My family loves to travel but I admit it comes with its fair share of inconveniences, especially when you have young children. Most of my travel anxiety involves food and sleep and how that gets messed up sometimes when you travel. But I've decided to take a glass-is-half-full approach for our remaining summer trips and see the sleep challenges, at least, as an opportunity. An opportunity for what you ask?
An opportunity to put the kids in the same room for naptime and at night. At home we've been thinking long and hard about having them share a room (our room, in fact). That process involves some renovation and redecorating, nothing we want to undertake unless we know our plan will work.
For our most recent trip, the kids shared a bedroom for the first time and things seemed to work well but the trip was a bit too short to really give us confidence. Our next two trips will be longer and the plan is to have them share a room again. I'll let you know how it goes.
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Our kids are two years apart and have shared a room since the little one was 4 months old (admittedly out of necessity). We wouldn't have it any other way and even if we had another bedroom we'd keep them together. The older one has become a comfort to the younger one and sharing a room has given them a very interesting bond for children still so young.
My advice on this subject is to not have their beds touch or face the same way if possible (unless the room is larger) and if they are both young and still napping, have a pack-n-play available in another room should they decide they are too *entertained* with each other to nap. For us, this happens about 1/3rd of the time, but we've never had any problems with bedtime.
I agree with daloislane! My kids are three years apart - our daughter is five and son is 2 - and they LOVE sharing a room. Our daughter actually begged us to put her little brother in the same room with her. She felt lonely in there without him. I think they sleep much better with the other one two feet away. Go for it!!
Our kids are 17 mos apart and I've really thought about having them sleep in the same room when on vacation, but have yet to try. (They're almost 3 and 16 mos now) But I'm thinking of trying this winter. Do you put them to bed at the same time then? My biggest fear is that our older one hops out of bed, climbs into her crib, gets them both get riled up and then neither gets to sleep at a reasonable hour... chaos ensues...
I meant to also ask where the crib and bed in this photo are from? Love them!
My kids have shared a room since my son was 9mths old and it has been great, my daughter is 3. They love having each other so close by. We do have them nap in separate rooms as that means both get the amount of daytime sleep that they need. My youngest goes to bed first and is usually asleep by the time his sister jumps into bed half an hour later. They have never really disturbed each other over night if one cries which is great. Faq was worried about the potential for chaos. Well it will happen, occasionally, and when it does you will laugh so hard at what they have gotten up to and these will be memories you will have forever. We once found both kids in the crib jumping for their lives and laughing so hard. That is priceless!
We just took the plunge and moved our oldest (just turned 3 last week) in with her brother (will turn 1 in three weeks).
They've been roommates for just over a month now. Mixed results so far.
Going well...
- Makes what was an impossible space situation, possible.
- They LOVE being together
- Staggering bedtime by 30-45min or so (sneaking 3yr old in after 1yr old is asleep) seems to do the trick
- Youngest is old enough to sleep a solid 9-10hrs so they both sleep a single long stretch together (usually)
Hoping for improvement with time...
- The staggered bedtime is inconvenient... would be nice if they could both fall asleep in the same room at the same time.
- If one wakes up, the other WILL wake up too. This has proven to be 100% consistent.
- While the 3yr old can observe bedtime/wakeup rules (eg. stay in your bed, don't wake up your brother), the 1yr old still has a long way to go. When he wakes up, he stands up, jumps up and down, and does a Tarzan yodel... repeatedly. As mentioned above, this means the 3yr old also wakes up.
We'll see how things go. We are still glad we're doing it.
Our kids are three years apart, and have shared a room from around ten months of age. They are now six and three, and they wouldn't have it any other way. I know that at some point, down the line, they'll want to have their own rooms (which isn't going to happen anytime soon - our house has two rooms and we're not about to move). But for now, they love sharing. They both go to bed at the same time (7pm), but are allowed to read in bed, and they awake around the same time (6:30am) - although the youngest is more of a natural night owl, he will still be awake and his sister will be fast asleep. Our daughter can often be heard reading books to her little brother in the morning. There is something so sweet and beautiful in their closeness, and it is our hope that with sharing a room they'll grow-up to be closer to each other, more tolerant of others, and aware of space in general.
