any words of wisdom for moving two LOs into same room?

[Swannie]

Next weekend we are moving our DDs into the same room.  9 MO and 3 YO.

Does anyone have any tips on how to make the transition smoother?  I'd love to hear how other people fared.

[Martini~]

No experience, but hope someone will help! Bumbing for you!

[anna*]

My two started sharing a room when they were about 3 months (DD) and four years (DS). It went really smoothly. I was surprised at how much my son would sleep through, even when we had to do sleep training. I bought him a pair of kids ear defenders (about £10 on eBay) and if he woke up he would just put them on and go back to sleep (we did a little role playing during the day time, and I hung them on the end of his bed so they were easy to find).

[Swannie]

Any advice on dealing with different bedtimes?  DD2 goes to bed earlier than DD1 and DD1, being a typical 3 year-old, can sometimes be a bit particular at bedtime.

[zeri]

DD slept through ANYTHING - they weren't sharing as babies, but we had a really small house,  and later when they did share he rarely woke her. You can likely do separate bedtimes by involving DD1 in putting her sister to sleep, but DD2 might wake up when DD! comes to bed, it depends on how she sleeps. But when DD2 is three....uhuh nope no way. If older sis gets to stay up later, good luck getting the littlest little to go to bed early! We can't manage it even now, and they are back in separate rooms!

[Martini~]

Can you anyhow regulate BT to be the same but ie cutting the nap?

Have you thought about using white noise? It's works miracles in twins' rooms from what I know, so maybe would help with sleep of your children?

[anna*]

So we had DD going to bed earlier, then I would do DS wind down/story etc in my bedroom, then he just creeps into bed without waking her.

[MommyN]

I recently moved my two into the same room. What worked for us was to stagger bedtimes. DS2 went in first and we'd do DS1's BT routine out of the room, on the couch... and then bring him in very quietly. DH still talks to him every night about keeping quiet to "help baby sleep." He's very proud of himself and we praise him on how nicely he shares his room. I was very surprised at how smooth the transition went. I also second white noise if your baby still wakes at night.

[Swannie]

Thanks.  These are great suggestions.  We already have white noise and will continue to use it.  We will do DD1's bedtime routine in our room and then hopefully we will be able to creep her into their room quietly.  Their bedtimes are usually only about 15-30 minutes apart so hopefully DD2 will be asleep by the time DD1 comes in.

The good news is that DD1 is HSN and DD2 is low LSN, so their bedtimes may align soon. 

Hopefully the transition wont be too crazy!

[Swannie]

We are 12 days into the transition.  There hasn't been a single night where nobody woke up, but DD2 got a bad cold and then her first two teeth erupted as the cold was going away.  Now she is waking around 4 or 5 am for a cuddle and then at 6.

Our main challenge right now is dealing with the bedtime antics of DD1 (age 3).  She goes to bed later, so we do the routine in another room, which includes snuggles and books in our bed.  The problem is that once we quietly walk her into the kids' room she gets loud and makes a fuss.  Once we give her a series of kisses and hugs and leave the room, she almost always calls us back several times.  Last night it got so loud and disruptive that she woke DD2 twice.

Does anyone have advice on what sort of logical consequence we can impose if she doesn't go to bed quietly?  It's hard to threaten something that we can't or won't follow through on.  Praise for going to bed quietly has NOT worked.   I am getting so frustrated.

[MommyN]

We do not do consequences for not being quiet, but every night (we do it still, a few months later) we talk to DS1 about helping baby sleep- it gives him a sense of pride- and promise him a treat in the morning if he's quiet. He gets a small treat after breakfast (a piece of dried fruit, a cookie and the like). If he talks in bed, then we follow through and do not give him the treat. You can probably do something similar with stickers or a chart if you don't want to use treats. My DS1 asks for treats ALL day, so it works very well for us.