Toddler Sharing a Room with an Infant

My kids share a room. We haven't had any big problems. There are mornings and nights when they wake each other up or whatever but overall it works just fine. We ussually stagger bed times a bit but they are so use to it now that we can put them down at the same time.

It sort of works like everything else with young kids works. Most the time it works just fine. Sometime things are a little off, but you just sort of make the best of it and go on.

Just a thought. I would keep the baby in our bed room for a while. Your 2 year old will go through enough overwhelming changes and if he has a routine I will try to keep it. Putting the baby in his room might be not the best idea. And having the baby in your room will be easier on night feeding, changing, crying and etc. for you. I have no experience, just a thought. Good luck!

Hi K.,

I don't think it's a good idea at all to have your toddler sleep in the same room as a new born baby. Your toddler is growing and needs all the sleep they can get. Having a crying baby that wakes every couple hours to feed is going to be very disruptive to his sleep and that's not a good thing for him. He needs his rest. I would suggest waiting until your daughter sleeps through the night or at leas a good portion of the night before you put them in the same room for sleep. Its really hard for an adult to live on little to no sleep with a newborn could you imagine a child trying to function on a few hours sleep. I know this isn't what you want to hear but I don't think its a good idea at all.

For the sake of your toddler...I strong advised against this. As you know, babies wakes up at least 2 or 3 times a night. Your toddler isn't going to have a good long un-interrupted sleep nightly. Toddlers need ALL the sleeps they can get for good brain developement. I have three kids and they don't start sharing rooms until they fall asleep at the same time and wake up at the same time.

If you do this and your toddler sleep is interruped nightly, more then likely that will become his sleep pattern. Then you'll have TWO non-sleep-thru-the-night kids on your hand.

Hi K.,

We had three children in one room for a long time - 2 boys and 1 girl. They were 4, 2 and a baby. When the 4th child came along, we moved the girl to her own room and then all 3 boys shared a room. We never had a problem with naps or disturbances. They actually liked sharing a room. When our daughter had her own room, she felt lonely and one of her brothers would often end up sleeping in her room.

Out kids never really played in their rooms though until they got older (like around 10) so maybe that's why we didn't have a problem. We were homeschooling and so much of our reading and other activities took part in the other areas of our home.

All my kids sleep really well. I believe that if they don't get used to really quiet times to sleep they tend to acclimate to some noise and then are not light sleepers that awaken at every sound. We had our babies nap in the living room in a port-a-crib during the day sometimes too.

Also, now that my kids are older (12, 14, 16 and 18), they look fondly on their times sharing rooms. They have many stories of talking together at night and listening to books on tapes together.

Good luck,

C.

I have responded lately to a similar question here is what I said...

We didn't move our son 11 months now to share a room with his sister 2 1/2 until he was about 8 months old and we wish we would have done it sooner. They do great, They actually both sleep better in the same room. It took a few days of our daughter getting use to the fact she had to share a room but we are so glad we did it. Not only do they sleep better but so do we!!! Our daughter actually sooths our son back to sleep some night by singing to him!

Oh and 90% of the time our son never wakes up our daughter if he wakes in the night. She sleeps so good. It might be the same case for you guys also.

Also here is the web address to the other similar question...

http://www.mamasource.com/request/7801754290950766593

Oh and we do not have our kids nap during the day in the same room since I am not ready to part with two good nappers. Our son sleeps in their room while our daughter 3 sleeps in the pack n play in our room. I would suggest having them nap in separate rooms if you want to continue good naps.

I don't have any advice per se, but I've thought about the same for our family and have come up with a plan that I'll share.

New baby will sleep at night in bassinet in our room until she/he outgrows it (we have the Co-Sleeper Mini). Naps can happen either there or in a pack and play in a quiet area of the house. Can also be in toddler's room. Once baby is on a more predictable/less disruptive schedule, then I don't think that sharing a room would be a problem.

Hey - we had a 2 yr old when our (now 18 mo old) baby was born. What we did was had the baby in our room for the first 4-5 months, until she was on a pretty good sleep schedule, and then moved both of them into the same room. It was a bit difficult at first (there were days I asked myself what I was doing) but now (at almost 4 and 18 mos) they love love love it. I'm so glad we did what we did. The toddler became a better sleeper because of it as well, more accustomed to sleeping through minor distubances. And now, if the 18 mo old wakes up too early the toddler tells her to go to sleep and that works (no need for me to get out of bed!) We synched up their bed times as well so they both go to sleep at 7:30, and while the 18 mo old wakes up earlier the toddler still sleeps in - this morning the 18 mo old was up at 6:30 and the toddler slept until 7:30. It's great.

re: nap schedule, our 2 yr old gave up her naps at 3, and the baby would nap pretty much anywhere. I had a little bassinette that the baby would nap in if the toddler was already asleep. But the toddler soon gave up her naps so it wasn't an issue for me.