This spring Finn and Dash are going to be making the big transition to sharing a room. We have a 3 bedroom house and the new baby is going to be taking over the nursery, so the two ‘big’ boys will be moving in together.
Finn is 4.5 now and Dash is a few months shy of 2 and I have to admit, I’m pretty nervous about them sharing a room. They love each other so much and adore playing together so I really think they will love sharing a room. What I’m worried about is sleep. (Isn’t that the eternal parenting worry?) Right now they are both sleeping beautifully and I’d hate to mess up a good thing! I also want to do everything I can to make sure Dash doesn’t feel like the baby is stealing his room…or his crib for that matter!
These are my plans for helping the transition go smoothly:
Transition the boys to the same room a couple of months before the baby is due. This way it won’t seem like the baby is necessarily the cause of all of the changes.
Talk to the boys about the change beforehand. Finn and I have been talking a lot about how Dash is going to be moving into his room in a few months. So far he seems pretty excited about it. He even told me that when Dash moves into his room, they’ll be bros. Not just brothers, but ‘bros’.
Adjust their sleep environments to be more similar. Currently, Finn sleeps with a fairly bright lamp in a quiet room. Dash sleeps in complete darkness with white noise. I am planning to gradually bring these closer together before they move rooms. The plan is to get a small nightlight for both boys’ rooms and slowly decrease the volume on the white noise. Once they are sharing a room, they can still use a small nightlight and low volume white noise. I’m hoping the white noise will help prevent the baby from waking them up at night as well.
Decide whether Dash is ready for a big boy bed or not. The baby is due just a few days before Dash’s second birthday. I really don’t want to buy a second crib, so I’m trying to figure out how to work out the timing of the switch. Right now I am leaning toward having Dash take his crib with him to the new room for at least a few months. He has never tried to climb out of his crib and he feels very safe in it. I think it might help him feel more comfortable in his new room – and also help keep him a bit more contained at night. The new baby will be sleeping in a bassinet the first few months anyway so that shouldn’t be a problem.
Finn’s room. The double bed is definitely getting replaced by twin beds.
Give the room a bit of a makeover. I think a bit of redecorating will help the room feel more like a new space that belongs equally to both boys. Plus, I really love decorating – especially kids’ rooms. I actually love Finn’s room already so I’m not starting all over, just adding to it, replacing some furniture, and making it work better for the pair of them.
Make a plan for naptime. Currently, Dash takes a good nap every afternoon. Finn occasionally naps as well, but the majority of the time I just send him into his room to play quietly for an hour or so. This isn’t going to work when they are sharing a room. I’m thinking the easiest plan will be to simply find a different place for Finn to play. The thing is, he’s at a stage where he wants to keep up one long never-ending conversation with me all. day. long. And I really need that hour to just get some quiet time to myself so I can think. So I’m going to need to figure out somewhere for him to play quietly that is not where I am. And I mean that in the most loving way possible.
. . . . .
Anyone else have little ones sharing a room? Have any tips?
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
We were in the same position (age gap wise). We bought another crib ($50 used) and kept baby in our room for a few months. Then about 4 months after she was born, our son started clibming out of his crib and we quickly moved him into the big boy bed in my oldest daughters room. He did really well!
We didn’t do anything really to prepare him but he’s pretty adaptable. Pretty much nothign about the rooms are the same except for that they both have white nose. We did keep his “routine” pretty similar. He likes to sit on our lap for books and prayers. Since the big kid room doesnt have a rocking chair we just sit on the floor with him in our lap.
guest
My oldest two boys share a room and we’re at a similar age to yours when they moved in together ( 21 months and 4 years old ). What we did is have them sleep in a double bed together. They love it! I think it makes them feel safe cozied up together. When they get a little older, we’ll transition to bunk beds. But for now, everyone is quite happy with the setup.
guest
We moved our two boys into the same room when they turned 2 & 5. They have bunk beds- older one is on the top in a twin and the little one is in a full bed on the bottom. It was a very smooth transition. My younger one still wants us to stay with him until he falls asleep (hoping moving them together would help this but it didn’t!). It is nice to just do one bedtime book/pajama routine at night.
blogger / cherry / 222 posts
@T.H.O.U.: Thanks for the input. Our younger son actually tried to climb out of his crib just this week. (And a shopping cart at the store!) So I guess the decision of when to ditch the crib just got easier!