To Share or Not to Share - Ballwin,MO

I don't know anything about a toddler and a newborn sharing a room, but I can tell you how wonderful it is to have a toy room. We have my two boys in a room together (ages 3 & 6)so that all their toys can be in a toy room. Not only does it keep the house neat (no toys strewn everywhere), but it makes the bedroom a sleeping place not an awake place. I find this helps with bedtime. I also think it will help them learn to get along with others and share. But, that's yet to be seen!

Do not have them share this young. Your baby will be waking up during the night for the next year or so and will end up interupting your 3 year old's valuable and much needed sleep. Why can't your husband move to the loft and move the toys in the kids rooms or just around the house. It's only temporary. Just until they can share a room.

Another option, do you have a basement. That is where we put my hubbys "office", and no our basement is not finished. We just cleaned it up, put up everything downstairs with a rug, had telephone and cable put in. This woked ou great for us as he had his privacy without the worry of noise!

My 6 year old and 8 year old have always shared a room. It has always worked for us. They are eachothers best friends. As a newborn my 6 year old was in a bassinet in our room, but soon moved to his big brothers room. Hope this helps. Another option would be to do away with the playroom, and move the office to there. If that doesnt work, move the office to the dining room would work too, or move the office to your bedroom. Just a few thoughts, but there is no reason that the 2 girls can't share a room. It will make them closer. Unless she is resentful of her little sister, but I would think at 3 that she would feel privledged to have her sister sleep in her room!

Although there is no way to predict the future, it was impossible for our 2 kids to sleep in the same room. The baby was such a restless sleeper that she needed her own room. (Later we found out she was restless because of ear problems.) Unfortunately, we ended up with our oldest in our room since we only had 2 bedrooms and no extra space at the time.
You might want to have the baby in your room initially and then decide after you see about the baby's temperament and how your 3 year-old reacts to the baby. This should alleviate the pressure for everyone involved since I suspect waiting to make a decision will bring about what comes naturally for your family.

I would say that for at least the first several months, you should do whatever will allow everyone to get the most sleep. That's always my biggest concern at first. You can always change things after that. Good luck!

Hi,
We tried to have our kids share a room when the baby came but my eldest could not sleep with the baby in his room. If your eldest doesn't wake up easily it might work but the baby is going to cry every few hours for food. My baby even slept 9 hours at a month old, but she got up very early and when she cried it would cause my son to wake up too early then I had to deal with the "fall out".
So, we put the baby in the guest room until she was about one and had good sleep habits and then we moved them in together. It worked for a while, maybe 6 months then they got to where they would not go to sleep at night for talking. For us it just nevered worked. The guest bedroom is now officially my son's room and my daughter has her own room. We too have a 3 bedroom house. The office is a playroom with a desk stuck in the corner. Good luck to you.

S.,
I recently had the same experience. We live in a two bedroom house. I was very concerned but had tons of advice to not worry about it. (But I still did). Turns out it has worked out great. The baby slept in her cradle in our room for the first 4 months. When she outgrew it, we moved her into her sister's room. We put the baby to bed first, then the oldest to sleep about 15-30 minutes later. Sometimes, if the older one is already napping I use a playpen for the baby to nap in and just leave it in the family room ( you could use your play room perhaps). If the baby cries at night, rarely does her sister wake up. Sometimes the baby wakes the other one up in the morning but that can work the other way around too. Please don't worry like I did. Enjoy this time. BTW- the sister thing is way cool. You're gonna love it!

My older boy was not yet 2 when his little brother was born and they shared a room. My older boy sleeps through anything so the baby waking up during the night was not a problem. And it is nice to have them in the same room now, the oldest is 3 1/2 and the little one is 2. I have heard people that don't put them together saying that they didn't want the older sibling to feel like the baby was invading their space. So it can go either way. Good luck.

I think it is a great idea to put the two girls together. We have never had any issues with our boys sharing rooms. First we had the two older boys sharing a room - they are two years apart. Then when the baby was born we put the two youngest together. It is amazing how my 4 year old can sleep through the baby crying. I can't think of one time that my 4 year old was awaken by the baby. It really hasn't been an issue in our house.

Good Luck!

I have four children and when my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th were born they slept in the bassinet in my room and once they outgrew that they had their own room. I tried having my newborn and my then 3 year old son share a room, but the baby would wake him up all night. It really should have more to do with what your toddler can sleep thru and what the new babies sleep habits are. I know this probably doesn't help, because you most likely want this done before you deliver. Good luck.

L.

No sharing experience, but another option - if the office is so large you could put both girls in there & move the office to the older girl's current room.

Good luck & keep us posted on how it goes. I'm going to have a very simmilar issue when we decide to have another child.

Later,
L.