We have a 23 month old son and a 6 month old daughter and the plan has always been for them to share a room. I keep putting this transition off though because I'm not sure how to go about it! Our daughter currently sleeps in our room, she goes to bed between 6 and 7, with our son going down at 7. He has a pretty detailed bedtime ritual (bottle, story and song in a rocking chair in his room), while I nurse her kiss her and plop her in bed!

How do we deal with the different times that they go to sleep, night wakings, morning wakings, etc. when they are in the same room? How have others handled this, and what challenges/solutions have you run across?

asked 25 Oct '09, 17:07

Tanisha's gravatar image

accept rate: 15%

Our two daughters, now aged 7 and 5, share a room and have done since birth. When the second was born the elder was in a single bed in our room, and the younger in a bedside cot. When they were four and two they moved out of our room to share a double bed in their own room. When they were five and a half and three and a half they moved into bunk beds.

We have always put them to bed at the same time, but if the one is not tired she is allowed to have a small lamp on next to her bed and look at books for a while after "lights out".

Night wakings are rarely an issue - they seem to be able to sleep through most of each others' disturbances.

Morning wakings are more of an issue, although less so now they're both at school and have to get up in the mornings at a certain time. We do occasionally discover that one of them has woken the other one up, especially in the summer when it gets light early. We have a general rule that they're not supposed to disturb us or each other before 7am, and they are getting better at that - it helps once they can read the time, of course.

When they shared the double bed, the worst thing was if one of them wet the bed. We kept them in night time nappies until they were consistently dry, but there were still occasional issues. Less of a problem with the bunk beds.

They each get to choose a bedtime story but, of course, get to listen to both, so that's a bonus.

There are problems sometimes when they have friends round - they don't have a space they take their friends away from their sister or, conversely, a space where they can get away from their sister's friends.

The plan is to give the older one her own room when our youngest moves out of our room. He will share with the younger sister, who is looking forward to that day.


answered 25 Oct '09, 20:28

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Meg Stephenson
accept rate: 7%

We just moved our 5 month old son in the same room as our just turned 2 year old daughter and it went surprisingly smooth! Our son was still waking at in the middle of the night but my two year old would sleep right through it, not even stirring. I could go in, take out the baby to feed him, and put him back in his crib without our toddler waking. For our bedtime routine, we bathe them together, and put the 5 month old to sleep first. Then we will allow our toddler to play a little while before we read a book and put her to bed about 30 minutes later. Works just fine, neither sibling wakens the other. Our infant is finally sleeping all night now and sometimes he will wake up the toddler in the morning, but not always. We were shocked the babiees crying didn't wake up our 2 year old, so you could try it and you may be surprised. Maybe start on a weekend in case you end up having a long night! Good luck!


answered 18 Sep '11, 16:03

ren's gravatar image

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My friend's kids are similar ages apart to your kids and they started sharing a room when the youngest was 8 months I think. She hasn't had very many issues, but was also worried. She said that they got used to each other's crying and didn't often wake each other up. I can contest to the crying issue. I was worried about my kids having rooms right next to each other. The crying can be pretty loud from one or the other and it doesn't seem to phase the sleeping one...unless it is about the time for them to wake up anyway. Once our daughter (2 1/2) is asleep I can walk into her room without her waking up. Maybe you could test this out before moving the baby in. Good luck! I hope it works out with minimal issues for you!


answered 26 Oct '09, 08:28

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accept rate: 21%

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Asked: 25 Oct '09, 17:07

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Last updated: 18 Sep '11, 16:03