Kids Sharing a Room - Portland,OR

My kids (now almost 4.5 year old boy and 13 month old girl) share a room - my son sleeps through everything - including my daughter who still wakes up at night sometimes SCREAMING! She is not as good about sleeping through when he wakes up (he is a great sleeper, but sometimes wakes up before her - although not often). I wouldn't worry so much - but I do understand where you are coming from...

We currently have our 6 year old and 1 year old sharing a room. The first couple weeks were hard because they would wake each other up and respond to the other ones noises...but it gets better. They eventually got used to having the other person in their room and stop responding to some of the little noises. My 6 year old now sleeps through just about anything the 1 year old does at night. I think it just takes time to adjust to having someone else in your room when you are used to not having the extra noise and commotion. My advice is unless one of them is very upset to just let them be...they'll adjust to each other quickly.

I have my 2.5 year old and 7 month old sharing a room and thought the exact same thing!! However, my 2.5 year old sleeps BETTER now that her baby brother is in the room with her! She hardly wakes up anymore (she used to 1-3 times a night). Even when she does, it usually does not wake him up - she'll just yell for me. She also talks in her sleep sometimes.

When my son cries, I try to see if he'll fall back asleep but I'm usually in there to comfort, give a binky or pick him up within a minute. Even when he's screaming, he doesn't usually wake her up. There has been 1x when my daughter was not asleep that he started crying and she just yelled to me "Mommy, his is crying...come get him!"

We have a fan in the room to provide white noise for the kids as well but we do leave their bedroom door open.

Good luck!

I wish I had done this. My kids are now 4 and 6 and LOVE to share a room for "sleepovers". I think you can relax a little, usually once the older one is asleep, they hear nothing. I think I would be more relaxed about the older one coming into our bed on those occasions when they can't sleep though.

My kids turned 1 and 3 in December. They've shared a room since he was 6 weeks old. There are times they wake each other up especially in the morning. I don't let him cry excessively, but he does cry at night. When we tried cry-it-out at bedtime for a week she slept in my room to be less bothered. Otherwise they have been fine sharing. the trick is finding a routine that works for you. for example I put the youngest to bed then come back out and spend about 10 minutes with the oldest before bed so he falls asleep before she goes back in.

do not worry they will be fine and they shudnt resopond but of they do just spererat e the room if you can into to halfs they should be fine

My daughter was 2 1/2 when my son was born and we live in a 2 bedroom. They shared a room and once in a while they would wake eachother up, but most of the time they don't. THey will also get used to sound and be able to sleep through it. We put on classical music for them to listen to when they go to sleep. It helps to drown out any other sounds in the house, like the tv, or if I'm doing dishes (kitchen is next to their room). So, they are now 5 and almost 3 and still share a room, and we don't have any problems with it

K.-
I think it's so sweet that your son is excited to be a big brother and share his space. As for the noise volume, why don't you wait a bit to see if either one does wake up before you spring into action. Maybe they can learn to sleep through noise. I never protected my son from noise and now he sleeps through the vacuum being run in his room while he's sleeping, loud TV/Music (my mother is deaf and we live with her) and the dog barking right next to his bed. I swear he doesn't have a hearing problem, he could hear me scooping ice cream when he's asleep.
Good luck!
S.

Well, I have a 2 and 4 year old sharing a room (I am due in April and that baby will be joining them at the 4 to 6 month mark). I let my son join my daughter in the nursery at about the same age and truthfully, our daughter learned to sleep through our sons whimpering and even his midnight play times...

I do know it helps to have some white noise going like a fan or humidifier.

Historically, children would have shared a room for a long time (look at Peter Pan (Disney animated original), The Sound of Music (musical), and Mary Poppins for references... In fact, it was VERY common until the 40's - 50's in the USA.)

Our daughter (4) and son (11/2) have been sharing a room since my son was three months old. He was still getting up in the middle of the night so I was worried. They first week my daughter would wake up a little when he would get up to eat but then she would fall right back asleep. After a week or so she would sleep right through him screaming. Somehow they just get used to it. Now that they are older they love sharing a room. Don't worry too much about it. It will work out just fine : ).

I had our younger one in our room for the first year, and then they were in their own rooms for a bit and now they've shared for almost a year (they are 5 and 2.5 now).
My older one is a solid sleeper once he's out so I wasn't so worried about him getting woken up but the younger one needed lots of white noise was always pretty easily woken. But it didn't take long for them to get used to the situation. I'm still amazed sometimes at what the younger one will sleep thru (older son can be an active sleeper, will cry out sometimes and/or thrash b/c of a dream). I also have the white noise machine going still, I think that covers the more minor noises.
If you want to do cio with baby then make a plan with your son, like letting him come to your room if the baby is crying too much or do cio when your son can stay with someone else (a trip with dad, weekend and grandparents kind of thing).

We are about to do something like this... 3 1/2 year old daughter sharing a room with then-to-be 16 month old boy. So I am not speaking from experience. But I have noticed that when my daughter is asleep, I can go in the room and do quiet things and it won't bother her. When my son is asleep, same thing.

I would say, stop stressing about it. Stop going in to fix little things the moment they happen. Kids usually sleep deeply, once they get there, and can actually be hard to wake up. I've gone in to cover my 3 1/2 year old up after she went to sleep, and she didn't even notice. Or if she did, she only half woke up, saw I was there, rolled over, and went back to sleep. When my son's asleep, I've been known to do sewing in his room (I'll be so glad when we move and I can have a proper sewing room again!) and it didn't bother him. I just made sure he was deep before I started. And not near the end of his nap.

Honestly, I think they'll adjust. Don't stress about it. Just think... there are people with 6 or 8 or 10 kids, and they put 3-4 per room, and everyone is fine. It might take a few days to adjust all the wrinkles (such as crying a little--that's how I got my kids to sleep through the night and I highly recommend it for such things), but soon everything will be fine.

Good luck!

Hi K.,
If your son sleeps well, I wouldn't worry about rushing in there. My kids are 4 year apart and we ended up co-sleeping with our younger one most of the time, but when we were all sleeping in the same room at a hotel it was AMAZING what my daughter would sleep through. She could sleep through her brother screaming and if she ever did wake up she just rolled over and went back to sleep. Hope this helps!

They will get used to it, and the older child will probably start sleeping more soundly as time goes by. my boys are 20 month apart, and have been sharing a room since my youngest was 2 months old. I would not keep doing the Binky though, it will train the baby to need it to sleep, and will be a hard habit to break later. I never let my boys have their binks at night, and it made it so easy when it was time to get rid of them all together.