2 under 3 sharing a room, hints, tips, any ideas?!

[chirpygirl]

So, DD1 is 22 months and DD2 is 2 months and for many varied and dull reasons it would be much easier if I could put DD2 into her big sisters room when she moves out of ours.
She will be EBF until at least 1 year old so will need night feeds for awhile yet.
Also we will be moving DD1 out of her cot in the next 5 or 6 months (when we get our double glazing!) inot a bed.
So, is it wise to have them share? What could make it easier? Anyone done it with a 20 month gap and had it work?

What are the reasons for them sharing?

lurk

Hatrick, good to know it can be done, were they both in cots? was there not a lot of 'poking' of the baby?!

Basically I don't want to lose my spare room as both our families live over 200 miles away so would have to be constantly moving DD2 in and out of our room every few weeks when they come to stay, plus the spare room is full of junk I really don't want to sort! (or paint it) AND there isn't really a sensible wall for a cot with corners/alcoves/radiators so the cot would be in the middle of the floor!

works a treat! my 2 shared from dd being 20 mnths and ds 6 mnths they are closer in age than yours but still the same benefits/probs! They will settle together which is lovely and entertain each other in the mornings! I wouldnt do too many changes at once but other than that the kids will love being together

Great stuff, anyone else?

Did you prepare dc1 at all for the baby moving in?

We did this about 3 nights ago!
DD1 is 20 months and dd2 6 months, and has been in our room up until now. Dd1 has been sleeping really badly for a while now,and we just went for it one night, thinking it might make her feel more secure having her little sister in the room with her. I'm not sure how it will work out, but so far things have been good (probably dangerous to say that!), and they haven't woken each other up. Dd2 usually wakes up at 5, and we bring her into bed with us,otherwise I'm pretty sure her singing and raspberry blowing would wake up dd1.
We had been thinking about moving dd1 into a bed soon, but like ellenjames says too many changes at once might be too much, so we are going to put that on hold for a while.
I'll let you know how things go

thanks, luckily we have 2 cots thanks to some blinding charity shop buys by my mum so we can keep them both in cost for a bit longer if needs be!

Have yet to hear anyone say not to, so am going to keep planning to do it unless you do...

We have also just DD2 in with her her sister. DD1 has just turned 2 and DD2 is nearly 9 months - I was worried that they would keep other up - although it is still early days DD2 goes straight to sleep while DD1 still messes about a bit.

We prepared DD1 by making her sisiter moving in with her as an adventure type thing IYSWIM!

Good luck!

P.S DD1 in cotbed DD2 in cot! - theres no escape!

I think keeping her in the cot for a bit longer might be the way to go, DD1 loves DD2 but tries to 'help' a little too much!

Yes, same with my DD1!

I am glad DD2 loves water and her bath. DD1 has just started drinking out of an open cup while not at the table and she decided DD2 would love a sip, cue cold water all over my 8 week old...who then started laughing!

She did impress everyone at playgroup today though, DD2 was in the buggy asleep and started crying so DD1 went over and started rocking it and shushing her, so cute!

My dds share a room and they are 23m and 11m. DD1 is in a toddler bed and dd2 is still in a cot. It has been absolutely fine. I make a effort for each of them to have their own story or if they share story time then we read two. Have had no poking of each other or even disturbing each other as they are surprisingly reislient to hearing the others cries ad sleep through them!!!

Meant to add it is lovely to hear the girls 'chatting' to each other and funny thing is it is dd2 who usually starts it by popping her head over the cot and shouting hiya at dd1.

Thansk Nemo, that's what I need to hear! I am going to be in and out feeding DD2 for the first few months, we can't keep her in our room more than 6 months if she is anything like DD1 as DH's snoring used to wake her up!
There is a sofa, a single bed and a cot in her room already so shouldn't be too much changing apart from me moving a chest of drawers in for the rest of the clothes!

I meant to ask, do you put them to bed at the same time? I was planning to until they are quite a bit older but am not sure if that is mean or not!

Another positive experience here too...

DD1 and DD2 24 months apart and have been sharing a room since we chucked DD2 out of ours at 4.5 months!

We thought there would be major problems as DD1 needs a lot of sleep and DD2 is a very light sleeper who seems to survive with only 4 hours sleep a night some nights! DD2 is also prone to night tantrums and can scream very loudly for prolonged periods, DD1 has decided she is scared of the dark and has started to need a wee in the middle of the night. In short, there is a a lot of disruption!

They both seem to cope well, although after a very bad run of night tantrums from DD2, DD1 has taken to napping during the day again. DD1 was in her cot for the first few months, then we moved her out of it into her cotbed - we braced ourselves for much nocturnal baby prodding only to find there wasn't a problem. We told DD1 that she could have a big girl bed if she stayed in it all night!

We prepared DD1 before DD2 was born and told her she would be sharing her bedroom, we are also doing this in preparation for DC3 when DDs will move into a bunkbed - yes we are a bit cramped here.

In the mornings it is lovely to hear them chatting to each other, as soon as DD2 wakes up she calls for her sister. In the morning DD1 gives her any toys she requests and sometimes climbs inside the cot and goes to sleep with her - although she didn't do any of this when DD2 was young as she couldn't get in and was told not to and we kept toys out of reach (making sure DD1's bed teddy was newborn compatible just in case she handed it over in the night).

So yes, we thought it would be a disaster, when they are 12 and 14 it probably will be, but not yet

both ours go to bed at the same time - thought they would chat all night but if DD2 starts, DD1 tells her to be quiet and go to sleep. DD2 always does as DD1 says (not fair, she never listens to me )

yes both girls tend to go to bed the same time unless dd1 has a late nap if thats the case then she will go later on but they both actually just lie down and go to sleep even if the other is chatting or upset.

I can't tell you what a weight off my mind this all is! I used to share with my sisters (4 in one room!) but that was from 3 or 4 years old and I loved it, I just thought it would be easier to do it now but wasn't sure if it was the 'done thing'!

And I don't have to tidy the back room! yay!

Keep those stories coming!

Great thread!

We'll be moving our 14 month old dd in with her 4.5 year old brother in about April to make space for new baby. My biggest concern is that when 14 month old has her nap (1pm to 3pm, hopefully!) ds can't really play in his room. He'll be at school in Aug so it'll become less of a deal, but not great until then...

chirpy to be honest it is actually ds I feel sorry for as he is 4.2yrs and would LOVE to be in with the girls but just for general privacy for him we kept them seperate.

I always felt sorry for my little bro as he always had his own room, but when he got older he used to bring his duvet into ours and kip on the floor!
Gotta admit I do cheat with naps, all naps for DD1 are taken on the sofa downstairs as I couldn't cope going up and down stairs when pregnant. DD2 will go in the travel cot downstairs as well, it's just easier!