Sibling Room Sharing -- yay or nay?

[OrionGrad]

Talk to me about young siblings sharing rooms,
DS1 is 2.5 now and a pretty reliable sleeper. He goes to bed on his own (in a crib) around 7 each night. DS2 is 4 months, and his sleep really varies from night to night. I usually rock him or nurse him to sleep around 8:30, although I'm working on moving that earlier. They both wake up around the same time in the morning.
I'm thinking ahead to when DS2 is 6 months or so, and wondering whether it would be worthwhile to move him from our room to his brother's. I would love to get our own room back, but I honestly can't imagine it being anything other than a disaster if I tried moving the brothers in together. We're moving for fellowship in July, so either way the situation is temporary.

Thoughts??

[HouseofWool]

I would wait until after the move.

[PrincessFiona]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't move him now....

Kris

[OrionGrad]

I don't see any reason why you couldn't move him now....

Kris

I guess my primary concern is he'll wake his older brother if/when he wakes up at night.

[MrsK]

My boys are the same age spacing as yours. They started sharing a room as soon as K2 was reliably sleeping through the night, probably about 4-6 months. Funny thing, I worried that K1 would wake when we went in to check on K2 so we put K2's crib nearer to the door. Turns out, K1 sleeps like a rock and K2 is the lightest sleeper ever; he would wake up every time we walked past their bedroom. We ended up moving K1 to the crib by the door. They shared a room until this past year. I would have kept them in the same room except (1) K1 needed a bigger bed, and (2) K2 still doesn't sleep as well as K1. He was keeping K1 up late and waking him early in the morning. Once K1 started complaining that his bed was too short and that he felt like he needed a little more sleep in the morning, we separated them. Your sons might be more compatible roommates than mine were; the problems not due to their ages but rather due to their sleep temperaments.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

They really get used to each other's noises. The girls share a room. A will sometimes talk H's ear off or song loud enough to wake the dead Overall, it's been easy. The biggest issue that we potentially could have is that H REFUSES to be in her crib without sister

[MrsK]

Funny story. When K2 was about 15mo, K1 moved into a toddler bed. After that, K2 didn't want to sleep in the crib any more and he started climbing out. He'd decided that it was easier to climb out if he was naked. So, he'd undress entirely, remove his diaper, heave himself up with his arms and throw himself out of the crib. Then he'd land in a splat on the floor and jump into K1's bed because he couldn't reach the door knob. Then K1 would startle awake and run out of the room screaming "Mommy! Daddy! He's up! He's out of his crib! He's nekked!!!" Meanwhile, K2 would streak around the house until we caught and dressed him. You know how Super Nanny always says to return them to bed without a fuss? Well, sort of hard to avoid a fuss when you have one frantic toddler and one naked toddler that need to be put to bed again. After about two nights of this, K2 moved to a toddler bed too. We didn't have trouble after that until K2 was 3yo.

[Ladybug]

I would try to move him out. If it's a flop you can always move him back. There is something magical about getting your own adult room back.

[bobk]

Our two older girls are three and half years apart and have always shared a room without any trouble. I'm sure it's heavily dependant on personalities though.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

As soon as K2 was reliably sleeping through the night, probably about 4-6 months.

Hahahahaha. Hahahahahahahahaha. This statement makes me hate you.

DD2 is 13 months. We are also waiting until she sleeps thru the night to put them together. Still waiting...

I'm actually not that worried about night wake ups. It's more the fact that DD2 gets up SO early and I'd rather only have one child awake at 5:30 AM.

[gem]

My boys share a room. They're both terrible sleepers (4 yo sleeps through the night only about 50% of the time, 20 month old wakes up at least twice), but they never wake each other up. They're shared a room from 4 months/2.5yo so I do think they just are accustomed to each other. If I so much as shuffle a paper on the opposite side of the house my 4 yo will get out of bed and fuss at me for waking him up with all that racket, but baby brother is allowed to scream full throttle and he won't even roll over. They love sharing space, and I love using our third bedroom as an office/den.

[MrsK]

Hahahahaha. Hahahahahahahahaha. This statement makes me hate you.

DD2 is 13 months. We are also waiting until she sleeps thru the night to put them together. Still waiting...

I'm actually not that worried about night wake ups. It's more the fact that DD2 gets up SO early and I'd rather only have one child awake at 5:30 AM.

Don't hate me. Lambie doesn't sleep well and K1 had his days and nights reversed entirely when he was an infant. K2 was the only one who slept through the night early -- probably because he was so much bigger than the others. And now he's the one who's still running around the house (not nekked but mischievous) at 11PM and waking up at 5AM.

[Sheherezade]

In our family, we put the second in with the older kid before she slept through the night. She started sleeping better once they were on the same schedule. She stayed in bed usually, too - no coming in to our room. Luckily, for the times when she did get up still at night, our first slept right through it.

We put her in on a toddler mattress on the floor at about a year old, with a baby gate at the door.


Angie

[OrionGrad]

Wow, this is all making me feel way more hopeful. I would love to get our adult bedroom back. I think we'll give DS2 until 6 months or so, and then we'll try it. Like some of you said, if it doesn't work out we can always go back.
How did bedtimes work with two young ones in the same room? Did you help the younger one go to sleep at the same time as the older one, or carry him/her into the room after everyone was asleep?

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Everyone goes to bed at the same time, here. Naps and bedtime both. When H was still eating before bed, I'd do the whole routine, and let A sit on the rocking chair or floor listening to lullabies while I fed H. Then H goes in her crib, followed by A.