The Grizzly Bear cubs have been sharing a room since May, about the same time that Mrs. High Heels put her two in the same room together. Patrick was 27 months old and Olivia was 14 months. I’m happy to report that things have gone surprisingly well! That doesn’t mean that we haven’t had our fair share of hurdles. As I mentioned in my day in the life post, Patrick used to wake up well before Olivia. Now with them in the same room if one of them wakes up at 6:00 in the morning, then we’re all up!

So why would we mess with something that was working for us?

For one, Olivia finally started sleeping through the night at 13 months. And right before that she switched to one nap, which put her and Patrick on the same nap schedule. Olivia also stopped wanting to be rocked for bed. I didn’t nap or night train my daughter; she just decided that if I was going to rock her she was going to be the squirmiest wiggle worm on the planet. I finally just laid her down only to hear silence a few minutes later. She puts herself to sleep, no help from me necessary!

I think what really sealed the deal for us making the move was that we noticed the cubs didn’t really play with the toys that were in Patrick’s room. Olivia’s room, on the other hand, was too cluttered with toys and they became a pain to clean up every night before putting her to bed. It just seemed logical to take the toys out of Patrick’s room and move them into Olivia’s room, while at the same time moving Olivia into Patrick’s room.

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Now the kids have a dedicated sleep and play space and it makes more sense for us as a family. I’d love to say that the transition went smoothly but I don’t want to lie to you. Oh, the actual move went just fine. We sent the kids to their grandparents’ house for the day and spent the next several hours arranging everything. The first night wasn’t so bad; the cubs were exhausted from a fun nap-free day at the grandparents house that we barely heard a peep from them once they were put to bed. But as I mentioned earlier, we’re now on an “up with the sun” schedule.

Another problem we have is keeping Patrick in his bed. As I mentioned in my post about toddler rails, Patrick has been in a twin-sized bed since he turned two. We took the toddler rails off the bed a few months back and he’s been doing great. Hasn’t fallen out of bed once. But it does mean that my headstrong toddler has free access to the room at any given time, and he uses that ability far too much for my liking. At night, he’ll often run around the room before collapsing into bed. And he’s normally the first one up in the morning which means that I often find the curtains open and the blinds askew from his antics. It also means that if Patrick wakes up before Olivia during a nap, that’s it. The nap’s done, no salvaging it no matter how short it was and how much they both really, really needed it.

Sometimes with the shared bedroom we have to stagger the naps. Olivia occasionally still needs two naps for whatever reason, so they tag-team just like when she was younger. It’s times like this that really make me miss them each having their own room so that I don’t have to worry about disturbing Olivia when I need to Patrick down, but the pros outweigh the cons for now.

On a positive note it has made bedtimes much easier. Prior to them rooming together Mr. Bear and I used to divide and conquer. I usually put Olivia down and Mr. Bear would read Patrick a story and put him to bed. Now we all go into the room together, sit down, read a story, and put the children to bed. They won’t always go straight to sleep, but they do usually go to sleep within a thirty minute time period. Same goes for naps – if I need to put them both down it’s much easier to do it in one room rather than two.

I also love that if Olivia wakes up crying in the mornings, Patrick is quick to soothe her, which gives me the much needed few minutes to get my brain into gear and get up. Especially if it is 6:00. This Momma Bear is a night owl and does not enjoy seeing the sun rise. Before they used to play alone while they waited for me to come get them, but now I often wake up to thumps, bumps, and giggles from their room instead of tears. It really is wonderful to see my two cubs grow closer together from room sharing.

Moms of two or more, have you ever considered or done room sharing? How old are your little ones? What made you decide to give room sharing a go?