

  • think you will need to be prepared for some increased disturbed nights (both children) at first, but the earlier you get them used to each other's night noises the better. You might well find in the end they sleep better because of the soothing company. I think what I did at the very beginning was have dd (the little one) go to sleep in her basket in our room and then carry it through once I knew ds was asleep - didn't need to do that for long though. I definitely remember that dd learnt to sleep through ds's squawks VERY quickly.

Paula71 · 11/03/2004 20:33

As an only child I love listening to ds twins (aged 2) giggling and chatting to each other in the room next door. We stay in a two-bedroom so no more children until we can get somewhere larger.

However I would always let them share. They shared the same cot for the first 8 months and now their cot beds are together. A few weeks ago ds twin1 was having trouble sleeping and was talking to his cuddly polar bear - I was about to go in a settle him when ds twin2 piped up "shut up Niall" and his brother promptly went to sleep!

SimonHoward · 12/03/2004 07:39

My 2 brothers and I shared a room till I was about 8-9 and then I got my own room as we all hated sharing.

My brothers had to share till they were in their late teens though.

Even now I sleep better in a room on my own than in a room or bed with someone else.

jac34 · 12/03/2004 08:03

My DS twins have always shared, they love it.
They are 5yo and it's like having your best mate over for a sleep-over ever night.
They used to get a bit boustrous when they were about 3ish, and we had to seperate them a few times(which they hated), but now they are pretty good, only occasionally do we have to go in and tell them off.
We do have a spare room, which is slightly smaller than the one they share, so I always said, that the one who didn't want to share can always move out and have that.
Some nights they even want to get in bed together, and they seem to think it's fun to swap beds as well.
However, they are very close, and the same age, so it might not work as well if there was a much bigger age gap.

bloss · 12/03/2004 12:50

Message withdrawn

jennifersofia · 13/03/2004 22:06

Elliot - we moved our dd2 into dd1's room when the dd2 was sleeping through (roughly 3mths). This was mainly because my eldest wakes easily and I knew it would be initially quite disturbing to her to be woken up if I had to go in to the baby. It all seemed to work well. If your eldest is okay in his cot, maybe you could do the room move, and then do the cot to bed thing. HTH.
Zebra - that is funny - it was my impression (as an American) that it is more common in America to have seperate rooms than it is in the UK.

eddm · 13/03/2004 23:39

Only have 1 ds so far but have very vivid memories of being desperate to have my own room as a kid. My sister was hyperactive and used to shake the bunkbeds to keep me awake so she'd have some company. Don't know why parents didn't separate us as we had enough room ? maybe I didn't tell them? We moved when I was seven and I got my own room in the new house... bliss. Although my sister was really, really angry with me for leaving her... I did share a room again when I went to university and loved it. My room mate is still my best friend and I've just moved so I'm round the corner from her. Didn't stalk or anything, she kept giving me the property pages, honest!

Tommy · 14/03/2004 21:28

Just got back from weekend away when 2 DSs had to share - bloody awful. First night, DS1 woke up screaming at 3am then woke up DS2. Neither would go back to sleep. We moved DS2 into bed with me (who obviously has happy memories of such opportunities and decided to feed for the rest of the night - using me as a big dummy), DS1 went into the cot and DH into DS1's bed.
Not much better the second night and now we're all really tired Zzzzz.
Also, I had to share with my 2 brothers until I was 11 which I HATED.
My brother-in-law has never had a room on his own and he's 45!!!

Tommy · 15/03/2004 08:53

In the cold light of (another bleary-eyed) day, I realise that my previous message may have sounded a bit negative......
sorry

elliott · 15/03/2004 12:42

Tommy, how old are your ds's? I can imagine your scenario happening with ours, but since we don't have two rooms to spare in the long run (ds2 is camping out in the v small study in a cot at the moment) I am just hoping that they will get used to it....

Tommy · 15/03/2004 12:48

DS1 is 2y2m and DS2 is 7m. I hope it does get better as the long term plan is for them to share. DS1 is a creature of habit and seems to panic when he wakes up somewhere strange but I'm sure it will get better. My nephews (similar age gap) shared for quite a long time and seemed to enjoy it. I just had a tiring and stressful weekend!

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