OT - siblings sharing rooms

[gris gris]

Do any of you have experience with a 1 year old and 4 year old sharing a room? My DS is still in a crib and I really want to move him into DD's room. I just have no idea how to handle the separate bedtime & waking up thing. I don't want DD to wake him up when she goes to bed, or DS to wake her up in the morning. They are both good sleepers so I'm not worried about them being up in the middle of the night. DD isn't too thrilled about sharing her room but right now DS is sleeping in our finished basement.

We'll probably add on to our house but won't be able to do so until 3-4 years from now, so they'll have to share at some point.

 

[DisneyPhD]

We have 2 larger bedrooms upstairs in our new addition, and 2 small bedrooms on the 1st floor. To keep both girls close to us they are in the same room.

They are 3 years apart in age.

At 1st we would let the youngest go to bed 1st and when she was asleep send in big sister. When they started going to bed at the same time we just started our bedtime routine and let them chat in bed. As long as they stayed in bed and weren't really loud we didn't care. Many times we would have to come in and tell the youngest one to stop yelling, her sister was asleep and was not going to talk to her.

They like sharing a room. When they get bigger I figure I will let one move to the smaller room on the 1st floor (now a spare bedroom.) We will also let one take a nap there sometimes.

 

[cl1067]

We actually have our 1 year old and 6 year old sharing rooms. The going to bed a different times is not a huge deal at all. Our 1 year old goes to bed at 8 and at 9 when the 6 year old goes to bed, she just knows she has to be quiet when we go in there...we do all prayers, bed time stories, etc. in the living room.

The morning is not a huge problem either, but they both need to be up at the same time, so that makes it easier.

The bigger problem we have is nap time...when the baby is sleeping her sister wants in her room for something...and the baby is a light sleeper, so going in there will wake her up. I try to remind our older daughter that she needs to get anything she wants before the baby goes to sleep but it doesn't always work that way.

We have made it work for us, you just have to know there are some things you will need to work around and find a way for that (for us the biggest thing was doing prayers on the couch instead of in bed)

 

[DisneyPhD]

We actually have our 1 year old and 6 year old sharing rooms. The going to bed a different times is not a huge deal at all. Our 1 year old goes to bed at 8 and at 9 when the 6 year old goes to bed, she just knows she has to be quiet when we go in there...we do all prayers, bed time stories, etc. in the living room.

The morning is not a huge problem either, but they both need to be up at the same time, so that makes it easier.

The bigger problem we have is nap time...when the baby is sleeping her sister wants in her room for something...and the baby is a light sleeper, so going in there will wake her up. I try to remind our older daughter that she needs to get anything she wants before the baby goes to sleep but it doesn't always work that way.

We have made it work for us, you just have to know there are some things you will need to work around and find a way for that (for us the biggest thing was doing prayers on the couch instead of in bed)

This is true with us too. For example right now my 6 year old is left with no pants. They were playing dress up and she is running around in just a shirt. Her sister just went down for nap. I do keep a dresser in the long hallway outside their room, with PJs and other things in it. That helps when she needs something in the room and little sister is sleeping.

It can be hard too when DD has a friend over and they want a toy in the room or to play in there and her sister is napping. Oh well, they just learn to live with it.

 

[gris gris]

We have a really nice finished basement with a ton of toys, but DD has a million stuffed animals in her room that she plays with. She told me if her brother sleeps in her room she won't be able to play with them. I'm trying to get her to see how fun the basement is Anyhow I think I might wait until he's 2 and in a toddler bed. We were thinking of getting her a loft bed from Ikea so she can have a little more space to hang out, and then she'll be so excited about the new bed that she won't worry about her brother being there.

 

[jennifer293]

My 3 and almost 7 yr old DD's share a room and have been since DD3 was about 9 months old. She was breastfed so I had to go upstairs for night feedings and while I thought it may wke up DD6 she never flinched. We have juggled the idea of seperating them just because they have so much stuff, but they have a fit if we even mention it. I am sure it will change once they get older, but for now they will stay together!!

