I'm in the process of thinking how to get my 11 month old out of my room(she's in a crib) into her sister's room. The problem is that they both have vry different schedules. The baby goes to bed around 7 and the 6 year old goes to bed around 9 (though that may be switching to 8:30 really soon) and it also takes her a while to calm down and goto sleep. The baby still wakes up at around 5:30 or so and her "wake up" time is 6 am. The older girl gets up around 7 - 7:30. I'm still working on training the baby to sleep until 6 on the regular. She goes the full night a while then wakes up earlier and we have to train again to get back to that 6am time. How have some you handled this issue? Esepecially with different schedules? They are going to move into the same room eventually, no matter what happens. I would just like to see it sooner than later, and I've been trying to wait until the baby sleeps thru the night regularly, but just can't get there. I appreciate the help.
Were you waiting to hand over the baby on her wedding night, or do you have a two bedroom house? Are you able to move the crib into another room? If not-here's what I would do-plan a big day for the children-keep them really busy and physically active-feed them an early dinner-give them a nice warm bath-read them a story and put them to bed and see what happens! Good luck!
Go ahead and put them together, they'll adjust to each other really quickly.
My first 2 had very different schedules. Oldest was late up, late to bed. She just slept through her brother's early up, and we did a lot of her going to bed routine not in the room where he was sleeping. When we had our 3rd, we moved daughter to her own room and put boys together at about a year, and the youngest just matched himself to brother's early schedule.
Kids are very resiliant and flexible. You'll have a week or two of adjustment, I predict, and probably grumpy-tireds during that time. But then they'll start adjusting schedules and getting used to sleeping through the other being there awake (make sure you don't leave them alone awake too long, depending on older's age especially). I think it'll be easier for them to adjust now than in a year or two.
we have a 3 1/2 yr old and a 1 yr old. they have been sleeping in the same room for about 6 months now. thye do pretty well. I actually put the 3yo to bed first because the baby will not go to sleep while she is still awake! and by the time the baby is ready for bed, my older is already asleep. the baby still wakes up sometimes, and my daughter sleeps through it. i would just go for it. kids adapt pretty well. good luck.
My older daughter is only 3 so it is a little different. Basically we just took the plunge - one day we decided it was time, we took the crib and put it in Abi's room. Abi will wake up a few times when Bekah cries, but mostly she sleeps through it.
Our schedule looks something like this:
Bekah to sleep at 7.
Get Abi ready for bed in the living room at 8 (snuggling, reading stories, etc.). Then we have Abi be really quiet and just lay down and tell her she has to be quiet because Bekah is already asleep.
Bekah wakes up at least 2 times during the night still. I go in and get her, nurse her in the living room and then put her back in her crib when she is asleep. For the most part Abi sleeps through all of this. Every now and then she will wake up when I come in and I just say something like "it is still night time, go back to sleep".
Abi wakes up at 7 and is good about being quiet and coming out of her room.
Bekah wakes up around 8:30.
My 3 year old slept in our room until he was a year old then we put him in with his older brother and he slept even worse! This summer we separated them and my 3 year old for the first time is sleeping from 730pm-7/730am I would actually recommend if you have the space that you keep them in different rooms or at least keep baby in your room do you really want her waking up her older sister at 530? Having to deal with a grumpy older child is no fun.
A.,
My boys (ages 13, & 8) share a room. The older son is up at 5:45 am for a 6:30 bus pick-up and the younger one is up at 7am. The younger always wants to stay up late and the older one can't. They figured out how to be respectful with each other. The 13 yr old gets dressed in the living room and the 8 yr old reads books under a blanket with a flashlight. They have always shared a room.
I agree with Melissa and Julia. The girls will work it out. That is one of the many life lessons learned from sharing a room.
Good luck.
~K.
I agree with Julia, stick them in there together & they'll adjust to each other. Your older daughter will either figure out how to sleep through her sister waking up in the morning, figure out how to go back to sleep for the extra hour & a half, or be sleepy during the first few days & adjust her own bedtime to a couple of hours earlier in the evening. It'll all work out one way or the other. My kids are only 17 months apart & I kept my daughter in my room for only a few months until she couldn't fit into her bassinet anymore & was ready for the crib in her brother's room. It only took maybe a week or so for them to be just fine in there together.
I have three girls and at the time of room consolidation the girls were 7, 5 and 1. Baby went to bed first - around 7:30 or earlier depending on grump factor. Older children went to bed around 8, 8:15. Baby didn't wake to a dim lamp light and the older girls were able to dress and read books for a few minutes prior to going to sleep. Baby would wake sometimes during the night and my older children just learned to sleep through it. Everyone woke up around 6:30/7. Now - youngest has her own room and will sleep until 8:00!
Good luck!
