Who has kids that share a room?

[Jem]

One of the major reasons we don't want to pull the trigger on having 2 kiddos is that we are about to close on our first home - a 2 bedroom house. We will be moving from a 1 bedroom apartment to this house, so we don't want to outgrow our new home immediately and be back in pretty much the situation we are currently in.

How does it work to have a toddler and a baby share a room? I would think we would have #2 sleep in our room for awhile, but when would you move them in together?

And if your kids share, were/are they both good sleepers? DS has always been what I call a challenging sleeper. When he's good, he's very good, but when he is a bad sleeper he is very bad. I worry that he would be completely thrown off by a baby in the room (even though he would probably be 3+ at the time).

Success stories? Don't do it stories?

[liveintheville]

2 bed/2bath condo. They're 2.5 years apart, kid 1 is 4.5 and kid 2 is 2. They've shared a room since around 6 months. Then for 6 months, Kid 1 slept in a toddler bed and Kid 2 in the crib. When Kid 2 was a year old we moved him to the toddler bed and bought a twin mattress for Kid 1 to sleep on. Currently, it's on the floor. In a year or two we'll buy bunk beds but until then just a mattress.

They aren't great sleepers. We used to stagger their bedtimes and put Kid 2 down 30 minutes or more before Kid 1 was sent to bed. Now we dump them in together and one of us sits in the room until we're sure everyone is staying in bed.

And get a noise machine and place it next to the oldest kid.

[Deleted]

Mine always have....first DD1 & DD2 shared. DD1 was a terrible sleeper, I considered it payback when DD2 woke her up I usually used a bassinet as a newborn & then I'd cosleep after the first wake up after that. Eventually DD1 slept through in her crib with DD2 in a bunk bed. Then they both moved to the bunks when I had DD3 & moved her in there. Same deal as DD2--bassinet, coslept until STTN. All 3 shared a room until we moved to a new house when DD3 was about 1yr old. We had a 3rd bedroom but it was on another floor & I wasn't comfortable with that. So we moved & DD1 did not want to sleep alone so they all 3 continued to share 1 room in our new 5 bedroom house--LOL! That lasted another year to year & a half. Now DD1 has her own room, DD1 & 2 share & have bunkbeds in their room. BUT most of the time DD2 &/or 3 will end up in DD1s full size bed in her room. We still have the crib up in DD2 & 3s room (despite not being used for a year) & will put Baby #4 in there if it's a girl. Sharing is a big way of life in this house....no one apparently wants to sleep alone.

[kimibrighteyes]

My twins share a room. One is an excellent sleeper. The other not so much. It usually is not too bad since the excellent sleeper usually sleeps through the crying of the other one.

[bronxgirl]

If I am able to have a 2nd kid, they will both have to share. I am a little worried, so I'm glad to hear from others doing it. Now if baby #2 is a boy, I'm not sure what we would do.

[mie]

Up until last December there were 5 of us in a 2 bedroom, 732 sq ft condo. DD2 was in her crib in our room until she was 2. We moved her into the bottom of a bunk bed a month or so before I gave birth to DD3. Overall Iʻd say both DD1 and DD2 are good sleepers. If DD2 cried during the night, DD1 slept right through it.

[Jem]

Thanks for all the feedback! Sounds like success all around. Opens the door a little more on the idea of a second...

[oregonpachey]

Ours do. DS#2 is sleep training so it is a challenge but so far it is working ok. Thankfully older DS is a pretty sound sleeper.

[SusanBAnthony]

Until dd was 2 and ds was 4.5, we were all in one bedroom by our basement, which has 2 of our 3 bedrooms, was under construction, it was full of win. Not.


Now we have moved, and are renting a 2 bedroom house. It works fine. The are almost 5 and 2.5, different genders. We have bedtime and rest time with one of them in their room and one on our bed and then once they are both asleep at bedtime, we move them into the same room.

I think this will work well for another year or 2. I don't have a good feel for when a kid would start caring about sharing rooms with an different gender sibling. We have a trundle bed for dd to make more space.

[Deleted]

I shared a room with my little brother until I was about 12. I didn't mind until I was 10 or 11. You can get a lot of years out of a 2 bedroom house, even with opposite sex siblings. I never understand why people assume you can't put a boy and girl together, ever, at all.

[geneg]

We have plenty of room for the two to be in different rooms, but they LOVE being together. I asked DD if she wanted her own room and she said no. They are 2y apart (1 and 3). The downside is that there is often a great amount of play: giggle giggle giggle, thump thump thump, SQUEAL!!! giggle giggle giggle, thump thump thump, SQUEAL!!!

My sis and I shared a room until I think 2nd grade?

[whitepicketfence]

We have a 2BR house. DD2 has slept in our room since day one and since she still isn't STTN consistently, we haven't moved her out yet. I plan to put it off as long as possible since neither of my kids are great sleepers.

[quickstepstar]

My twins share a room. Does that count? They will be for a foreseeable future. The baby will have her own room, unless she wants to share. The kids currently have drastically different schedules, off by 2 hours, so it just works better for us with work schedules. But if they share, they would have the same bedtime.

[Jem]

Aug 8, 2012 20:30:26 GMT -5 @domerjen said:

Remember how crazy you were about making sure your firstborn got enough sleep? Well, with #2 you just kind of cross your fingers that they won't be totally scarred for life.

This made me LOL.

And Geneg, those were the sounds that always came out of my brothers' room. My 2 younger brothers shared a room for about 13 years.

All of this makes me feel better, but now I just wish our second bedroom were a little bigger. Hahaha, it's always something.

[CloudBee]

If we have a 2nd, they will most likely share a room for a few years at least. If they're the same sex, they will share for even longer.

[Deleted]

Our kids will share no matter of the sex of baby #2. I am currently pregnant so baby # 2 will sleep in our room for probbly 6 months-ish b/c of breastfeeding.

Then they will share. Eventually they will get bunk beds. If they end up being same sex, they will probably share a room until high school.

If they are opposite sex they will probably share until DS is ten or so (he is 3 now).

They will share because we prefer to use the 3rd bedroom as a playroom. I feel like having a playroom is so much more inportant than their own separate bedrooms.

[noonecareswhoiam]

Nap time was harder than bed time. At bed time, #2 would be asleep before #1 went to bed. For naps, we had to put #1 in our room.

Now that they're 7 and 4, we sometimes have issues with them horsing around at night. But the bigger issue with with #1 (who is a rooster) waking #2 at like 5 am. That shit kills me.

[luvmagoldn]

My twins share a room, so there isn't an age difference. One is a very heavy sleeper and the other gets up at least once in the night. They don't seem to bother each other at all. I actually could move #3 in there too if I had to. There would be some adjustment but I think it would work.

My cousins (girls) shared a room until the older one went to college because they just didn't have the bedrooms. I think a lot can be learned by having to share your space with someone else.