Own rooms or share for small age gap?

[Chunkymonkey123]

I am currently pregnant with my second child, there will be an 13 month age gap between them.
After the 6 months in our room would you put them in the same room or in their own rooms?

We have a large spare double bedroom and two small rooms. We need to have a spare room permanently as our parents provide childcare and they travel.

We need to decorate so should we make one of the small rooms the spare room (it would fit a double bed and side tables) and give the two children the large room, or is it better for them to have a small room each.

I'm guessing as they will be a similar age they will share toys but will they keep each other awake etc?

Would if make a difference if they were a different gender?

Thanks

I'm interested to know the same!

I have 20 month gap and a.c. have their own rooms. They spend a lot of time playing with ea h other and are in and out of each other's rooms but because they are so close they do get fed up of each other now and again and like the option of playing by themselves in their own space. They are now 4 and 5.

I have a 12.5 month age gap between my DDs. They have shared since our youngest was 6 months old and went into a cot in their shared bedroom. We do have a 3rd bedroom but prefer them to share as we like to keep the third bedroom at a spare room/place to store all our junk and believe it's good for them to share.

It was easy when they were tiny. Our eldest DD is a very heavy sleeper and once she's asleep won't wake even if the youngest has a meltdown with full on screaming. She didn't wake when we went in for night feeds (youngest didnt sleep through till 10 months old). We used to wake to hear them babbling to each other each morning and it was lovely.

Now its a bit more challenging. We do find that they tend to play quietly for a while when we put them up after bath, milk, story etc and found that putting them up slightly earlier means they can do this without losing out on sleep as long as it's quiet play. They often end up in the same bed and I hear sweet things on the monitor like my eldest comforting my youngest if she says she is scared or "reading" her stories and making teddy bears picnics. We keep the bedroom free of stimulating toys and just have books and teddy bears.

However there are days when they fight and we have to go up and down the stairs constantly to calm them down and sometimes they jump about and get a bit too carried away which probably wouldn't happen as much if they were in their own rooms.

Overall I would say I'm glad we put them in the same room even though sometimes they have us tearing our hair out! I think the positives outweigh the negatives in our case.

Mine have a three year age gap, are a boy and a girl and share happily. DC1 will be moving into her own room this year as it is her final year of primary school and she is starting to need a bit more privacy. Having said that, my two get on unusually well and I would probably have separated them sooner if they'd been a more typically quarrelsome sibling pair (like I was when I was their age).

I have gaps of 14 months at the closest. . I would hang on making the decision until you see how they are during the night!! We ended up having 1 each in an older dc room until they slept through! The older ones never heard them!!

Thanks for your comments, I might hold off on the decision making.

My DC1 is not a good sleeper so I'm hoping for an easy one next time round!

My children are 18 months apart and although they would love to share a room I have no doubt my youngest would wake my oldest up every morning at some ungodly hour. They have separate rooms, but always ‘sleep over’ in each other rooms on the weekend x

Our second Ds is due Feb and the gap will be 13 months. The plan is two cot beds in the single room but we'll have to see how that goes.

When are you due op? Be good to know someone in the same situation!

We've done both.

Had my dc2 in with us for 8ish months. We were in a 2 bed and they shared. It wasn't great, I'm not going to lie. Mainly because dd1 is a snorer and dd2 at the time wasn't a great sleeper. When they were ill was the worst. However it was unavoidable and most families cope with this arrangement.

Now we're in a 3 bed. They are separate and it's so much better. However, because dd2's room is so small we are toying with the idea of them sharing again when dd2 is ready to come out of the toddler bed. We can then use her spare room as a study/boudoir!

I imagine (hope) that when they are 4 and 6 they'll be better at sharing.