While I don't personally have two kiddos as of yet...it has been my experience that kids adjust very well. Just like when you moved the baby out of the bassinet in your room and into the crib...there may be a tough adjustment at first (usually tougher on mom than baby). However, many kids share rooms from day one and have perfectly healthy sleeping patters. My sister's kids being some of them.

I think the kids will be fine and will actually like having a play room that is their own. Also, separating play space from the TV room as you mentioned will help keep those activities in your kids' minds and stimulate more creative and imaginative play.

Good luck!

oops...patterns:) sorry

I think kids get used to whatever they have and maybe just don't make any permanent decorating changes to the playroom until you are sure it's working for your family. You can always change it back to separate bedrooms if you feel it is affecting them.

We recently moved our 6 month old into her 3 year old brother's room, and if anything, they both seem to be sleeping better. Of course, they generally sleep at the same times, with an extra naptime for the baby. I think they adapt to it and I tend to think that having to accomodate to each other's sleeping styles now, in the long run, will make them sleep easier in the future.

Our kids, Son born 1999 and Daughter born 2001 exactly 2 years apart, shared a bedroom until they were 5 and 7. They were actually kind of sad to get their own rooms after that!

Sometime we had to let them fall asleep in different rooms - one on parents bed - but overall sharing a bedroom was perfect for them.

About tv: we have always restricted tv to 1 hr a day. Maybe 20 minutes in the morning (that was before they started school, now there is no time) and 40 min in the evening. But it also means I can´t turn the tv on when the kids are home... small sacrifice though.

Go for it, sharing a room is caring!

Our kids sleep dormitory style and wouldn't do it any other way... we live in a house with few rooms but they are huge... so two bedrooms mean they sleep in one room and play in the other. they call the play room "the office" it's the place they go to work every day!!! All toys belong in the office... they like keeping their stuff in their office and toys don't wander around the house. And no they don't wake each other up, sleep noises don't wake them... even the odd nightmare or wake up ill in the night doesn't disturb the sleeping siblings.

yep! i think it's a great idea. we went from having an adults' bedroom and a kids' bedroom to having one sleeping room and a playroom. (so yep, we all sleep in the same room, two adults & two small kids.) i love having a playroom!

We moved to Chicago at the end of the summer... from a house to a flat. We lost space, thusly our two boys (2.5 and nearly 4) had to share a room. With all of their toys (what a mess!)... BUT the sleeping situation has been just fine. They love to talk for a bit and I occasionally have to go in to calm down the party, but they love it and it has really helped them become better friends. The youngest sleep talks and walks and has never bugged his brother so much that sleep has been lost.

I have a 9 year old and a 2 year old, both girls. After I read stories at night, I put them in bed and the oldest reads her own books aloud until the little one gets sleepy (since she is required to read for 30 minutes each night anyway), then she's allowed to come down and "hang out" with us - play board games, read, watch a movie - until her own bedtime. It's really precious.

I will caution that they can become dependent on one another to sleep. It is much harder to get the littlest down when her sister has a sleepover somewhere, she is likelier to wake up in the middle of the night and cry or get up earlier in the morning.

My two boys are three years apart in age, and have been sharing a room since they were 3.5 and 1.5. It's been fabulous, and they sleep better now than they did when they were in separate rooms. Also, in our experience, their sleep schedules gradually synched up until they were going to bed and waking up at the same time.

Initially, when we were making the transition, my husband and I would take the divide-and-conquer approach to bedtime. One of us would take one boy into the bedroom, and the other would take the other boy into the former nursery. We'd do their bedtime routines separately, and when whoever was in the bedroom was in bed, then the other kid would be brought in and put to bed.

Over the course of two or three weeks, we incorporated more and more of their routines into the same room, until finally we were able to do the same routine (in our case, a couple of books, then lights out, a couple of songs and cuddling, then goodnight) for both kids at the same time.

Room-sharing has taught us some interesting things about our kids. For one thing, we've learned that they're amazingly good at falling asleep on their own. We've also learned that our younger guy seems to need to talk and sing to himself for a half hour or so after lights out, while our older guy conks out immediately and can sleep through anything. (His little brother is loud!)

