Toddler and Infant Sharing a Room

honestly we had a two bedroon house adn we had three kids two girls and a boy in the same room with bunk beds up until my oldest dghter was 12 and my son was 10 and my other dgther was 8.... they were all fine they are actually good sleepers because of it now the two girls have their own room and my son is sharing with her 2 yr old sister and soon she will be sharing with her sisters also .... big addition.....relax K. d

My kids are 3 years apart. Yours - like mine - might surprise you and actually like sleeping together. My kids have separate rooms now but sometimes still sleep in one room since the older one is a bit scared at night and likes to have company. They go to bed at the same time, I read stories in one room, all simpler actually. But during the day if they want privacy they still can get away from each other. May your labor be short and your happiness long!

Our boys have been sharing a room since they were 5 months and 21 months. We kept the infant in our room until he was 5 months because he wasn't a good sleeper and our older was a very good sleeper. The change didn't disturb my older good sleeper. The younger one actually improved in sleeping habits by being in the room and going with the momentum of his bigger brother. I did fear a bit that the older would unintentionally hurt the younger so I kept a good ear out when they were going to bed. They still napped separately because their routines were different for napping. It is nice to have them together - they are 2.5 and almost 4 now. Good luck!

Hi!
My two boys share a room-oldest is 26 months and youngest is 8 months. The older one was a horrible sleeper and still sometimes sneaks into bed with us and the younger slept thru the night at about four-five months! They have completley gotten used to each other-if one is screaming the other doesnt wake up! It is actually great because I dont have to tip toe around while they are sleeping. I think they like having each other in the room-its a good way for us to convince to older to sleep in there because his brother needs him. Good Luck!

I know lots of people that do it. I have a larger age difference and our boys share a room. Dh and his older sister shared a room when they were little and she just had her third and its a girl they are going to somehow divide the room the boys are in because they only have 2 bedrooms too. They have a room downstairs that they will move into as a bedroom but not until the kids are older. I never had a problem putting my boys in the same room. I always put our 2 year old down first and then our 7 year old.

Hello, I have a 25 month old and 10 month old, both are girls and they kind of share a room. I transitioned my youngest into the room w/ her sister about 3 or 4 months ago. Unfortunately, the younger ends up sleeping in the pack n play in our room alot of the time. Problem is, my older daughter (who is in a twin bed), likes to get out of her bed and play with the younger one from the side of the crib. She not only keeps the baby up w/ her talking but she's been touching her, pulling at her arms through the crib rails, etc. I usually start the bedtime off with them in the same room but often after about 1/2 hr, I put the younger one in my room. They both need their sleep and I don't want the older one hurting the younger one. I'm hoping once they get a little older things will work out b/c I intend to have them share a room! This is just my story. Good Luck!

My now 3 year old and one year old, have shared a room since the baby left our room. Honestly, there were very few nights that our daughter 3, woke up from the baby. And those nights she got special attention and got to sleep in our bed a while, which she liked. But we didn't make a habit of. I read somewhere that kids that share a room for at least the first few years bond really well, and I have several friends that are doing the boy/girl thing like us- no problem. don't let yourself stress over it, they will love each other and eventually MAY get their own rooms, and they will appreciate it all the more if they do.
I would get some books to read with your two year old about it. Seemed to help us a lot

best of luck

Hi, I had the same concerns you did about our two kids sharing a bedroom. I had a baby girl in May, and she and my older daughter (3.5 yrs) have been sharing a room since the baby was about 4 weeks old. It's going amazingly well. The baby still wakes sometimes in the middle of the night, but either she doesn't wake up big sis, or big sis does wake up but just ignores it. Before baby arrived, we talked a lot with big sis about how she and her baby bro/sis were going to share a room, and we tried to paint it in a really positive light. She was excited about it, and now seems perfectly happy with the arrangement.

As adults, I think it's hard to keep in mind how much more adaptable kids are than we are--especially a 2.5 yr old. So don't stress too much. They will figure it out. And I think it's good for the baby to learn to sleep through big sister's random wakings, shouting at the monitor for water, etc. Best of luck!

Right now i have three sharing a room. a 3.5yr old, a 2.5 yr old and an eight month old. We live in a two bedroom apartment. The baby slept with us until she was about 3 months old. I, then, got a crib tent to put over her crib so that the other two couldnt' get into her crib. I got the tent for about fifteen bucks at a consignment shop. Normally they cost about eighty new. Having that crib tent really helped with our anxietys about the other two hurting the baby

Having the kids share a room isn't easy... but it does seem to make the kids closer.

