2 kids in a 1 bed house

[mitfordsisters]

We live in Central London and have 1 ds aged nearly 2 and expecting another in the summer. We are hoping to stay in our current place for the meantime due to the location and various barriers to buying a place (thanks bankers). It will mean all 4 of us sleeping together in the one bedroom.

Are we mad to consider this? Do you have any advice? We do have a sofa bed in the living room btw

Haven't had your situation, but have had 5 of us in a 2 bedroom flat. I'd try all sleeping together if there's room as it saves the hassle of making up the sofa bed each night.

However you need an easy back-up in case one of you is having trouble sleeping. I'd suggest having the bedding for the sofa-bed in a pile easy to get at and look at being able to sleep baby in the living room with one of you in case night-feeds are very frequent. We used a portacot, but even a pram that lies flat with a mattress would work well.

That way people can move around in case of sleeping problems - there's no point everyone being sleep deprieved. I BF and didn't mind feeding in another room during the night as it meant DH got a good nights sleep and was bright and alert in the morning to look after toddler & baby, while I went back to bed for another 40 winks.

Thanks for the advice sdr - prob a good idea to have sofabed made up and feed in another room. I might express and ask dh to do 10pm feed and then let him lie in so that we both get enough rest.

My friend is currently in a 1 bed flat with a toddler and newborn (and DH). The toddler sleeps in his cot in the corner of their living room, and the newborn is in with her and DH. Unfortunately it means that the TV is off limits when the toddler is in bed, but her kitchen is big enough to put a TV in there so they can sit in there of an evening. It depends how big your kitchen is or if you have a separate one as to whether this will work!

Any chance of sectioning off part of your bedroom or any other part of the flat?

Friends had a partition put in which made space tight but it reduced the noise somewhat, gave them a bit of privacy and meant they could have a bedside light on without disturbing the sleepers. Prior to that they had a really good quality sofa-bed downstairs. She hated having to faff with the bedding for it so she got a couple of really nice cotton quilts.