I have a 2 year old, and a 6 month old. They are both boys, and will be sharing a bedroom. The 2 year old has been in a toddler bed since he was 16 months, and is a great sleeper (always has been). He sleeps from 8pm until about 7:30am. My 6 month old is not a good sleeper at all. He goes to bed around 8pm, wakes up around 12, then again at 3:30, and at 5:30. He is usually wide awake by 7am. He is breastfed only, but I will be starting solids on the 24th. The baby has a crib set-up in the bedroom that they will share, but is still sleeping in the bassinet in our room.
Here is my dilemma: The baby is outgrowing the bassinet, and needs to transition into the crib. I don't want to remove the crib from the room, and make it harder to transition it back for my 2 year old. I also don't want to disturb my 2 year old's schedule too badly. I am also afraid that my 2 year old might unintentionally harm the baby by trying to console him if he wakes up. Does anyone have any suggestions? I am going to keep breastfeeding the baby, and I have an audio monitor system, but my video monitor is no longer working. Please let me know if you have had similar experiences, and what you found was the easiest way to make this transition work.
Thanks!
Thank you all for your advice, and experiences. I will be trying some of your suggestions this weekend! Hopefully all will go smoothly, and everyone will be enjoying restful nights.
Here's what we did in the same situation - we put a pack and play in the living room for her to sleep in until she slept better at night. So the monitor was down there with her. No sense in getting two crying kids in the middle of the night! It worked great for us.
In my experience 2 is far too young to be sharing a bedroom with a 6 month old. He might easily hurt the baby thinking he was helping. They can also be impulsive and not really know why they did what they did. Sharing a room may be fine in another year but now you need to find another place for the crib. The baby is probably waking himself up from still being in a bassinet. When he moves he is hitting his hands arms and legs on the sides. I always move the baby out of my room by 8 weeks and find they sleep much better. As we turn over in the bed we also can be disturbing the sleep of the baby. If you don't have another bedroom, can you temporarily convert a closet to a sleeping room with the crib. Get a couple of the portable units to hang your clothes and put in your bedroom or move some into the closet of your 2 year old's room. Don't worry about the transition when it's time for them to share a room. You are the parent and in charge of the home and the sleeping arrangements. You and your husband must establish yourselves as the leaders of the home. V.
Hey J.,
I would not transfer the baby into his brother's room until he is older & sleeping better. My advice is to set up a pack and play in your room or another room & let the baby sleep there until you feel it's the right time & you trust your toddler not to unintentionally harm the baby.
Blessings,
S.
Get a cheap used crib and put it in your bedroom until he is older. Our youngest is 9 months old and we have him in our room. I'm not ready to put him in his brothers room...or sister's.
The only other option is put him in there and your other son will have to get used to him.
Our two oldest boys (now 10 and 11 years old) are only 14 months apart. I put them in two separate rooms back them. Of course they now share a room and will soon with their little brother. (We have one girl.)
Do you have a co-sleeper or pack and play? That would work well until the baby sleeps all night and you're not nursing. We did this with my daughter. The co-sleepers are very nice, they butt right up against the bed so you don't have to go far at all in the middle of the night.
Good luck, I hope you find a solution that will work well for your family!
You'll still haave to "watch" the older child to be sure there's no jealousy (there usually is, but parents don't see it and deny it). If you're still going to breastfeed, there's going to be jealousy and maybe even danger harming the younger child (better to be safe than sorry). The 2 year old schedule may be disturbed more than you realize. Keep a close eye, even later. My boy and girl had 2 years between them and even at 12 and 10 it showed up.
Get a pack n' play for the bedroom. Your 6-month-old will continue to wake up. Mine is 8 months old, and he still wakes up a couple of times during the night.
Growing up, we often shared rooms and often a baby was a roommate to the next youngest child. Kids are pretty good at adjusting. Often, the roommie didn't even wake up when the baby cried. Just kept on sleeping. Hopefully, this will happen in your situation. I would lay some ground rules, though, for your one concern. "If the baby wakes up and is crying, come get me to take care of him. Do not do it yourself!"
Hi. I think you would be surprised what toddlers can sleep through. Also I think your baby will actually sleep better in another room. I breastfed all of my babies. Once they moved in another room they didn't get up as much.
I know excatly what you are going thru. I had the same problem 6 months ago.
My little munchkins are 25 months apart (girls).
She slept in the bassinet until she was about 3 or 4 months old. We just put her in her crib one night and it was that easy. I was also nursing.
If your oldest one is a good sleeper, I highly doubt it if he will wake up when the little one does.
There have been a few times when the baby did wake up and my oldest slept right thru it. Or, if the oldest one woke up, we just finished potty training, or had a bad dream, the baby slept right thru it.
Now, I can not keep them apart for the life of me. They do everything together. My oldest will not go to bed unless her little sister is in there with her. When she wakes up in the morning, the first thing she does is go over to the crib to see her.
If your oldest is fine around the baby during the day when he cries, he will be fine at night. Besides, you got the monitor, you will be able to hear everything.
Don't worry about a thing. They will be fine.
I hope this helps
Do you have a pack n' play? If so, you could transition your baby to a pack n' play and keep him in your room or place him in another room besides your son's room until he is on a better sleeping schedule. I also have 2 young children that are 23 months apart (the oldest is 2 as well). I would try my best not to interfer with the 2 year old's sleep....because I'm sure you know that a cranky, overtired toddler is not fun to take care of during the day. I can always tell when my 2-year old did not get enough sleep. Good luck!
