It works for us. One of our kids sleeps in a closet/hallway area and we have to walk by him. Actually works great because it is quiet and dark. You can make it work.

I personaly would rather give the boy his own room. Its easier and I am always up for easier. Plus you dont have to worry if your sound asleep and he begins to crawl and climb over the gates or worse!

With Ohdeedoh having so many cute places to sleep a baby (closet) I would imagine it could really work. But again I personaly would give him the four walls.

Let the kids share. Our boys are 13 months apart and have shared a room from the time #2 was six weeks old and we moved him room the cradle in our room to the crib in their bedroom. Now they are 6 & 7 and still love being together.

Baby doesnt need it, but you will. Trust me, after a few months of sharing a space with baby, you will be desperate to get your own space back! Less sleep disturbances, more rest... you get what I am saying!

If you're set on not having two kids in one room, what about putting YOUR room in the loft? You're up when they're up, so odds are you won't be trying to sleep through kiddo noise...

My brothers and I had lofts above regular bedrooms as kids. We loved them, and they were a very cozy sleeping atmosphere. There were two serious falls when we were old enough to romp.

I spend two months a year in a loft at my in-laws these days, and it's very tough to get a baby to sleep with the quiet conversations, dish clatter, and flickering TV light surrounding us. Even more so with a toddler. After sleep finally comes, white noise will keep it going.

Your baby will be able to feel the life around her with a loft (unless it's inside a bedroom), for better and for worse, so make that an intentional choice, KWIM?

The easiest thing is to have the baby and your older child share the sleeping space, since they are so close in age and will have comparable bedtimes. Until the kids get to early teens, they seem to really enjoy sharing space with their siblings - it's not as lonely and the loft area can be a playroom instead.

Our 12 month old daughter sleeps in what was supposed to be a (giant!) closet off of our bedroom. Not having a door to her room has caused some problems for us. She is a super light sleeper so even creeping into our bedroom after her bedtime to grab something can disturb her. With the layout of our flat, it's still the best space for her but it has drawbacks.

My son happily slept in a loft for several months when he was a baby. Our plan was to eventually move him in to our daughter's room (once he was sleeping through the night and wouldn't wake her). We ended up moving before that happened...but the loft worked great in the meantime.

Can you see just how much noise transfers into the loft? We just moved out of a house with a loft and you could hear anything happening in the house from that room. It was hard enough for me to use it as a study; I couldn't imagine putting a baby in there.

never mind the baby... don't YOU TWO need walls???

I second having the kids share a room. My boys are 25 months apart and have shared a room since the youngest was 5 months old (and newly sleeping through the night) and now at almost 4 and 2, they seriously can't fall asleep without each other. They LOVE sharing a room and it has increased their bond as siblings. It has also helped them to both learn how to sleep through minor disturbances.
I will say, though, that it never worked that well for naps, so if your older child still naps by that point, you might have to set up a pack-n-play in your room or something like that.
The loft idea might work at night for a baby, but I would imagine trying to get a baby to nap in a space that wasn't totally quiet and dark might not work once he/she hits that age of fighting naps.

I'm voting for "dont make a decision until you actually have baby #2" because all kids are different. My older daughter was a light sleeper, even in her own room. We couldnt even step near her door without having her jump right up and be ready to play. Our younger child (who is nearly a year!) is totally the opposite! But I am glad that she is also in her own room. I couldnt imagine having to deal with the "I'm too tired to go to sleep!" cries without a door to close. Something else to think about it your older child...babies crying tends to lead to cranky toddlers/preschoolers :(

I'm going to chime in on the "put the kids together" chorus. If the baby is in the loft, then the rest of the house will need to be super quiet while s/he is sleeping, and with a toddler, that might not be possible.

If the second bedroom is small, then make it a sleeping/dressing space only and turn the loft into a playroom. All the young kids that I've known like to share their rooms, anyway.

I have a friend who put the kids in the bedrooms and she and her husband moved into the loft. There was no way she could keep quiet or out of sight enough in a loft so that her little ones could sleep if they were in the loft.

Share, share, share. We have a family full of closely spaced kids and the best advice I was given was to transition my infant to napping in the shared space before he was four months old so he would be used to it. Worked like a charm. I'm also all for wearing babies and doing so means baby is used to all the sounds of the household, barking dogs, loud toddlers, you name it.

That second baby is an 11YO now and he is a light sleeper, but he does get back to sleep. And they still share a room ...

