Moving 5 and 3 yr olds into same room with bunk beds - advice?

[muddiecuddles]

We have to do this as we currently only have 3 bedrooms and are expecting twins who will need DD2's room with a spare bed for me; DH works in a job where he can't be sleep deprived so having them in our room isn't an option.

Girls are great sleepers but the 5 year old often takes a while to settle and likes to read and sometimes potter about her room while she winds down to sleep. She likes a dim light. 3 year old still relies on her old baby mobile to get to sleep! She likes a very dark room with a star projector. 5 yr old will go on top bunk.

The more I think about this the worse it sounds... is it going to be a mess?? Any practical advice?

My two are 4 and 7 and have been sharing bunk beds since they were 3 and 6. Here is how we do it-

After bath oldest is sent downstairs to play or read (no screen time.)

Youngest put to bed and had stories read to him etc. He has a small bedside table where he has a gro clock and his star projector. He also like music or cCBeebies radio to listen to as he is falling asleep. Star projector is on red stars only.

Once stories etc done I go down stairs and do oldest bedtime. By the time he has read to me and I have read to him youngest is normally sound asleep. We do have a camera monitor on youngest so we can check this.

Oldest then goes up to bed, switches stars to multi colour which he prefers and decides if he wants to keep CBeebies radio on or listen to music or an audio book. He has a small shelf which has a couple of books and a torch as well as a digital clock. Normally he is allowed to read until a time we tell him then torch off and he goes to sleep.

Both sleep through and if youngest wakes in the night he is not bothered by change of lights etc and just goes back to sleep.

This works well for us but is dependent on youngest being good at self settling and a sound sleeper.

You can buy clip on lights for bunk beds and might be able to set up some kind of projector that only shines on the bottom bunk.

Mine adapted really quickly to sharing and love it. Occasionally the have both ended up on the bottom bunk cuddling which is really sweet!

We are way more relaxed in school holidays when they tend to go to bed whenever and routine goes out the window!

Hope that helps.

Different ages and bedtime routines but if it helps....

I've been trialling my two sharing a room with bunks. Eldest goes to sleep 30-60 minutes later than youngest and likes to read in bed. Youngest has a story and songs to go to sleep.

The eldest takes his book to my bed while I put the younger one to sleep with dim light. Eldest stays in my bed until his bedtime then tiptoes in. He loves getting to stay up late in my big bed - but might be completely impractical for you.

Mornings are great. I leave breakfast out - a couple of brioche rolls and they chat/play together in then room and start the day a bit later.

If you haven't already bought the beds then I would go for an Ikea Kura bed hack.

Ds has one but currently sleeps at the bottom on a lonset slatted bed base fitted inside the kura (made with bed up top). He has trofast steps and plays on the mattress up top. They are lower than average bunks (easier to change linen and if they are poorly) and the trofast steps make it safer for night time trips to the toilet.

You could get a tent top from Ikea for the upper bunk to shield some light from the 5 year olds reading lamp and put curtains around the bottom to shut out the light for the youngest so they can have their projector.

What does made with bed up top mean?

That's a great suggestion. Our bunk bed steps are really uncomfortable for DC1.

The kura bed is reversible. You can have the bed at the bottom or at the top.

Kura bed

There are loads of kura bed hack ideas if you google it. You can get creative.

for example

Thanks a million for all these suggestions! We're getting given the bunks but I have looked at those tent things for the top bunk which our oldest would like, and a clip on light is also genius. We already do staggered bedtime sometimes with them but it inevitably means an extra 30 minutes of tv for the oldest, so I love the idea of her reading in our room, and she will probably wind down more quickly.

This is the plan prior to twins arriving - I'd like to get the routine pretty much down before that happens!!

Actually thinking about it, my DC1 is older. He wouldn't have been reading independently at 5. Might have to make your peace with extra TV. Or try dropbox for free audiobooks. Good for winding down.