Expecting a second baby - sleeping arrangement

P

premama

Registered User
Hello,

I am pregnant with a second baby, and my first baby is now 20 months old (she'll be 28 months when the second arrives). We only have 2 bedrooms (ours and our baby's) right now, and wondering whether I should move our first baby into our bedroom to sleep with us (in her own bed) or whether we should arrange for the new baby to sleep with us and leave the first baby in her own room.

I would appreciate any helpful feedback on how people dealt with this kind of situation. Thanks!
 
Congratulations! :)

If your first one is already sleeping well in her own room, I'd leave her there. For the first six months, the second one slept in a cot in our room with us. This made it easier for me, esp. when b'feeding in the night. We then moved them to sleep in the same room after we came back from a long holiday when the second one was 7 months.

BTW, our two children are also 27 months apart. :)
 
Since our 16mth old was already used to sleeping in his own room, we moved our bed out into the living room (well it's kid of off to the side but with our flat, the set up worked for us so at night we would have our own space to hang out, watch tv, finish chores) we put the new baby into the 2nd bedroom to minimize the noise for our 1st child.

When my elder son turned 2yrs, we moved our bed back into his room (so we're all sleeping in the same room) because we needed the space in the living room, but since he is used to going to be on his own, we don't have to all go to bed at the same time but can wake up together every morning. Little baby who is now 10mth is still sleeping in the 2nd bedroom/playroom because he wakes up 30mins earlier than his brother and is a really loud talker. we let him talk until our wake up time.

ideally, we want the 2 boys in the same bedroom but we haven't gotten there yet.

we will probably move when our lease is up, to a 3 bedroom place with hopes that we will have a room, boys will share a room and have 1 playroom, but until then, this is what has worked for us.

we also set up the 2nd baby's crib 6 months before he was born so our elder son could get used to the idea of sharing and having limits. we would put toys and baby stuff into the crib and tell him we were saving it for his baby brother. when our 2nd was finally born, our first was so used to not being able to climb or touch anything in the crib that we didn't have any jealousy issues. he knew that stuff was all for his brother and had 6mths to get used to the idea without me telling him while holding a new baby. worked for us!!!
 
our then 2 year old was used to being in his own room. we put the baby in our room for the first 6 months. then when we moved house, we put them together.
 
Just had a baby 3 months ago and put my son and baby in the same room as I can't sleep if the baby is in our room. My son sleeps like a log so he is not bothered. He is almost 3. In the middle of the night when she cries, I get her immediately and nurse her in our room. Seems to work for now.
 
my 2 year old still wakes at night. she had only ever woken her brother once. and she's LOUD!
 
Hi I am going to have my second baby by the time my first is turning 3. I am also thinking about sleeping arrangement. I have 3 bedrooms so I likely will have each kid sleep in a separate room. My question is: should I arrange them to sleep in the same room at some point? I assume that's better bonding between the two of them right? My first is a boy and I don't know the gender of the 2nd yet. If it's a girl is it also good for them to room together?
 
Mine are a boy and a girl and they room together. While ideally, I would love each to have their own room, it's hard to give up the study... for now.

Right now, our arrangement works great for us. I don't know whether sharing a room has made for better bonding between the two, but they get along wonderfully.

The only time they wake each other up is in the morning and both would pitter-patter into our room and onto our bed for a snuggle before breakfast. Times when our daughter would wake in the night (night terrors) or if our son would need to go to the washroom, neither one has waken the other up.
 
i have more than enough bedrooms for the kids to have one each (there are 5 bedrooms in our house) but i still choose to have the two (boy & girl) together. they are so young, it doesn't really matter. they LOVE sharing a room. often in the morning, they will play happily together for 30-45 minutes before anyone else is awake.

maybe when they get to 6+ years, i might change it, but not for now.
 
Thanks Buckeroo and Carang. Sounds like wonderful idea to have the kids room in with each other. I'll definitely consider that once #2 is older and won't need to wake up as often. I've been rooming in with my younger bro until I got married too. As far as I remember I so wanted to have my own room haha. But we did enjoy it when we were both kids.
 
I have friends who have a 19-month-old and a 4-month-old. They also only have two bedrooms in their house. Before the arrival of their second child (well in advance--probably 4-6 months) they transitioned their older child into a "big boy" bed.

Then, they used a rolling bassinet for the younger child when he was born. Since the bassinet was easily transferable, they would put their newborn son in it with them in their room and when he fell asleep they would move the bassinet out into the hallway, just outside the door (the bassinet sits up on a stand so it is not on the floor).

Sure, it's not a really "fancy" arrangement but it's practical and also affordable. Also, for us, it was helpful to not have the baby in the same room with us while we were sleeping--even though I had to get up to breastfeed (son was never okay with breastfeeding in a lying position) it was a lot better to just have a break from baby (especially on a mental level) by putting him outside the room--I could easily hear him if he started to cry. We definitely needed our own space--even from an early age with baby.

Another option is co-sleeping with a special co-sleeping baby bed. Personally, our family does not work well with co-sleeping--we did that in the beginning with our son as it was winter in HK and we only had one heater so we all slept together to share the heat. However, neither the baby nor we slept well at all. So, we do not co-sleep anymore and our quality and quantity of sleep is much better. Every time we have tried in the past to do the co-sleeping thing again it has been a miserable failure.

I don't think it's a good idea to put two young children in the same room together (initially) as if the newborn cries a lot it disturbs the older sibling and the older sibling may be so curious that he/she actually disturbs the newborn by investigating the younger sibling. Once the newborn has a better sleep schedule and the older sibling has adjusted to having a younger brother or sister, it should be fine to introduce them into the same bedroom.
 
MLWB have a similar arrangement to your friends....using a rolling bassinet. She falls asleep in our then is moved out into the hallway, just outside the door. For the moment it works great for everyone.

Carang your comments made me rethink what we will do when we go home in a couple of months, I had never considered rooming them together at home as we have a third room, but I think its a great idea! Our 3rd room is so tiny and the second room so large now I am considering putting them in together, (he is 4.5 and she 8 weeks) and that would mean a spare room for visitors, yay.

I would love any advice or tips on the best way to introduce the space sharing to my son. Are there any problems that we might encounter that I could foresee and therefore avoid?
 
we use the "extra" room as a playroom for their toys. there is also a sofa-bed in it. i LOVE it. it means their bedroom stays tidy, they bring the toys into the living room to play sometimes, but all of the toys have a place to call home in the playroom.

i will consider when they get older to put them into their own rooms and make the large room that they currently share into a playroom/study.
 
Thank you everyone for your comments - very helpful! I guess I will have my 2nd baby sleep with us until he/she is 6 months and then move him/her into my 1st child's room.

Does anyone know where I can get a nice child's bed for a 2 year old?
 
Depends on what you mean by "nice." :)

IKEA has them (and they even have those that "grow" with the child --i.e., extendable) or you can also get them custom-made at Jade Rattan. For really nice ones (read: more expensive), Art Deco, Honey B, Indigo, etc.

I suggest that you might as well get a full-sized bed for your child, so that you won't have to change beds again after s/he outgrows the child's bed.
 
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