Room Sharing

Mamapoo

I know the whole room sharing thing has been discussed before, but I looked back and couldn't find any of the posts

I was hoping to be in a larger place by the time this LO came along, but then life happened, so I'm going to have a newborn in the same room as my ~18 month old.
I've read a couple places that toddlers will just sleep though the baby crying. Is this even somewhat true? While it would be wonderful, I just don't want to get my hopes up for nothing!

Also, since they'll be in the same room, I'm thinking a toddler bed is a bad idea, and a crib is the way to go?

ktshafra

Right now my toddler has her own room and the newborn is with us. I have a friend, though, who has both her 15 month old and 2 month old in the same room with her and her husband. From what she's said, her older child would sleep through the newborn because she would get the baby during the grunting, "I'm getting hungry" noises instead of waiting for her to cry for food. It seemed to work well. Though she did tell me today that the baby was crying at 6am this morning and woke her toddler who turned into a grumpy mess. 

Ive been surprised that my 3 month old can sleep soundly in her swing in the family room with us while my 15 month old throws tantrums. I hope she continues to sleep so well once we move them into the same room.

I have heard that sound machines at make noise all night are the best investment. I plan to get one soon. 

Mamapoo

ktshafra:

Right now my toddler has her own room and the newborn is with us. I have a friend, though, who has both her 15 month old and 2 month old in the same room with her and her husband. From what she's said, her older child would sleep through the newborn because she would get the baby during the grunting, "I'm getting hungry" noises instead of waiting for her to cry for food. It seemed to work well. Though she did tell me today that the baby was crying at 6am this morning and woke her toddler who turned into a grumpy mess. 

Ive been surprised that my 3 month old can sleep soundly in her swing in the family room with us while my 15 month old throws tantrums. I hope she continues to sleep so well once we move them into the same room.

I have heard that sound machines at make noise all night are the best investment. I plan to get one soon. 

 

Yeah, I've heard great things about the sound machines too, but with them being so close to each other in the room it kind of seems like it would be useless anyway.

 I'm hoping I'll be able to jump right up and get her before she starts actually crying, but I'm such a heavy sleeper Even when DS was a newborn I was a heavy sleeper.

Mamapoo

softskate31:

I have a toddler on a mattress on teh floor and the baby in the crib.  The baby does NOT STTN yet adn does wake up the toddler.  sleep training is a nightmare.  We can't let DS cry at all b/c it wakes up our crappy sleeping toddler.  total nighmare. 

We bedshare to survive the nights b/c we don't want 2 screaming kids at 2am.

If your toddler is a good sleeper, you will probably be fine.

 

He's an awful sleeper, he's still not STTN consistently.

SarahRae85

It really, really depends. In my experience, yes.

My oldest slept well from the beginning and was STTN for months before we moved her sister into her room (except the occasional wake-up and she was also used to hearing noises when her dad would get home from his night shift). She was 15 months when we moved her 3 month old sister into her room. She also transitioned to a toddler bed a few weeks before we put her sister in her room.

On occasion, my toddler would wake up when her sister did, but rarely past the twilight stage and my chair was right next to her so I'd sing her back to sleep easily enough. Most of the time, she slept right through it, though, and we did some CIO with my youngest when she was 13 months old and still nursing 4 times a night and I needed a break and oldest woke up, but ignored it and went back to sleep.

It was actually a very easy situation for me. It wasn't perfect, but the problematic nights were few and far between.