Side note re the TV issue: We found an easy solution to that. We just unplugged the TV during the day. When one of the kids would turn it on and then look at us wondering why nothing happened, we'd just shrug and say, "I guess it's not working right now. Oh well!" :)

Whoops, I meant to say that my boys were 4.5 and 1.5!

Go for it. My two are 16 mos. apart and have slept more soundly in a room together than they ever did apart. We moved them together when our youngest was done with her crib, and was begging for a big-kid bed like her sister. We read individually to each child before bed, youngest going to bed before our oldest. To accommodate, we've moved most of their books to the lowest shelf in the family room, so we can read to one while the other is sleeping.
All together, it has kept toys out of the living room, craft accidents on laminate wood floors, and most importantly, both kids sleeping better at night. We often hear them babbling in the evening or morning, but never too late to keep them up. Good luck!

We recently moved into a two bedroom apartment and my children are managing the transition very well (boy age 3 and girl age 2). I say go for it and having an extra space that they can play in is a great idea to limit the toys in the living room.

We have two kiddos (aged 4.5 and 16 mos). Our older daughter begged us to share a room with her brother when he was about 11 months old. We did the same thing; put them together and then turned the other room into a play space.

They love sharing a room, but they do wake each other up all the time. Our daughter just grabs her lovies and crawls in our bed when her little brother is having a tough night.

She does love going to sleep knowing her brother is there, already sleeping, to keep her company at night. She always tells people how happy she is not to be lonely at night anymore. It's pretty sweet.

Our two oldest, an 8 yr old boy and a 5 yr old girl, share a room. They sleep better that way, they share a closer bond, and even when they keep each other up sometimes with whispering and talking and telling each other stories, it's hard to get mad when I think about the sweet relationship they've developed. Their 2 year old sister is in her own room across the hall and feels massively left out sometimes. When I've offered them alternative arrangements, or said that when we move we'll probably be able to have our own rooms for everyone, they hate that idea. And yes, the downside is that they don't sleep as well without each other.

Inspiring! We've got a 9 month old and a 2.3 year old. We were planning on having them share a room ultimately, but we were waiting until the little one was sleeping through the night. But based on these comments I think we're gonna start very slowly transitioning them now. We'll see how sharing space during nap time works out.

i agree with adamaxbey! so inspiring! we have wanted our 24-month-old and 7-month old (girl & boy) to share a room from the get-go but still have yet to incorporate it as my 2-yr-old loves to climb into the baby's crib. anybody have safety issues with toddlers and babies sharing a bedroom?

Holy cow! This thread has been SO helpful. I've been so nervous to put my two together (Zoe 1 and Vander 2.3). Tonight is the first night we're trying this out and so far, it's been 3 hours and no waking. The problem is, when one wakes up, what do I do? Run in and try to quiet down hoping the other doesn't wake up? I think I'm most nervous about this and losing my sleep of course. I'm very relieved by the comments though, to know it will eventually be great for them and us.

By the way, Happy New Year! 2010! I have another on the way on July 10th so I'll three under three. Yikes, but exciting.

I have enjoyed reading everyones responses too. I have another bub due in April, it will be a 17 month age gap between the two. I was planning on having the newborn in my room for 3 months to establish a sleeping pattern. Then moving them into my sons room, does anyone think 3 months is too early for this?
I have been wondering about the whole shared room thing for a while, a lot of peoples responses have made me feel at ease about it. But I'm still slightly nervous about it.

And Erinoo, wow another! We're still not sure if we're going to wait a while before we start on the 3rd. Have you found having 2 young ones and being pregnant hard so far? I wish you all the best, very exciting!
Kate

Hi Kate, I was definitely sick and now I'm getting over that, so maybe a little difficult. But usually my pregnancies are awesome. I have so much energy come the 2nd and 3rd. Yes somewhat nervous to have 3 under 3 for a couple of months but I suppose it's too late now eh? Just got to plug through it. Good luck with yours, it's going to go by so fast when all the sudden they're playing together. It'll awesome!