 

[brymolmom]

My kids are ds5 and dd3 and they've shared a room since dd was born. It will definitely take a little adjustment time but I think before very long it will be no big deal at all. When dd was younger - she would go down for naps first and then ds afterward. But now they don't nap and they go to sleep at the same time in the evening. In the morning dd (our early riser) is sometimes too loud, but ds usually just sleeps through it.

If it's the best setup for you - just go for it and wait a couple weeks and I'm sure all will be well.

Oh yeah - the biggest downside for us is sickness...dd has been wide awake at 3:00am wanting to tell me a story about playing the day before as I'm holding ds's head into a waste basket while he was throwing up (sorry if TMI). So there are occasional negatives. But no big deal.

 

[PaulaSue]

All 3 of my girls have shared a room since they moved out of the bassinet at a few months old. They have never woke each other (used to sleeping during the day anywhere since born with noise all the time) but I do put them to bed at the same time for my ease.

They are 4,6, and 8...

 

[justhat]

My kids share a room and have since my son was born essentially. The first 5 months they both slept in my room . But then I moved my son to his crib, which is in the room they now share, and my daughter moved out soon after. He goes to bed at 6:30 and our daughter at 7:30 and we rarely have a problem. He's a light sleeper, but she has only woken him up a handful of times. He generally sleeps all night, but occasionally wakes up and cries for a few minutes and she never wakes up from it. In the morning, he rises with the sun and she has no problem sleeping later, though I do take him out of the room as soon as he gets up.

My daughter actually loves sharing a room with him and until he came she was afraid to sleep in her own room (we moved last summer right before he was born and her bedroom is on a different floor). Now she happily and optionally moved out and loves having him there. The toy sharing thing is prevalent no matter what room they're in.

Honestly, I think it would be easier for them both to do the switch sooner than later. If you get them used to sharing the space now, while he's in the crib and still pretty harmless, then I think it will work out better. Once he's 2yo, they'll both identify it as her room and the basement as his and I think it will be harder to adjust.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Honestly, I think it would be easier for them both to do the switch sooner than later. If you get them used to sharing the space now, while he's in the crib and still pretty harmless, then I think it will work out better. Once he's 2yo, they'll both identify it as her room and the basement as his and I think it will be harder to adjust.

I think this is good advice and I agree. (Hi just that!)

If one wakes up and the other is gone for some reason (got sick in the middle of the night and now in bed with us,) the other is very upset. They take comfort in having each other in the room and being together. My youngest also moved in her big sisters room while in a crib and that was good.

I remember one night the younger DD had gotten sick during the night in her crib. She was awake and yelling in her crib when we came in. Not for us, but for her sister. She knew her sister could go wake us up and tell us something was wrong.

 

[gris gris]

Honestly, I think it would be easier for them both to do the switch sooner than later. If you get them used to sharing the space now, while he's in the crib and still pretty harmless, then I think it will work out better. Once he's 2yo, they'll both identify it as her room and the basement as his and I think it will be harder to adjust.

DH & I were just talking about this......I said pretty soon DS is going to realize he's sleeping in the basement while the rest of his family is upstairs! Even the dog gets to sleep upstairs! Poor little guy. When we bought this house we weren't really thinking that we'd have another child.

So, we're measuring! DD's room is kind of small so we're trying to figure out how to get everything in there.

 

[justhat]

I bet you're right. Your son will realize he's alone down there soon enough and protest going to bed.

My kids room is small too. My daughter's bedroom on the 1st floor is actually bigger than the room they're in, but there's that different floor thing that my daughter is not thrilled with so they're in the smaller room for now.

What I plan to do once we move them both to real beds (she's still in a toddler bed) is get storage beds with the drawers underneath. That way we can avoid a large dresser in the room. Currently the dresser is in the downstairs bedroom, which is fine, but sort of inconvenient at times. It would really crowd their tiny room so the storage beds would help with that. I think your loft bed would too since you'd have all that floor space.

And "hi" PhD!