Young siblings sharing a room?

[readergirl]

What is it like having a three-year-old share a room with an 8-month-old, say? If we have another baby, the new baby will eventually have to share a room, probably, with my dd, and I'm wondering how that would work. I mean, what about night feedings? Wouldn't that wake my toddler? I guess she could be nightweaned when she goes to the crib, but I don't know. I kind of wish we could add on to our house, but I don't think we can afford that. Plus, it doesn't seem like it should be necessary, but when they're really young, it seems like sharing a room might not work that great. What do you think? How does it work?

Thank you!

[jebb4]

My youngest two are 17 months apart and I didnt put them in the same room at night until the baby was over a year old. Although, I kept all of my babies in my room until that age regardless of whether they had a room of their own to move to.

My kids are great about going to bed so we dont run into issues them fooling around or getting out of bed or whatever but if one of them wakes up in the night we do run the risk of the other being woken too. So far that hasnt been a major problem (they're pretty heavy sleepers) but in the morning one ALWAYS wakes the other one. If they nap at the same time during the day that might be a problem too. When both of mine were napping (my son recently stopped) he slept in his bed and we had an additional crib in my room for my dd to nap in.

[ZooMamaTo3]

DD1 was 2.5yo when DD2 was born. They started sharing a room when DD2 was about 4 months. We haven't had any problems at night time yet (DD2 is 1yo now, so they still can't really "talk" to keep each other up). Before she started sleeping through the night I was really worried that the baby would wake up DD1 but that has yet to happen.

It really depends on how good of a sleeper your older child is. Mine has always been a good sleeper, like good enough that I could vacuum in her bedroom and not wake her If you know she is a light sleeper and any little noise wakes her, then the baby probably will too.

Good Luck!

[Miles]

I cant really help but Im glad you asked this. We will be not TTC but not preventing in July. Our youngest just turned 1 so if need be she will be sharing a room with her sister who is 8 in June or she will be sharing a room with the baby.

[katengrace]

My oldest two are 16 months apart and share a room. Right now they are 2 and 3. I love it. Yea, sometimes they play, bu tit has gotten to where they can't sleep w/o each other..so cute! We never really ran into problems with waking each other up unless one of them were sick. dd2 is a super hard sleeper though.

[Menfusse]

Well, my 3 year old shares a room with my 7 year old. She's only been in the room for about 6 months or so, maybe a few months longer. She was in our room until then, but had always slept in her crib next to our bed. So she was used to having her own space in a shared room, lol. So, I can't really say what it's like with the night feeding situation. I can tell you that now, it's great. Each of them love having the company of the other and love saying "our room". I'm sure that when the teenage years approach more closely that my 7 year old will be asking for the third bedroom to be emptied out and fixed for her. Until that time though, it's working out very well.

[EmsMom]

We moved ds into dd's room when he was a year old. He was sleeping through the night then and night feedings were done. I didn't want to move him out of our room until then. Surprisingly one doesn't usually wake the other up at night but whoever gets up first in the morning does their best to get the other one out of bed lol. Right now we have a three bdrm house. So they could each have their own room. But we're using the third room as a playroom and that is fantastic!

[RJmomof4]

I like to keep my kids in my room for about 2 years before they go in to there own room or with a sibling so I dont have to deal with them being so young together, its much easier to have them in the room with me in my opinion.

[Mayghan]

Our two boys are 2 years apart and have shared a room from 3 months. They have always done great, at first they didnt have the same bedtime but once they did they "chatted" for a while before they fell asleep. For the past 3 months the crib is at the foot of ODS's bed so they can touch each other and it does take them longer to fall asleep but neither one is causing trouble or anything so I let them.

[rle376@hotmail.com]

My 4 year old and 14 month old have been sharing a room since August. It was rough at first. 4 year old was a light sleeper and would wake up a lot when DD woke up. He ended up in our bed quite a bit for a couple of months. They are both used to it now and it doesn't seem to bother him most nights if she wakes up expecting a feeding. We put DS to bed a half an hour after dear daughter so she can settle before he gets in there. DS naps in my bedroom during the day. I thought them sharing a room would never work, but it's really not all that bad, if that's the only option.