After a very busy Sunday, Violet totally crashed last night and slept twelve hours straight. It got me thinking about room sharing. I'm thinking I will move Violet into Nola's room just as soon as she is consistently sleeping twelve hours straight at night. I figure it might be easier to do it while Violet is still too little to really care that she's in the same room with Nola. Nola might take a few nights to get over the novelty of it, I'm sure. I also had the idea of maybe making a cute little curtain to somehow go around Violet's crib. This way she would be a little bit more out of sight, and might cut down on playing at bedtime.
Really, I'm looking for some advice here, people. Do any of your kids share rooms? How did you do it?
You are probably too young to remember the custom bunk beds we had built for you guys so you could all four share a room. Felicity and Serenity had always shared. I don't remember it ever being a problem at all. It was just normal to them.
ReplyDeleteI know Ada and Claire complain that Macy chatters at night and won't fall asleep. But that's part of the fun of sisterhood :)
My daughter Marissa (now 13) and son Shelby (now 10) shared a room until Marissa was old enough (around 10) to start wanting privacy when she was changing clothes, etc. They shared even when Shelby was a newborn. I just put the crib in there and it was never a thing for any of us.
ReplyDeleteI say go for it. Dom came home when Dora was 14 months old. I don't think Dora remembers not having Dom around. We all shared the room that was your parents bedroom at the hotel. Dora's crib was tucked around the corner in the "closet/sink area and when he was old enough, Dom was moved from his basket to a pack n play away from Dora. He didn't sleep well for the first year, but Dora was a good sleeper and it never bothered her. Once we moved from the hotel, Dom seemed to learn to sleep better. He was 13 months by that time. Dora was moved to a big girl bed and Dom had the crib. I don't remember her playing with him. We've always tried to be very consistent with bedtime. (like you and Ryan, Den and I like our time after they are in bed) They still share a room. Bunkbeds now. They have the same bedtime, 8 pm for the most part. I think they would miss each other if they were in separate rooms. One downside is Dom is an early riser and wakes up Dora who would rather sleep, but I think that would probably happen if she had her own room. I know the time is soon approaching when they'll need their own space. But for now it works great.
ReplyDeleteMy girls have been sharing a room since Elsie was just a little younger than a year old (we moved -- it was a necessary action, but we wanted to do it at some point anyway). Sometimes it was inconvenient. Elsie would sometimes go to bed earlier, and Natalie would sometimes be loud and wake her up. Elsie still wakes up earlier than Natalie, and sometimes wakes her up before she leaves the room. If either of them is sick or cries in the middle of the night, they sometimes wake the other one up (sometimes not -- and yes, I realize I've just used the word "sometimes" like, every other word :). But overall, we like having them together, so even when we moved again and had more rooms, we had them share. I think they really like it too, and would be sad to be apart. We've even thought of putting Maureen in there with them after a while.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's nice to take all the toys back to one room when you're cleaning up. :)
We decided to have our boys share a room for several reasons. I think they were five and two when we put them together, but if they were on the same sleep schedule I may tried it earlier. It went great while the two-year-old (he's tiny for his age) was still in a crib. Big brother would quietly get up in the morning. But somehow switching the crib to a toddler bed in the exact same part of the room makes them wake each other up in the morning. But I think the bond they have from being together all night is worth it. Just don't ask me that when they wake me up early in the morning! You could do a trial to see if you like it -- move just the beds into the same room and see how it works.
ReplyDeleteOur goal for moving Jude in with Peter was just like yours, waiting til he was consistently sleeping through the night. I think we didn't do it right away at that mark though because we didn't know if Peter would leave him alone. But still, they've been together since Jude was 6 months old and we moved Sims in too this summer.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea how long they will all want to share a small room, but they are all quite happy with their cozy arrangement for now.
Drew was still waking up in the night when we moved him in with John, and I don't remember it ever bothering John a bit. Kids can be so flexible at this age.
ReplyDeleteMy kids both pleaded their cases as to who should get to have the baby in their room. I wondered if it would last as Megan started getting into their things, but I think Jaron feels a little bit left out with his sisters sharing while he is on his own! I just put a new shelf on the wall for Madison's things that are not for Megan (Nintendo DS, Chapter books, lip gloss, etc.) and things are still peaceful most of the time.
ReplyDeleteI knew you guys would come through! I appreciate every single suggestion and "this is how we did it"s.
ReplyDeleteMy advice would be -if you're going to do it- the sooner the better. I think we've talked about how Paul and I waited too long to put Rhyth in with Luke and now bedtime is still an issue. Rhyth always wants to talk to Luke and then he gets upset because he wants to sleep. AHH drama. My plan is once Urban sleeps through the night to put him in Luke's room and then move Rhythm back into her own room. I don't trust Rhyth to not crawl in bed with Urban or to try and bring him into her bed.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I LOVE this pic of Nola and Violet! It reminds me of so many pics I have of Luke and Rhythm where Rhyth is just a baby but looks as big as he does lol.