Bedroom Dilemma

[Stitch9191]

Hi!

DH and I have been going over the following dilemma for months ... we're now running out of time on making a decision as DD is almost too big for her next to me, so I thought I'd ask on here to see what the general consensus would be or if anyone has any new suggestions.

DD is nearly 7 months, DS is 3. We live in a three storey townhouse. Bottom floor is kitchen with a lounge area, second floor is spare bedroom, bathroom (with no shower) and tv room/toy room and third floor is our bedroom (en-suite) and DS bedroom.

DD is currently sharing with us but we planned to move her out when she grew out of next to me. The initial plan was for them to share a bedroom, we would then all be on the same floor. However, we naively thought that she would be sleeping completely through most of the time by now as my son was such a good sleeper. She wakes at about 4am every night for a feed still and although I'm not against sleep training (we did have moments where DS sleep went a bit off the rails and we did this) it isn't going to work sleep training her whilst sharing a room with her brother, neither will it work not sleep training her as she will still wake at 4am for a feed. So sharing a room is out of the question for now.

DH wants to give spare room on second floor to our daughter as she isn't mobile/can't go anywhere etc, however, all of my instincts just say no. I understand his logic but I worry that if someone broke in (I know unlikely) the first 'person' they would get to in the house would be her. Other option is we move into spare room but then we lose the en suite and the option to have a shower after 7pm at night and the kids are upstairs on their own which is a whole different problem (my son could very easily scale a baby gate)

Has anyone else been in this situation? Am I being ridiculous? Any suggestions?

Mine shared despite not sleeping through, elder dc didn't stir!

I wouldn’t give up the en-suite but the kids being upstairs alone isn’t really an issue. That’s the case for 95% of parents who live in normal houses. You put the kids to bed upstairs and watch TV etc downstairs.

Can you fit a small cot in your room?

I’d just keep her in with you until she’s sleeping better. I used a travel cot with proper mattress for my son until he was 16m as he didn’t have a bedroom available until then.

Yeah. Keep her with you. Then put her in with your son. Keep your spare room and that floor tidy. I wouldn't put her on a separate floor either.

We have a cot from John Lewis where the side can be left off (not all of them are constructed so that you can do this). When baby grew out of the next to me we pushed the three sided cot up to the bed. It was longer but didn’t take up much more room width wise.
if you don’t fancy keeping her in with you then I’d put them in together and see if your son sleeps through the 4am wake up.

btw if your baby is waking up once that’s amazing!

A) you might find that DD sleeps through if she's not next to you
B) she probably won't wake her brother up if she doesn't.

Give it a go.

Thanks everyone. I'm avoiding leaving her in our room as I'm worried it will then be a struggle to get her into her own room once she becomes more aware of being in her own room without us.

However, I do think that I may be overestimating how sensitive DS would be to waking up. We're only in the room next to him and he doesn't currently wake when she cries and he must be able to hear it (albeit not as loud).

I suppose I could try it and if it doesn't work then I could cross that bridge when I come to it