What are your thoughts on a 3 year old and a 20 month old (both girls) sharing a room? The 3 year old would be in her twin bed and the 20 month old in her crib/toddler bed. I'm worried that my 3 year old will keep her sister up too late "talking" and "reading." Would it be better to leave the crib as a crib instead of the toddler bed or might this create more problems? Anyone with experience, suggestions or thoughts on this situation? Thanks so much.
Thank you to everyone for your advice and support. The girls are now sharing a room, though we kept the youngest in her crib. We had a couple of days of LOTS of laughing, talking and playing as anticipated, but on the third day they did MUCH better. I also found that if I didn't say anything when I went in to lay them back down, they did considerably better than if I spoke to them. Thank you all again. What a wonderful group of ladies out there.
A.,
I have my two girls in the same room - 2.5yrs (in crib) and 9 month (in crib_- and I have issues at times. My 2 yr old talks to the little one, and they end up giggling and talking back to each other. Since my youngest still wakes up to take a bottle, at times the sister will wake up and want her milk. Overall, I think they both sleep better in the same room because they have each other.
Hi A.,
I just moved my boys to the same room (they are almost 3 and almost 18 months). It has NOT been a great experience. The one thing that helped was having one put to bed and fall asleep before you put the second one down. I moved them about 1 or 2 months ago and used that move as an opportunity to put my younger son in a toddler bed - and it made his transition to the bed pretty smooth.
However, I'm almost 8 months pregnant with twins and was getting too tired to fight through it so I gave up and am using my step-son's room as a nap/fall asleep room for my almost 3 year old. I'd also recommend getting a video monitor. It's been great to have.
Good luck!
C.
My 3 (almost 4) year old and 21 month old boys have been sharing a room for the last 1 1/2 years.
They have learned to sleep through each other's noises.
Your girls will be fine - although you will probably have an adjustment period.
I will say, though that my 21 month old is still in a crib. He would never stay in the bed if we took the side off right now.
Good luck!!
The first thing that I thought about when I read this was, how mature is your 3 year old? Will she be able to tell you if your 20 month old is getting in trouble or will she tend to lead your younger daughter into trouble? If it were my kids, I would do it and not worry about the older one keeping the younger one up because this is time they are spending together bonding and I think that is important. I would keep the crib as a crib, because if you leave it as a bed, you might come in there in the morning and they'll both be alseep in the same bed!
My 3 and 6 year old girls have shared a room for the past 2 1/2 years, and it has worked very well. There are sometimes some issues...putting one to bed before the other can be challenging, getting them to stop talking is sometimes a problem (but not often), and sometimes they get into spats...but these are all normal situations that provide good opportunity to learn better behaviors! The benefit of having someone to sleep with, and not being alone in their room, has been the best thing. They tend to sleep in the Z's room in the double bed, but sometimes sleep in L's room in twin beds. I recommend it! I think it helps them bond and learn to share.
