Sleeping arrangement help!

[SleepForTheWeek]

Need opinions and stories from experience please!

We live in a 3 bed semi detached house. There are 2 double rooms and a small single.

We have 2 DC, DD1 (3) and DD2 (4months)

I live 4/5 hours from my family/friends and frequently have visitors - every 6-8 weeks at least.

Currently, DD1 is in the small bedroom, DD2 is in with us and we use the spare double room for guests.

Obviously DD2 is going to have to move out of our (already crowded) room in the next few months so we need to give serious consideration to the room arrangements.

I’m not sure the small bedroom would be big enough for a double bed for guests, but I’m also not sure about the girls sharing a room (DD1 not a great sleeper at best of times)

How would you arrange the rooms?

How about letting the oldest use a double in the bigger room and then when guests stay she shares with her sister while they’re there?

What about a sofa bed downstairs for visitors?

Use all the rooms for your immediate family and buy a sofa bed settee for guests downstairs

I'd have the dds share and you're not obliged to have guests over if you don't have the space as your family grows... or you can look at whether a small double would work in the single bedroom.

Or give up your room to guests while you sleep on the sofa bed.

I would just tell guest they will have to find a hotel or b and b to sleep at when visiting. My kids would be the priority. I would overcrowd them just to accommodate people who stay once a month.

Would not*

Thanks.

Sofa bed downstairs not an option as no room, could fit one in the small bedroom and have the girls share (which I’m sure they’d love) but bedtimes and during the night might be a bit haphazard especially if DD2 still waking for milk.

The truth is we all love having my parents coming to stay. They help out so much, the girls love them and I miss them a lot. They would COMPLETELY be ok with having to get hotel/bnb but the reality is they wouldn’t get to visit half as much due to cost.

Really not sure what to do!

Is there any reason why they can't have a room each and then whichever is in the double room comes and sleeps in your room/their sibling's room when you have guests?

You take biggest room.

Older DD in box room.

Younger DD in smaller double room.

When parents come to stay smaller DD goes in with you travel cot.

We had exactly same set up , we put baby in bigger room in her cot ,older child in box room. We bought a Brimnes bed from Ikea so it was stored as a single most of time but pulls out to king size. Fits in baby's room fine keep it stays single most of the time for more space. Depending on who is staying we either give up our bed and go in with baby or bring baby in travel cot in our room and make up guest bed. It's flexible and works well.

Why would night feeds be haphazard?

I put my two in together when dd was 12 months or so. She was a terrible sleeper as was her older brother she shared with. Weirdly they hardly disturbed each other with night wakings and bedtimes were a million times easier as being in the same room meant one person could do it. Yes as ds gets older he needs less sleep but we encourage the occasional separate sleeping as they get older.

5 years later they still share even though they gave their own rooms. They're currently playing together and love it.

I'd give them a room each and then shuffle around when you have visitors. Personally I'd do the children's rooms how you like- Put your parents in your room and sleep on a blow up bed or something.

We have the exact same house. Ds (2.5) has the other double and baby in the small single. We bought a double sofa bed which is in the double room too and when we have visitors the toddler will come in with us

Some food for thought there.

I’m keen to get DD1 in the other double room as there’s no space for her toys in the small bedroom which means they are EVERYWHERE!

We could put her in a double bed in the bigger room, but then there won’t be much space for much else.

I think we’ll just have to move 😂

I like the idea of the Brimnes bed

Get a ikea single bed that can easily change into a double bed for when guests come. DD can temporarily sleep with you or sibling. That is what we did when we were in a 3 bed.

I would use the bedrooms for your children. I think a guest room is a nice touch if you are overflowing with space, but if you have 3 beds and 4 people already, I think house guests have to take a lower priority. I would say we certainly have house guests about that regularly, thought maybe more like every 3 months when things are busy. But I also have family who live overseas and come to visit and when they do they stay at least a week. We do have a 4th bedroom, which is a storage room and office, not a bedroom. We put an air mattress down in there for guests, but when we didn't have that option, the air mattress went in the lounge. Alternatively, you could get a sofa bed in the lounge. Anyone who isn't happy with that is always welcome to stay at a holiday cottage nearby or hotel at their own expense. When my parents come to stay together and want some privacy that's what they do. When it's just my mum, she's happy to sleep in the lounge on the sofa.