Babies 12 months apart going to be sharing a room...any tips?

[Blonde4281]

I have 4 children, and my youngest two we would like to share a room. The elder of the two is 16mnths, our youngest is 4 months and she is currently sleeping in our bedroom. Any tips to ease the transition? I’m worried they will wake each other...our 16mnth old sleeps well but would wake if anyone went into her room. She goes to bed at 6.30pm. Our youngest still wakes occasionally once in the night. She is usually in bed by 7.30pm. Should they be put to bed at the same time? Cots near each other or on opposite sides of the room? Help!

Can you shift the other kids about instead? I can't see it working well while they're those ages.

I will be doing it with a just slightly bigger age gap, I plan on moving the baby into the older dc's once they are sleeping through mostly. My older dc is a light sleeper but as other parents I've spoken too have said the younger one will used to sleepin through the noise older kids make so unlikely to be woken by older child and the older child will get used to it and start sleeping through the noise and the coming and goings but it it will take a bit of time but totally do able!

Did you not think about this before you decided to be a devout catholic? We don't take pet if we don't have room for them, why do you think you have dispensation for your sprogs?

&hereforthecrack chill out What is wrong with sharing a room? I shared a room for most of my childhood and enjoyed it.
My brother lives in a house that both his kids could have a room each but they share and have a play room.
Sharing a room doesn't mean we don't have space.

hereforthecrack, geez...many people have their kids share a room. We have two kids at the moment, who share a room and we have a 5 bedroom house...meaning we have 3 extra rooms....sharing a room is a positive thing for some. I know two families that put 4 kids in a room! Or two kids in a room each (with 4 kids) and they have 5 bedrooms as well. In fact, many children who live in London share a room. My husband and I joke that we mine as well live in a one bedroom or two bedroom, because sometimes our kids end up in our room as well! But we like having the extra rooms and the kids like sharing...so why not? When they are older and the want it, we will put them in separate rooms.

To answer the other poster question, I would put your 16 month old with an older child. Its not fair on dc if the 4 month old does not sleep through the night. I would not put them in the same room, until they sleep through the night.

Mine were 7 months and 27 months when they started sharing. The baby was a terrible sleeper but the toddler soon learned so sleep through his crying. It was fine to be honest.
The toddler went into a toddler bed at 18 months so I didn't need to buy a 2nd cot for the baby.

My 23 month old shares a room with his little sister who is 7 months old and it's fine. We moved her into his room when she was about 4.5 months old and it's honestly been no problem at all. If anything i think they both find it comforting. At first we started out by putting the older one to bed first because we knew he would go down no problem then once he was sound asleep we'd take the baby up into the room (already asleep). At some point we've started putting the two of them down at the same time (7pm), both awake, and they both go down. We figured it'd be best to get them used to it sooner rather then later.

I totally endorse Mindisboggled.(18 nth gap here)
Our younger child took a bit of background noise for granted and slept very well. He started in his cot but learned to scale it around his first birthday. They then slept in a double bed together for a year or so until we sorted a room for them. They shared until they were 9&8 and certainly DS would have been very happy to continue to do so.

@Mindisboggled and @Mamabear12

What a load of bollocks. Kids need independence, the kid are going to go mad with no personal space whatsoever especially as they get older. What if one of them's a psycho? Are you going to be able live knowing your decision to let your kids share a room enabled the little physcho to potentially harm your other kid?

I can't believe anyone with enough rooms for their kids to not have to share would make them share just so they could have a room doing nothing.

I shared a room intermittently in childhood and enjoyed the company.

@yikesanotherbooboo

You were lucky your sibling wasn't a complete psycho then. Your parents however should have had both of you taken off them as they had no way of knowing that...

I’ll have whatever here’s been smoking.

WTF are you on about?

@hereforthecrack the children should have been taken off them because they didn’t have a room each???!

@hereforthecrack
Name says it all. Don't rise to it people. A bored troll with nothing better to do.

I will have a 14 month gap and have been wondering the same thing re sharing so good to see some useful advice

@UmbrellaStand yup. Parents are unable to predict how their kids might behave when unattended to so each child should have their own room and people shouldn't be so selfish as to have kids they don't have room for.

What a weird thread.

Op, I have exactly the same ages as you. Hi!

To be honest, I'm planning on co sleeping for a while longer and then easing ds2 into the cot which I'll keep at the foot of my bed for a while.

I'm not entirely sure when I'm going to put them to bed together. Ds1 sleeps great these days but the four month old is still a rubbish sleeper.

If your four month old is fine could you just give it a go with white noise?

Yea, I have to say, hereforthecrack, sounds like a troll trying to get a rise out of people. You can always find use for extra rooms. For example more kids, pets, office, au pair, play room, guest room (all grandparents live in different countries and visit a few times a year), tv room etc.

Anyway, kids sharing a room is lovely. We used to live in a 3 bedroom and my children had separate rooms, but they always ended up coming into our room, so it was 4 of us in a room and their two rooms used just for play etc.

Now they have their room set up for them to share, and they sometimes both sleep in there. There sure do have fun together in there, but again one of them usually sleeps in our room and sometimes both of them. Sometimes me and my husband sleep in their room! Lol. I know some people would frown at this and say NO WAY, but we don't mind the room shuffle. The only time a child sleeps separate and quarantined is when they are sick lol....at least from each other, my husband will still sleep with them.

Yeh I will choose to ignore @hereforthecrack clearly nothing better to do.

I will having my children share while young and have big bulky toys etc, one room for sleep (and clothes storage) the other for toys, mess and fun. I'm certain social services won't be at my door to see if I'm raising a psycho 🙄