Baby and toddler - juggling sleep

[ElleDubloo]

The toddler (almost 3 years old) sleeps in her own room. She usually sleeps through the night from about 8 pm, but occasionally wakes once but usually settles easily.

The baby (5 months old) sleeps in a cot in our room. She usually wakes twice overnight for quick feeds.

On their own, they are fine to manage. However, sometimes when the baby wakes and cries, she'll wake the toddler next door, who then comes over for a cuddle. If this happens around 5:30-6:30 AM then the toddler will find it very hard to go back to sleep, and will spend the rest of the morning grumpy until she naps after lunch.

How do you cope with this? Are there any tips to settling the toddler back to sleep? It's difficult in the summer as it's light outside in the early hours, so she gets confused.

We're also hoping to move the baby into the toddler's room at some point, but this would make the waking problems worse. Any tips about making this transition?

Thanks in advance!

Will DC1 go back to sleep if she's in bed with you? Alternatively, could you give her a snack and a pile of books and stick her in bed with both?

Sometimes she goes back to sleep in our bed, but sometimes she just tosses and turns for an hour before announcing that she'd like some breakfast. She's not great being left alone for long periods too, even with snacks.

I leave white noise on all night with my 2yo to block out sounds from baby, but i also never let the baby cry incase she wakes him up.

Acorn - do you plan to move them into the same room at some point?

Elle not sure. They can have a room each but I like the idea of a sleeping room and a playing room. I think having them sharing could be a disaster in terms of sleeping.

Doesn't your 3 year old get up for the day then anyway?! Most toddlers I know, including my current/past ones have got up for the day between 5 and 6. Maybe just bring her bedtime forward.

I used to being eldest into my bed and If he didn't go back to sleep I'd just stick some cartoons on quietly so at least he was resting if not actually sleeping

My DS is 21 months and expecting DD in couple of weeks so can't give tried & tested advice but my DS wakes for the day at 6.30am anyway, I leave a few of his favourite books in his cot and he'll amuse himself with these for 20mins - albeit LOUDLY! (I can tell which book he's picked up from his babbling!)
Most days we can hold out until 7am until he starts demanding breakfast and to get out, it's taken time though - to start with he would cry on waking and we'd rush into him, now that he knows we don't rush to him (I go have a wash & get dressed while he chatters/plays in cot) our mornings are a lot calmer & really quite happy.

I say this to advise maybe don't try and get your toddler back to sleep when she's woken by your baby, but as said above ensure she has some books/toys to amuse her for 20mins while you 'wake up and gather yourself' for the day ahead, meaning you're happier as feeling sorted and baby is sorted.

I have two exactly the same age. Baby is in her own room now and wakes but doesn't wake the toddler partly because I'm there with a bottle the minute she stirs (monitor next to my bed) so is there anything you can do to placate baby before crying starts?
And 5.30/6.30 is the time my toddler wakes anyway (he's also down at 8pm and naps after lunch). What time does your toddler normally wake?!

Re sharing a room, we moved DS2 into DS1's room at 8 months, luckily so far toddler doesn't wake up when baby cries at night (he still wakes up 99% of nights at least once), we were really worried about this.
Does your toddler wake every time baby cries in the night? Does she settle back down alright when it happens during the night (i.e. not at 5.30-6.30am)? If so then I wonder whether moving baby into toddler's room would make things any worse really since she is already waking up anyway.
Our toddler sometimes wakes up really early (before 6am) by himself, we have recently bought him a gro-clock and are currently trying to train him with this - putting him back to bed and telling him it's not day yet and he needs to stay in bed until the sun comes up on the clock. We are slowly seeing progress there - could this help your DD?

Thanks for the replies.

The toddler is in the process of dropping her afternoon nap, so timings are a bit funny. If she naps the previous afternoon, and goes to bed at 8 pm, and wakes at 6 am, she'll be ok. But if she doesn't nap the previous afternoon, and wakes at 6 am, she'll be grumpy the whole day. When I've managed to put her back to sleep at 6 am, she's slept soundly until 7-8 am and felt much better.

She does tend to wake up when the baby cries during the night - I'll usually hear her crying a bit then settling herself, or sometimes she can't settle herself and comes into our room.

I'm an exceptionally light sleeper and I think my toddler's the same.

I guess our options are:

• Sleep train the baby in our room and move her to the toddler's room after she sleeps through the night, say 90% of the time.
• Sleep train the baby in the spare room (but it might be confusing and upsetting for the baby).
• Plonk her in the toddler's room and see what happens.

I may be missing the point a bit here but if you have a spare room couldn't that be the baby's room instead of the baby and toddler sharing?

We quite like having a spare room. My parents visit often to see the kids and help us out, and they need somewhere to sleep. When they're not here, it's my laundry/ironing/crafts room