I'm asking all my readers who might have some experience or wisdom to chime in here and offer your thoughts to Beth too!
Dear Restonmom:
"Our oldest Aiden is 2-1/2 and our youngest Caleb is almost 5mos. We currently have Aiden in his own room; Caleb sleeps in my husband's office at night and in our room during the day- not the most ideal situation.
At the end of the year, when Caleb was sleeping thru the
night, we had hoped to put the boys in one room. Aiden didn't start
sleeping through the night until around 10mos old; however Caleb
surprised (shocked?) us by starting to sleep thru the night at
3-1/2mos old. My husband is itching to move the boys around now,
naturally. I kind of feel like it's still too soon, but I thought I
should at least start looking in to it. I wondered if you could help
me think thru what that would look like, when I might know they're
ready, what adjustments to expect or plan for, stuff like that.
No rush as I know you're busy with three little one, but any tips you
could give me would really be appreciated! Thanks so much!"
Beth
Dear Beth,
Maybe I'm an optimist, but I'm for kids sharing rooms when they are little and I totally think it would be feasible for your family if that is really something you need or desire to do. There are of course challenges (as well as benefits) to every situation. Our girls didn't begin to share a room until they were older. Once Maddie was nearly two and ready to move into a toddler bed, we just went ahead and made the switch. Under those circumstances we were able to mesh the two bedtimes and bedtime routines into one. Because of our different situations, I'm not sure I can speak directly to what you might expect if you were to move the boys together now - but I'll share what comes to mind and hope it helps your decision.
I think that you'd find they would make the adjustment rather well for being so young. After a very short while, it would seem to them as if it had never been any other way. The question really is whether or not their sleeping is compatible right now. For instance, will the baby wake up earlier in the morning and disturb Aiden? And also will they go to bed at the same time - if not, then will going back in wake up the sleeping child? You might also run into a situation where Caleb starts teething or hits a growth spurt or something and stops sleeping through the night for a little while. And you might want to consider what nap times might look like if they might coincide.
Still, my outlook is really positive. Although Hope and Maddie have very different sleep styles (as in it takes Hope way longer to fall asleep than Maddie for example) they have both learned to adapt to having another person in the room, even a parent coming in and out, and to go on about the night just fine. My bet would be that your boys would do likewise. You know your boys best and what kind of sleepers they are - but kids are really quite versatile and adapt very well to that kind of thing. There was a day and age after all when kids had no choice but to bunk all together, right? I say give it a shot if you want to and just realize that it's one of those parenting things where you just try it and make whatever adjustments are necessary as they come up.