siblings sharing room

(I searched for past posts on this, but couldn't find any....please send them my way if I missed them.)

I have been planning on moving my 14.5 month old into her almost 4 yr old sister's room for awhile now, but haven't had the guts. They both sleep so well on their own and I'm scared to mess with a good thing. My older daughter really wants her in there with her...I think a buddy would make her feel less alone at night. And I want them to be together too.

The problem has been that they have different bedtimes and wake up times...The baby goes to bed and wakes up an hour earlier than my older girl (who also likes to sing and do a few dance numbers in her bed before she settles down for the night and throws in a few "I need one more thing" calls too ).

So I guess I would just have to sneak DD1 in quietly, try not to wake up the baby, and deal with any crankiness from an earlier wake-up time? I was going to wait until June when preschool was done so there is nowhere she has to be. The baby already has a crib in their and takes naps in it during the day. She sleeps in a play yard at night in the play room which I feel bad about, but she never seemed to mind and is a great sleeper. I'm working on getting them to go to bed at the same time....DD2 is just done for the day by 6:30 p.m.

Any tips or sucess stories with the room merge? Do they really learn to sleep through each other's crying and jabbering?

[Amiens]

I am a mom of 4- 2 girls and 2 boys. They share two rooms- the girls in one and boys in the next.

During residency we didn't have the option of separating our two oldest. For the most part dd (#1) slept through ds (#2) frequent waking, not to say there wasn't a night or two where they were woken up by each other. They are now 8 and 7, and separated. They beg to share a room. The younger two- 4 and 2, go to bed earlier than the older two and we haven't had any problems with that. In fact it helps the older two go to bed quickly, because there is no one to play with.

You could do a trial run to see if will work. We let our oldest daughter "camp" in the boys' room on the weekends, which turns into a giggle and talking fest between her and her brothers.

I hope this helped.

[peggyfromwastate]

Our 4 younger kids share rooms. Isabel (8) and Josie (18 months) started sharing when J was sleeping thru the night regularly, starting at about 8 months. When J would cry in the middle of the night Izzy would go over to the boys' room to sleep there on a camping roll we had in there. For the most part, it's ok. J gets up at pretty much the same time as Izzy. Izzy quietly walks to her bed at night when she goes to bed, about 2 hours after the baby. It works out, but if I had the option for them to have separate rooms, I'd jump at it.

[GrayMatterWife]

My 5-1/2-year-old son and my 19-month-old daughter have shared a room since January. I wanted to get DD out of her crib and out of the dining room (where we keep the crib) well-before the new baby arrived. I bought DS and DD a trundle bed from Overstock.com and it has worked out very well. DD goes to bed 1/2-hour or so before DS, and his routine is to say goodnight at the bedroom door then "sneak" into bed. It works well because DS is--seriously--about the very best big brother I could possibly have asked for, for DD. He adores her and sees it as his responsibility to look out for her welfare. He does not try to wake her up. When she cries in the night, I hear him whisper songs to her so she goes back to sleep. He gives her his blankets if he thinks she's cold. He gets up in the morning and rotates the doorknob for her, so she can get out. So far, the experience has been so wonderful for both of them. I realize that as they age, we'll need to move them apart. DD will probably end up sharing a room with her soon-to-arrive new sister. But, for right now, this is perfect.

[SoonerTexan]

. He adores her and sees it as his responsibility to look out for her welfare. He does not try to wake her up. When she cries in the night, I hear him whisper songs to her so she goes back to sleep. He gives her his blankets if he thinks she's cold. He gets up in the morning and rotates the doorknob for her, so she can get out. So

That's absolutely adorable and touching

[Ravenclaw]

My 5-1/2-year-old son and my 19-month-old daughter have shared a room since January. I wanted to get DD out of her crib and out of the dining room (where we keep the crib) well-before the new baby arrived. I bought DS and DD a trundle bed from Overstock.com and it has worked out very well. DD goes to bed 1/2-hour or so before DS, and his routine is to say goodnight at the bedroom door then "sneak" into bed. It works well because DS is--seriously--about the very best big brother I could possibly have asked for, for DD. He adores her and sees it as his responsibility to look out for her welfare. He does not try to wake her up. When she cries in the night, I hear him whisper songs to her so she goes back to sleep. He gives her his blankets if he thinks she's cold. He gets up in the morning and rotates the doorknob for her, so she can get out. So far, the experience has been so wonderful for both of them. I realize that as they age, we'll need to move them apart. DD will probably end up sharing a room with her soon-to-arrive new sister. But, for right now, this is perfect.

OMG this just made my night! What a cutie!!

[HouseofWool]

My 5-1/2-year-old son and my 19-month-old daughter have shared a room since January. I wanted to get DD out of her crib and out of the dining room (where we keep the crib) well-before the new baby arrived. I bought DS and DD a trundle bed from Overstock.com and it has worked out very well. DD goes to bed 1/2-hour or so before DS, and his routine is to say goodnight at the bedroom door then "sneak" into bed. It works well because DS is--seriously--about the very best big brother I could possibly have asked for, for DD. He adores her and sees it as his responsibility to look out for her welfare. He does not try to wake her up. When she cries in the night, I hear him whisper songs to her so she goes back to sleep. He gives her his blankets if he thinks she's cold. He gets up in the morning and rotates the doorknob for her, so she can get out. So far, the experience has been so wonderful for both of them. I realize that as they age, we'll need to move them apart. DD will probably end up sharing a room with her soon-to-arrive new sister. But, for right now, this is perfect.

During our short stint in Iowa this summer, DS (7) and DD (6 mo at the time) shared a room. it worked pretty well. We would tuck DS in very quietly and he was great about helping her. I rather wish they were still together. I think they would both feel better, but alas in this house, it isn't practical.