I would suggest keeping the new baby in your room until he/she is sleeping well enough that he/she wont disturb your daughter. This may be longer than you had anticipated, but its a sure way to avoid the whole issue.

There are also many benefits to extended room-sharing between mother and baby, such as increased bonding and a reduction in the risk of SIDS. My son stayed in the room with us until he was 10 months old, then we moved and he got his own room, but we happily welcomed him back into our room when he got to be about 13 months old and was aware enough to know he preferred to sleep with us.

Babies and children need companionship, especially at night when it is frightening, and that can be accomplished by either the parents or an older sibling. I think when the new baby is ready to move out of your room, sharing a room with your daughter is a great idea.

We transitioned our daughter into her brother's room when she was 5 months old - her brother was 2 1/2. We didn't have any problems whatsoever! I had so much anxiety over this and was pleasantly surprised. They are 3 1/2 and 1 and enjoy being together and falling asleep together (we put them both down at the same time).

I hope it goes well with you!

My daughters are 3 years apart in age. My oldest is 10 and second is 7. When my middle child was born we also had her sleep in the room with us for the first 4 months. My older daughter was not the best sleeper at the time. Hard to get down, but once she was down she was okay. We had no choice but to move the baby though. She was too big for her bassinet and the crib wouldn't fit in our room. So we totally redid my oldests room in a theme she really liked at the time (blues clues) to kind of help with the transition. It worked. My second one was easy for sleeping though. You could actually put her in her crib and she'd go to sleep. My girls do still share a room, but there was a period there when they didn't. From the time they were about 6 and 3 until just last summer they had separate rooms. I have a 21 month old son now and when he was ready to have his own room we moved the girls back in together. When we first separated them they would actually complain about missing each other. Sometimes I would find one on the floor of the others room in the morning or in bed together even. Now that they are back to sharing of course they say they hate it, but I think they'd miss each other if they weren't there. Good luck with everything. I hope you figure out the right fix for you.

I have two boys one is now almost 1 and one is almost 3 - and they share a room. For the most part it works out well, I wish I had a third bedroom but that's not happening anytime soon. At first the baby was in my bedroom and when I transitioned him out of the basinette, I would put him to sleep in the pak 'n play in our living room. This gave me time to settle my toddler in the bedroom. Once they were both sleeping, I would transfer Caeden up to his crib. This worked for us for a few months. I am alone doing bedtime by the way.

Lately I've gotten a better routine where I let my toddler watch a kids program while I give the baby his last bottle and put him to bed. Then I do stories with my toddler and we quietly go up to bed.

Lots of the time, they wake at some point in the night and cry or call me and the other one sleeps on! This amazes me but it works out. If the baby has a tough night, I bring him down to the pak n play and transfer him later but that doesn't happen much anymore.

You'll find what works for your kids but I am surprised how well my boys do in the same room. I was really apprehensive when I was pregnant. Good luck!

My boys began sharing a room when they were about 6 months and 28 months (almost 2 1/2). We delayed moving them into the same room (the baby had been in our room previously) because the younger one was not a good sleeper, and we feared that his persistant and furious crying would wake up his brother. Finally, out of desperation for some sleep ourselves, we tried it, and much to our surprise it was fine. Once in a while the older one woke up, but he went right back to sleep, and usually he slept right through everything. They still share a room (now at 1 1/2 and 3 1/2) and seem to enjoy being together. However, they have always taken naps separately (we put the younger one in a Pack n' Play in our bedroom) because they nap for different lengths of time and are not as likely to go to sleep if they can distract one another.

One thing I would definitely suggest is a crib tent for your baby. We got one we like at onestepahead.com, but there might be others. A crib tent is a mesh tent that zips around the entire crib (so top, bottom, and sides are enclosed), and its advertised purpose is to prevent your child from climbing out and hurting himself. We initially bought it to prevent our then only son from throwing his binkies and toys out of his crib and then crying instead of sleeping because he didn't have them anymore. However, it has also proved invaluable in preventing our toddler from climbing into the crib with his little brother or throwing toys in there. Now that the older one is 3 1/2, he can unzip the tent himself, but the few times he has done it he has gotten into trouble, so it hasn't been a problem lately. A crib tent would certainly buy you a little time when your baby is most delicate and before your older one figures out how to unzip. We could also prevent this problem if we moved our toddler's bed a little farther from the crib so he couldn't reach the zipper!

By the way, having two kids share a room has gone so well for us that we are actually planning to put a third kid in there sometime next year ... our third baby is due in October. We just don't have sufficient space to do anything else.