12 thoughts on “Room Sharing for Kids {9 Tips}”

  1. that is interesting that Brayden and Kaitlyn have white noise. My oldest slept in our room when we painted her room and I am a very light sleeper (not DH) but she is an active sleeper and apparently dreaming a lot as she is always twitching and moving and it was driving me bonkers1:) I didn't realize at that age they slept like this still! So are you planning on keeping the white noise indefinitely? I keep toying with the idea if i should start to wean them off as they get older but so far it's been beneficial. so if someone has an issue (sickness,etc) no one is disturbed. But DH thinks they maybe will get so used to it it it might not be good…i can see that but i don't know. i like total silence to sleep so i'm opposite! they want their machines as they are used to it. but i think you could train yourself any which way if needed. Anyways that was interesting as i didn't realize your olders had it. i know some adults sleep with it too. Anyways good post if we ever need to roomshare:)

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  2. Thanks for writing. Just out of curiosity – what would you suggest with a 2 year old and an infant in a 2 bedroom apartment…??? It's a potential as we begin to think about a second baby…

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  3. If separating at nap time can happen (putting one child in your bed for the daytime nap) I say go for it! My 2 oldest daughters have been sharing a room for 13 months now, they were 18 months and 3.5 years at the time. At night time we put them to bed together 30 minutes earlier than ususal so they could "get the giggles out" and still fall asleep at a decent hour – because they would. Nap time was a different story. The entire nap would be a giggle fest and maybe 30 minutes of a nap would happen for both of them. When I separated for nap, they both went back to falling asleep quickly and having good solid naps. We still do that to this day and they are now 2.5 years and 4.5 years. My youngest, who is almost 14 months old is a SUPER light sleeper like Brinley and just cracking the door wakes her up immediately – so room sharing for her seems like a not so likely idea for the future 🙂

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  4. We were lucky to have two boys who valued sharing a room, so they did really well from the get-go. But we do put them in bed (usually) 10-30 minutes before we *really* want it to be bedtime. We tried staggered bedtimes because it would have been more optimal, but our younger son doesn't like that. He says, "I want my brother! I need my brother!" We allow our older son to have a small light in the top bunk so they both go into bed at the same time but he gets more reading-in-bed time.

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  5. Yvonne I think people have a natural disposition to be light sleepers or not. Yes, you can cause dependency on things, but I don't think white noise/lack of white noise will impact how deep of a sleeper you are or are not. I don't have a plan for as long to have white noise. When we are somewhere without it, the sleep just fine. So long as they want it, I will do it. I figure I would rather they sleep better with white noise than not as good without it.

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  6. Thanks for these tips. We're expecting #3 in 5 weeks and have started moving our 2 and 4 year old together. I've incorporated lots of these tips, where practical, but this is tough. I'm hoping a consistent strategy and patience will pay off and that the novelty of having sleepovers will wear off and things will just miraculously work in a few days or weeks.

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    • Michelle congrats on your baby! Things do get better, but I think it can take a long time before they return to their natural sleep habits. My girls moved in together 10 months ago. It probably took 8-9 months before they were back to their sleeping selves. Things were good faster than that, but it has only need recently that they actually will sleep in.

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  7. Thanks for this article! We are having our fourth and are out of room. Our 5 year old & 3 year old share a room now. The one year old has his own room. I am not sure if I should move him in with the older 2 or keep him in our room. We have always followed Babywise and had GREAT newborn sleepers as a result. I don't want to rock the boat by keeping the baby in our room.

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