siblings sharing a bedroom - yes or no?

[egypt]

dd's are 3.10 and 1

dd2 still waking at night, I still bf her back to sleep. dd1 doesn't like bedtime/her room/her bed/sleeping by herself...etc..she comes out of her room umpteen times before sleep. she says she wants to sleep with me. sometimes wakes in the night for company/drink, sometimes not. about 50/50 I'd say.

so - do i put them in together? she's a lovely big sister and very caring and respectful of her baby sister. it may help her feel secure in her room. it may help dd2 with her sleeping........it may be a total disaster. i know i could try it and see, but wouldnt want to disappoint dd1 but separating again.

any opinions/experience?
please

Is dd1 a heavy sleeper when she is asleep? If so she may not be bothered about the younger one waking. Mine shared for nearly a year at this age and we had very few problems

My DDs share and always have done (now 5 and 7). We know that sooner or late DD1 will want/need her own space and have decorated a bedroom for her. They have announced however that for the meantime they'll use the other room as a 'playroom' because they're not ready to be separated yet

Yes, ocassionally they bugger about at bedtime, but I think that would happen if they had separate rooms, but generally it's always worked really well for us. Good luck!

Have both mine in the same room- ages 3 and 4mths.

Not sure if it is working. The older one certainly never gets woken up by all the commotion and screaming that goes on half the night. Definitely good. Amazing how he just sleeps through.

I hope it is not causing bad sleeping patterns for DS2 though. Initially I decided it was all going very badly wrong, as DS2 would fall asleep, then DS1 would get up and start messing about, singing, shouting down the stairs for more milk/his blanket/teddy/more stories..... this would inevitably wake DS2 up. Me livid but clearly not able to go on at him about 'waking his brother up'.

However, now DS1 gets stories in our bed, his little treat, he (now finally) knows that the their bedroom is a quiet room, so he goes in there (DS2 already fallen asleep with any luck), lies down, closes his eyes, job done. Phew.

Initial teething problems, but think it works rather well. Plus, we get a spare room this way! And DS1 seems to like the responsibility of 'watching out' for little bro.

My badly-sleeping ds moved in with heavy-sleeping big sister when he was 1 and she was 4.

It was fine. They continued to share until DD was 10

In any case we only had one other room, he was outgrowing his cot so ... no other choice!

hmm, well she would be quiet for her i think, then she may work around that by just coming out! dd1 is a sound sleeper when dd2 wakes, but in the room with her, maybe not.

suggested it to dd1 in a desperate attempt at bribery for her to go to sleep tonight, and she was all for it, in a big way. said i would talk to her dad and we'd see!

DD2 - (crap sleeper until she turned 1) moved in with DD1 (good sleeper) when she was about 8m

I couldn't stand the massively disturbed nights anymore (dd2 worse when in with me and dp) so risked the move - there was nowhere else to put her!

It worked out fine, even when she woke she rarely disturbed dd1.

that's encouraging nnb

DD2 is 19m now (dd1 4.4) and they love sharing a room.

DD1 gets in DD2's cot in the morning and they look at books etc

Gives us a bit of a longer lie-in

dh suggestd trying it for a week to see, and if she can be quiet for dd1 we'll buy her a bunk/cabin bed for them both to share when dd2 is older. she really wants one of these!

will tell her tomorrow..think she's finally asleep now - 920pm sigh