Our kids are two years apart, and we first started the room sharing adventure last year on a weekend trip! They were 3 and 1 at the time, and it went smoothly enough that we got home from our vacation and moved the crib right in with our preschooler.
Our experience has not been as smooth as some others have described theirs to be. Depending on illnesses, temperament, and other factors, we have needed to separate our girls at different times. We started off putting the younger one down earlier and then sneaking the older one in later, but that hasn't worked as well lately (the younger one tries to stay awake until the older goes to bed, and then they get chatty). Our current solution (which works great) is to put our four-year-old to sleep on our bed, and then move her over to her own bed when it is time for the grown-ups to go to sleep. Slightly inconvenient, but considering the fact that we actually have a BED to sleep on these days (rather than the living room futon), it is a big improvement!
my kids share a room as well, although our oldest (3) cannot put himself to sleep and prefers to sleep in our bed since the birth of his sister (1). the youngest still wakes occasionally and our son will wake through out the night if he is put to sleep in his own bed. if it werent for slept related issues, their sharing a room would be 100% great. theyre very close and love to play together. does anyone have any advice as far as getting my son to sleep in his own bed... on his own?? haha.
This post doesn't apply to me at all...I only have one little one and she is still a very little one :)
But I need to know...Does anyone know the source for that bedding? I love it!
My oldest was the LIGHTEST sleeper when he was little. Breathe too hard in his room and he'd wake up. Until the day we brought his little brother home. Suddenly he could sleep through all kinds of noises. Out of necessity I assume, since there were ALWAYS noises with a baby around.
They've been sharing a room ever since. What makes it easy is that my older boy goes to sleep in my bed and the little one goes to sleep in his bed in his room. When I go to bed (like another commenter said) I move the older one to his bed. This works marvelously. I wouldn't have it any other way! And they're used to it so vacations are easy when they have only one room.
where is the bedding in the photo from?
OOh me too - loving the bedding for crib and bed - source?
And the crib too - love that bright color! Would love to know brands/sources if anyone knows!
Source for the bedding is in the original post (follow the picture citation)
"Bedding is from Ikea, it was a full-size reversible duvet which I cut down and sewed into two crib-sized duvets."
To answer the question about staggering bedtimes:
Our boys (10 months and 3 years old) go to sleep at night together without problems - in fact the younger one gets mad if we try to put him to sleep first without his big brother. We have blackout shades that seem to help with this, but they both sleep uninterrupted for 12 hours a night in the same room. During a couple of illnesses/teething situations, the older one has slept remarkably well through occasional nighttime crying.
For naps, I have found it easier to put the oldest one to bed first and wait for him to go to sleep before putting the younger one to bed. Putting them down for naps at the same time spells disaster 90% of the time. On days when the oldest one has a harder time settling down for naps, I put the younger one to sleep in a different room in a portable crib.
We did exactly that...used our vacation to try out the transition of getting our girls into the same room. It worked like a charm.
My girls are 14 months apart, 3 and 2. We really needed the extra bedroom for guests. I wanted them to share a room together but could never bring myself to interrupt our nice and cozy sleeping schedule/arrangement. I took the trip as a practice round and they LOVED it. The minute we got back home they wanted to be in the same room and they have done amazing ever since. We do have the guest bedroom as an emergency if need be but so far so good.
Speaking of the room, I have been working on getting it together while they have been sleeping in it and plan on sharing soon with Ohdeedoh!
cute room pictured...and I soo don't read comments on advice threads now, LOL
My kids (a boy and a girl) are 21 months apart and have shared a room since my daughter was 4 months old. If we had had a third bedroom during her first year, we totally would have separated them. Oh, the sleepless nights we all endured because we had no choice!
Now they are almost 4 and almost 2 and they love sharing a room. They chat before falling asleep and upon waking in the morning. Sure, they fight too and it's not always great. But I wouldn't go back and change it because it is so much fun for them the majority of the time. Now we have a third bedroom but it's a playroom and if/when we have 1 or 2 more kids it will house them. I'm planning to keep these guys together until they're too old to share--which is what, sometime in elementary school? I guess I'll figure it out. My sister and brother and I all shared a room until well into elementary school and it was great.
I have never been successful with napping them together, though. Granted I only tried it once but it was not a pretty picture. My son naps in my bed and my daughter naps in her crib and that works fine for us.