Thinking of putting my 2+3 year old in same roon tomarrow. help needed please

[4 under 5]

hi ladies

My 2 year old boy sleeps in his cot in my room at the bottom of the bed. during the night he climbs out onto our bed and stays their till the morning. ive another baby due in april so would like to get him out and into a room with his 3 year old sister.

shes still sleeps in her cot and is quite happy at the moment. the room is quite small so cant fit a double bed so the 2 cots will have to do.

my questions are:

am i nuts?

do i put the 2 cots right beside eachother? or seperate?

when i put them down for the night should i let them have a little play time/ chat time together before i tell them to settle down and sleep?

should i read their stories up in the sitting room as we normally do, or take the stories down and read them in their room?

thanks and would be greatful of any replies asap xx

[sianie]

Hi there...

No, I don't think you're nuts, lol! I think it's good that you are thinking ahead & coming up with a plan!

I guess where you put the cots depends on the size/configuration of the room... you might well go through a period of transition when they 1st move in together & you might find they both take a little longer to initially settle at BT. One issue you might have is your DS climbing into your bed during the night, if this has been going on for a while then this will most likely have become a habit & you might want to tackle this before you move him (especially as if he can climb out of his cot he could hurt himself if he's in a different room).

You could also think about introducing a Gro-clock/light on a timer for your DS & DD (who are both old enough to understand the concept).

When you do make the move & put them both in together I would maybe do a longer wind-down with both of them so that they are as calm as possible before they go down, it might work better doing this in their room where things are a bit lower key?

Does this help?

[4 under 5]

hi. thank you for your reply. my husband thinks we should just do it and see how it goes. i agree with you on the wind down and getting them as calm as possible. maby i should put some pillows on the floor in case he does climb out? hard to know.

[sianie]

Yes, I would definitely put something on the floor by his cot.

You need to have a plan for when he wakes & he isn't in your room/getting into your bed....have you thought about how you want to tackle this?

[4 under 5]

my husband says if he wake up crying, he will go into him, tell him hes not getting out and to go back to sleep and walk out again. he says it will probably take about 3 nights for him to realize waking up crying isnt going to get him into our bed.

i myself didnt want to move him in yet but my husband does so im just going with it for now. i told him he can deal with it. all i have worries about is him crying and upsetting my little girl. shes a good little sleeper.

[sianie]

Does he usually wake at the same time in the night to come into your bed?

I think it will be hard to avoid your DD being woken up in the night if he starts crying, you could try doing some sleep training with him in your room before you move him i.e. try to re-settle him without him coming into your bed.

[4 under 5]

my husband thinks he will be distracted by the new room etc and wont take him long to settle.
wish i was as optamistic as he is ;-)

[sianie]

I think a degree of disruption is to be expected, especially if he is used to waking in the night & coming into your bed this may well now be habitual & he may still do it even though he's in a different room.

[4 under 5]

thanks for your reply. its done anyway! we cleaned out her room and put his cot in beside her. its his 1st nap time in beside her and they are busy chatting and singing. ill let them at it for a little while and then ill go in and put my foot down. wish us luck x

[4 under 5]

just a quick update (hope i dont jinx it) but so far so good. tonight is his 4th night in her room and no big fits of crying so far. finger crossed it will stay like this :-)

[sianie]

Great news!