Sleeping arrangements - newborn and toddler

[SleepForTheWeek]

I'm 30 weeks pregnant with DC2, DD will be 2.8 when baby arrives. I'm starting to panic think about how we'll work the sleeping arrangements and it's stressing me out!

We live in a modest 3 bedroom house, 2 small double rooms and a single room. DD is in the single room with a toddler bed, DH and I and the dog are obviously in a room and we have the other as a spare room.

There's a couple things playing on my mind - firstly, I'd like to keep a spare room as I don't have family close by and they come visit often (once every couple months) as do some close friends. Secondly, DD quite attached to her toddler bed (although she ends up in with us 9/10 nights) so I don't want to take that away from her to build back in the cot, or move her out her room which she is also fond of.

When DD was a newborn she was in the Moses basket in our room till about 4/5 months until she grew out of it, at which stage she went into her cot in the room next door. She was still feeding one MILLION times a night and I hated having to trail in to her room all the time. I want to avoid that this time so was thinking of something bigger to put baby in in our room, but our room is already really cramped with a king size bed and a wardrobe

We could move DD into the spare room and get her a double bed (we lie with her till she's asleep and quite often just get in with her during the night so would be comfier for all involved) and t would mean guests could still stay in DD's double bed when visiting (she could sleep with us in those instances). We could maybe even fit the cot in their at a push, but as I said I don't want to take her bed and room away from her 'for the baby'. I originally thought about putting cot bed in our room against our bed with sleepyhead for baby until it's old enough to move rooms which would bide us some time, but that leads me to taking DDs bed away from her again 🙈

I think I'm getting stressed over nothing here, but now with less than 10 weeks to go I feel I need a plan in place!!

Sorry for the long winded thread...

Think you have got your pg head on op. How long are you thinking of keeping the 3rd bedroom for guests? Are the two DC going to be in bunk beds in the smallest room while the bigger bedroom is empty for 95% of the time?

If it were me, I'd get a sofa bed or blow up bed for guests. I'd leave DD where she is for now and see if you can fit a cot in your bedroom somewhere.

In the long term, you will probably have to give up your guest room. It would be silly to squeeze two children into the small room, and leave the guest room just for use every couple of months.

So, either the guests will have bunks in the single, or you buy a decent sofa bed.

For now, cot in the spare room?

I had your arrangement. (Toddler in box room, us with baby in bedroom and spare bedroom)
The baby stayed in our room for well over a year- it was very cramped.
Then transfered to a toddler bed in the "spare room" at 18 months.
The big kid is still in the box room. He doesn't like change.

Thanks - I did wonder about a sofa bed. My dad is a large man so would have to make sure it was big enough!

DD isn't overly perceptive to change - but maybe after the baby is born she can help us decorate it etc.

We will probably look to move in 5-8 years time, so this would be until the kids were 7-10

I'd disagree with those posters who say you need to make long-term changes and convert your guest room to baby's bedroom now. We have an almost identical bedroom situation and have DS who's just 3 and DD 7 months. She's still in with us in a sidecar cot and if I were you I'd get the biggest one of these you can fit in your room. DS is staying in his small bedroom for now (though he still comes into our bed more nights than I'd like). We're right now setting up a cot for DD in the second bedroom and will gradually shift that over to being her room rather than the spare room. We have a single bed in there and we also have a double sofa bed in the living room.

I'm not sure when we'll move DD out of our room, maybe around a year. In the long term I hope we'll put both the kids in the middle size room in bunk beds, but not till they're both more reliable sleepers! So we're going to have the bedrooms gradually evolve to meet changing needs, and we're several months down the line from where you are - would that work for you?

Thanks Fratercura - I've had a look at the next2me/snuzpod etc but think they only do till 6-8 months. What kind do you have? Does the baby disturb your toddler during the night?

DD isn't the best sleeper, rarely sleeps through the night, and I'm in the horrors of what adding a newborn to the sleeping situation will bring!

We have a babybay maxi. To be honest I think how long the sidecar cot will work for and whether your baby will disturb your toddler or vice versa depends on their respective personalities and sleep behaviours! DS was a dreadful sleeper who still wakes most nights at 3. He outgrew the babybay around 8-9 months because he was a very restless sleeper (from birth) and bashed into the sides. DD sleeps much more peacefully and she may well last in it a couple of months longer, though actually she spends much of the night cuddled up in bed next to me anyway. If anything DS is now starting to disturb DD - he tends to scream when he comes in at night and she's more alert now and doesn't sleep through it. DD is a very placid baby, had some problems with colic until 4 months or so but doesn't tend to cry at night - I just feed her back to sleep when she stirs. We may well replace the babybay with the cotbed with one side removed up against our bed when she outgrows it.

Just had a look at the babybay, similar idea to the others I was looking at. They all say not suitable once child is sitting up though, which can be from 6 months?

I think I need to knock through into the next bedroom and just put mattresses all over the floor then we can all sleep in together 😂

I would say they're unsuitable when they can get themselves into a sitting position from lying down, or are trying to pull to standing, which is usually a few months later. The issue is the relatively low side but if you leave the baby lying down then that won't be an issue till they can actually get themselves up.

I would be less worried about 'taking stuff away' from your toddler. They are surprisingly adaptable. the double bed for toddler that can be used for guests and baby in box room once out of Moses sounds like a fab idea to me.

I have a 23m age gap. We also managed to re-arrange our bedroom to fit a full size cot bed with the side down next to our bed. This means that whichever one wakes first and end up I put bed they go in there and at least we only have 3 in our bed if they both come in during the night.

We also considered the room of bed that you talk of though 😂