My 5 month old's nursery is open .... no door & no way to put one in. Even with a white noise machine on at night, sound is an issue. We have to stay out of the kitchen and avoid doing laundry after he's asleep - not ideal. As soon as we've completed our reno, he's going in a room with a door!

I guess it depends on how light of a sleeper your baby ends up being. It wouldn't work at all with any of my kids. We have three kids and live in a two bedroom apartment. The two older kids (3 and 2) have shared a bedroom since the youngest was about 9 months old, with great success. Before that, the baby was in our room. Now, baby #3 sleeps in a closet in our room. It definitely helps to have four walls and a door around all of our kids while they're sleeping, as well as white noise. Otherwise, in a small space, the noises of dishes, talking, TV, music, etc. would wake them up constantly.

My daughter (seven months) is sleeping in the bathroom off my son's (twenty-five months) room until their bedtimes match up better. She was in our bathroom, but we woke her up too easily. She and I both sleep better when separated by those walls.

Let the two lil ones share a room and use the loft as a playspace so that their bedroom isnt crowded with all the baby "needs"

i agree with everyone who's said that all babies are different, so it's really hard to tell. my son (who is now nearly 14 months) was and still is an extremely light sleeper. we lived in an apartment for a short time while transitioning to a new house (from the time he was 7-11 months), and both bedrooms flanked the living room. even with music/white noise and him in his own room we were constantly adjusting the volume of our conversations and the TV to keep him asleep... now he's in his own room with plenty of quiet, but we still whisper and tiptoe past his room on the way to ours at night, and occasionally our creaky wood floor still wakes him briefly :)

I don't think a loft is safe for a baby. As soon as it learns to roll or crawl, you're in trouble. Of course, I'm a fan of co-sleeping, so I think the kids should sleep with y'all. Just put the mattresses on the floor, and make one bedroom the sleeping room. Montessori recommends mattresses on the floor, so the kids don't fall off and hurt themselves.

I nanny for a little boy who comes to me in the mornings, and then I take him to the house of the other child I nanny in the afternoon. He's still young enough to need a nap in both places, and I live in an open-plan apartment/loft. I used large shelving to section off a part of the room to make a separate bedroom for him. I've found that noise isn't so much the problem... it's him being able to SEE me. He won't go to sleep if he can see me moving around or walking by, which means that when he naps in the mornings, I have to stay in one specific area of the apartment (inconvenient, b/c I have to walk by his area to get to the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room). Noise does occasionally bother him, but there's no where in my place where he couldn't hear noise.

In the afternoons, he shares a bedroom with his toddler friend (friend in a bed, baby in a pack-n-play). Neither have a problem falling asleep with the other in the room and aren't really bothered as much by noise when they're together. Plus, because of the way that room is set up, even with the door open the baby can't see me, and falls asleep faster. :)

Hope that helps!

You'll make it work. We have a 3-4 bedroom house and both our boys usually end up in our room.

I have a two-year-old and a 9-month-old, and they both have their own rooms. My older son is a light sleeper and only requires a minimum amount of sleep, while my baby sleeps a lot. It wouldn't work for us to have them share a room. We did keep each baby in our room until at least 6 months, and then we moved them to their own rooms.

I'm amazed at how many comments there are about how the baby needs 4 walls. I say the baby doesn't even need a room at all until they turn 2.5-3ish and then they can move in with their sibling. All 3 of my kiddos co-slept until that age. They got tons of sleep & so did I (even in early infancy).

I would be worried less about noise and more about safety as your little one learns to walk/climb. What is the risk they could climb over or under the balustrade once they reach toddler stage? Can you do enough to safeguard the space?
In my experience babies get used to their environment fairly quickly - if you aren't precious with them about noise they'll sleep through most things.

I agree - either have them share a room, or put mom and dad in the loft. You'll still have privacy in the loft, because your kids will have their doors shut below.

My two kids share a room, and we'll be adding a third by the time we move from here. They love sharing. Yes, it can get a little tricky, but faaaar better I think than having one of the kids in an open room where I would worry about sound and falls.

Good luck!! You've got plenty of space to make it all work - I wouldn't stress too much.

If it fits you best at this time I'd go for the two bedroom. We had secondary infertility with our second, 3 years later than planned he'll be born.

We were in a two bedroom apartment when he was conceived, which we were fine with till 18 months as the baby would just share a room with us, and now we find we're moving from California to Texas for work and we'll probably get a 3-4 bedroom there. There's no predicting where life will take you. If you're not buying I see no reason to get a bigger place than you need right now.