Does your kid sleep on a different floor in the house than you?

[House4Me]

We are soon moving to a home where we might need to have one child sleep in a bedroom on the main floor, while everyone else is upstairs….. if we do this I am leaning towards my youngest who is still in a crib. I have monitors so not hearing them is not an issue. I also think as a baby they need less space (this room is the smallest) and they won't know any different that they are further away from the rest of the sleeping house…. Thinking ahead, when they transition to a toddler bed and want to keep getting out, etc…. is more of a concern. I could put a baby gate on the door to ensure there is no night wandering. Right now they sleep thru the night every night so I have no concern about getting up multiple times at night up an down the stairs at this point. I'm more concerned that maybe it's just weird and may not work to have them so far away from everyone else..

I'm looking for good and bad experiences from others who have done this and liked it or disliked it & what you recommend? 

[countthestars]

I've never done it, but my concern would be noise after bedtime but before the rest of the family goes to sleep. Is it going to be too loud if you are watching tv/hanging out downstairs? I don't think I would have a big problem with it otherwise.

[wavepool]

I don't see a problem with it! Our friends have this, except 2.5 year old boy is on main floor and master and nursery for new twin babies is upstairs. They have a gate on his door, a monitor, and an alarm if he ever figured out how to get out of all that.

[spk926]

For whatever reason I don't like it. Around here master bedrooms on the main floor aren't common so the only way you get bedrooms on different floors is by having a split level and I don't really care for that style of a home. When we were newly married and bought our first house I made sure it had at least 3 bedrooms on one level because I didn't know how long we would stay there and I didn't want 2 up and 2 down that can be a common house plan around here. We moved last year and this house has all bedrooms on the same floor as well. I like all sleeping upstairs and living on the main floor. Just personal preference though.

[ECB]

Yes. We're on the main floor, DS is upstairs. I like it, it works for us.

Of all the options we looked at- I will say that I wouldn't be as comfortable if DS was down and we were up. Part of it is thinking into the future and when he's older.

Honestly, I don't know that I'd do it where one kid was downstairs and the rest of us were upstairs. That feels odd to me. And I absolutely could see the kid being upset because they are away from the rest of the family. DS already does this- and its just him and us! "It's not fair that we get to sleep with one another while he sleeps alone" - that kind of stuff.

[crazygame]

Our house has two bedrooms upstairs, one on the main floor and one in the basement. We sleep upstairs, as does our four year old. Our one year old is on the main floor. He's a good sleeper, so it works out fine. We have a white noise machine in his room.

He likes it, because he can go to his room while we are all hanging on the main floor, where we spend most of our time.

[charlotteandwilbur]

We are on the main floor & our kids are up. We will likely use monitors for longer than we otherwise would, but no issues.

[zarapipe]

Jun 30, 2015 14:41:08 GMT -5 @this said:

Half the board: No, I would never do that! It's a PITA when they're babies, fires, safety, I like being all together.

Half the board: Yes, and it's awesome! Sweet, sweet freedom!

exactly. I posted this same question a year ago and holy smokes it was either hot or cold opinions.

[dizzycooks]

Is kids sharing a room an option? I do that first. We have two bedrooms up and one down and if anyone's going down, it's us.

[annieh22]

We are on the main and the kids are up. We were initially hesitant, but now love the separation. Will probably use monitors longer because of it.

Can you take the main floor bedroom?? I only say this due to not having to worry about noise while kids are sleeping.

[mlt]

We have a split level and our oldest sleeps half a floor down from us. It's NBD.

[sugarbear]

We are on the main floor and the kids share a room downstairs. I can hear them fine without a monitor. Works well for us!

[lishie]

Our master is on our third floor, both kids are on the second floor. We haven't had any issues. We've been on separate floors since DS1 was one. He's six now.

DS2 ccoslept while he was nursing, and that was partly because I didn't want to trek up and down the steps. Since he's weaned it's been no big deal. We haven't used a monitor in a good while, and have been able to hear them just fine if they need something.

[momin2013]

So far it wouldn't have worked for us, mainly because DS still wakes up calling for me during the night and I wouldn't feel like trekking up and down the stairs in the middle of the night.

[UnderProtest]

Master in on one floor, one kid is one floor up and other kid (same age) is two floors up. No worries. We generally can hear them with our door open. When my daughter was sick, she made herself heard from 4 floors away.

[glitzy07]

We live in a split level (which spk926 apparently hates - whatever, I do what I want!), so we have two bedrooms up and two bedrooms down. Up until C was born, we had our room and SS's room on the same level. When I was pregnant with C, we moved SS downstairs, but he was 7 years old and we were ok with it. I'm a little more leery about moving C downstairs at 2yo now that baby #2 is on its way, but we have to just because we don't have any other choice. Luckily the house isn't huge, so downstairs isn't very far from us and we'll be able to hear him clearly with our bedroom right above where he'll be going.

I would honestly prefer a house where the bedrooms are all up on one level and the living areas are below, but it just didn't work out that way for us.

[spk926]

Jun 30, 2015 15:23:08 GMT -5 glitzy07 said:

We live in a split level (which spk926 apparently hates - whatever, I do what I want!), so we have two bedrooms up and two bedrooms down. Up until C was born, we had our room and SS's room on the same level. When I was pregnant with C, we moved SS downstairs, but he was 7 years old and we were ok with it. I'm a little more leery about moving C downstairs at 2yo now that baby #2 is on its way, but we have to just because we don't have any other choice. Luckily the house isn't huge, so downstairs isn't very far from us and we'll be able to hear him clearly with our bedroom right above where he'll be going.

I would honestly prefer a house where the bedrooms are all up on one level and the living areas are below, but it just didn't work out that way for us.

Hey now! I said I don't care for that style, not that I hate it! It all boils down to my laziness. Our first house was a tri-level split and those stairs killed me. Lazy, party of one!! 

[House4Me]

Wow, thanks for all the feedback. The bedroom on the main floor is the smallest and the owners currently use it as an office set up but it has a walk in closet, so it is a proper bedroom. So, it could not work out as a master due to it's size which is why I think it's perfect for my toddler. Noise could be an issue, I will have to think about that one.

[SallySparrow]

A sleeps on the main floor. We are upstairs. So far, so good. We do have locks at the top of the doors to the outside, so if by some miracle she made it out of bed and out of her room, she's not getting anywhere else. And she is so loud when she wakes up. "Momma! Dadda! Up? Up? What's that? Cup? Eat?" Good luck sleeping through that.

[booboo173]

This will have to be our eventually set up, as we have two bedrooms on the 2nd floor and two on the first (though only one would be used). Our plan is to keep both kids in the same room as long as possible even if they are different gender. Then make the move when the oldest is in kindergarten if different gender or even older if same. Part of me thinks it might not be out of possibility that we would move before then but who knows