(want more) sleep logistics (room sharing, co-sleeping, city living)

[wolverine2]

My goal is to have DS1 (3 1/2) and DS2 (5 mos) share a room (and have everyone sleep through the night :) ) Right now, DS2 is in our room in a pack-in-play, but ends up co-sleeping most of the night. This was not so intentional, but I have found it the easiest way to get him back to sleep. He's up 2-3x a night now, but doesn't nurse every time (although, I admit, that's also an easy way to get him back to sleep). Sometimes he's just awake and not crying, but it wakes me up anyway.

I was going to wait until he was sleeping through the night to put him in with DS1, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen in the near future. So what are my next steps toward my goal of getting DS2 out of my bed, and into his brother's room (and sleeping more). I also don't mind a bit of CIO, but we live in a condo with upstairs neighbors, so we can't exactly let him yell in the middle of the night.

What should my next step be? I'm tired!!

Edited to say DS2 in pack-in-play, not DS1 (I'm sure it would be broken by now if that were the case).

[ShanaMama]

I truly have no suggestions- just wanted to wish you luck. I'll be watching your thread for others posters suggestions because this will be us in a couple of months. DD1 & DC2 will need to share a room whenever I move the baby out of my room. At this point DD (3 yo) doesn't sleep thru the night very well, so I have no idea how we'll swing this. I am just not thinking about it until it's time to cross that bridge. Where's the hiding head in the sand smilie?

[MommyAllison]

Hmmm, we will be facing this eventually as well. Does DS1 wake up when he hears DS2 crying? I have been so thankful that my kids rarely wake up when the other is crying (ok, in DDs case she's usually freaking out throwing a tantrum, but whatever). Maybe you could try putting DS2 down in the pack n play in DS1's room at bedtime and then when he wakes up, you could bring him in with you? And hopefully he would sleep longer and longer in DS1's room? I hope that made sense...

[niccig]

I haven't done this, but a friend was having sleeping issues with DD#2, so they put DD#1 who was 4 in their room on a blow up mattress for about a week, while they got DD#2 to sleep in the shared room. Once DD#2 was sleeping better, DD#1 moved back into her bed.
HTH

[hillview]

A friend of mine did this with an infant and a 3 year old. It was hard for a week or 2 then #1 got used to baby sister waking up in the middle of the night and got used to it. They are still in same room and it works well!
/hillary

[Tondi G]

First off... so you live in a condo. Your neighbors are just going to have to get used to your little one crying during the night some.... we live in an apartment and everyone understands that we have small children and they cry sometimes. Just saying this so you don't stress about it.... if your neighbors complain then worry about it!

as far as sleeping in a room together goes... you will laugh at what we did! Our 2nd DS came along when #1 was almost 4. At first DS2 was in our room in a co sleeper but he was the worlds noisiest sleeper and around 8 weeks DH and I couldn't deal anymore. So what did we do... we brought our 4 year old into our bed (he was thrilled about it too) since he sleeps like a LOG. We put #2 in the crib in their room with a monitor on and what do you know... he began sleeping LONG stretches. Mom and Dad and big brother got good solid sleep and everyone was happy. When #2 was around a year his big brother moved back into the room and everyone was fine with that arrangement. My older DS is such a sound sleeper his brother could be wailing in the same room and he probably wouldn't even stir!

Good Luck figuring out a good arrangement for your family!

~Tondi
Mommy to Mason and Aidan

[wolverine2]

That's actually a good idea moving DS1 temporarily while we work on this. We actually do have an extra bedroom, but we use it as a playroom/guest room so want the boys to share. But we could use the guest bed for DS1 temporarily. He would think it was fun. I don't know how DS1 will react to the crying, so it would be nice to try DS2 out of our room before adding the other variable. (I guess I could put the PnP in the guest room as well, but I want to try him sleeping in his real crib, which is in the boys room).
Thanks for the advice, I think we'll try it!

[elephantmeg]

My goal is to have DS1 (3 1/2) and DS2 (5 mos) share a room (and have everyone sleep through the night :) ) Right now, DS2 is in our room in a pack-in-play, but ends up co-sleeping most of the night. This was not so intentional, but I have found it the easiest way to get him back to sleep. He's up 2-3x a night now, but doesn't nurse every time (although, I admit, that's also an easy way to get him back to sleep). Sometimes he's just awake and not crying, but it wakes me up anyway.

I was going to wait until he was sleeping through the night to put him in with DS1, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen in the near future. So what are my next steps toward my goal of getting DS2 out of my bed, and into his brother's room (and sleeping more). I also don't mind a bit of CIO, but we live in a condo with upstairs neighbors, so we can't exactly let him yell in the middle of the night.

What should my next step be? I'm tired!!

Edited to say DS2 in pack-in-play, not DS1 (I'm sure it would be broken by now if that were the case).

this is our situation too, except we don't have a spare room at the moment. DD is in a pack n play in our room and DS is in his crib in their room. If things continue to go like they did last night I'm going to move DD to her crib for the first part of the night, bring her to bed to feed her and then either leave her or stick her in the pack n play for the rest of the night (she slept til 4 then ate a 4, 5:30 and 7, lol). One night I stuck her in her crib and she woke up while we were in the shower and was shrieking on the top of her lungs when I got out (oops). DS slept right through it.

[wolverine2]

You know, I'm not as worried about DS2 waking DS1 up as I am the other way around. DS2 always seems to wake up when we go into our room to go to bed. Have to think about that issue as well...