Putting kids in a room together

[HohohoBumperlicious]

DD1 is 4 and DD2 is 14 months. DD2 was in with us until about 9 months and currently she is in our small spare room. That was always meant to be temporary, DH needs the spare room for use as an office, plus most of his clothes are in there. Our house is pretty small.

DD2 has always been a temperamental sleeper, but for the past 6 months she has been for the most part sleeping through. We would like to think about putting them in together. DD1 is at school, so the holidays seemed like the best time to take the plunge, but we are a bit scared! No idea how to do it, how to get them both off to sleep (DD2 is usually fed to sleep, but sometimes left to moan to sleep). Both are usually up at the same time in the morning. DD2 still needs 1-2 naps in the day.

Should we take the plunge? How should we do it? Is there any chance it is going to be easier than we expect? How should we put them to bed? At the same time?

We just shoved ours in together. Dd was still bf but it worked out fine. They go to bed at the same time as each other. Jamas on then snuggle into one of their beds for stories. Sometimes dd (3) complains but ds (5, nearly!) just ignores her or if she is bothering him then he goes to sleep in our bed and we carry him through once dd has given up. Once they are asleep though either of them can scream, vomit, wet the bed etc and we can bang around with the lights on without waking the other, they get used to sleeping through each others noise.

We shoved ours in together too, when DS1 was 3.5 and DS2 about 4 months. It was remarkable what DS1 slept through! We put them to bed at the same time, and one would read stories to one, and the other to the other.

Good luck!

Approximately how many nights of hell do you think we might have to go through? Christmas seems like the ideal time, though we are going away so might that screw it up.

We put our DD2 in with DD1 (who is 5) when she was about 18 months old and they were both finally sleeping through. Now DD2 is 2 and has started waking up screaming a couple of times each night again and because DD1 is at school all day and needs her sleep we have to carry her into our bed so she can sleep while DD2 learns to settle herself again. Bit of a nightmare really. They go to bed together and as long as DD1 is calm and just goes to sleep, all is well. If DD1 is exciteable, DD2 cries and won't settle because she needs quiet and darkness not DD1 switching the light on and off and bouncing on her bed

Why should you have any nights of hell?

Our ds1 and dd shared a room for 5 years from 3.3y and 12m. Dd sometimes went to sleep easily, and sometimes screamed her head off while I shush-patted her to sleep. To my amazement, ds1 was never woken by this.

Had dd been the elder, though, I'm sure we would have had some entertaining evenings with her, as happened when she moved from cot to bed.

If dd1 acts up just quietly and boringly return her to her bed, with less and less interaction each time. This worked very well for us, and although some nights we might have to return her up to 6 or 7 times to her bed until she finally fell asleep, it never went on for very long. 1-3 nights on the trot, 3 or 4 episodes over the course of her first 6w in a bed. Usually over by 9pm, and never any crying or distress.