I thought about Bunny’s room for the entire 41 weeks she was safely inside my womb. Well, not the entire time, of course, but a majority of it, and especially once we found out she was a she. I had dreams about what it would look like, and when it finally became a reality, it was just how I imagined it would look: soft and feminine with touches of pink and grey scattered everywhere.
And then I got pregnant again, and discovered I was having another girl. We had two options: move things out of our office/guest room and turn that into either a “big girl” room or a nursery for the new baby, or have them share a room. The problem is that we’re slightly lacking space when it comes to having two separate rooms for the kids, and the biggest issue—if I’m being honest—is that I had zero idea for how I’d decorate a new room. This also isn’t our forever home—the military will be moving us to a new place in another year or so—so I know whatever we decided would only be temporary.
After discussing it and going back and forth for several weeks, we decided to have the girls room together.
Granted, we aren’t expecting baby #2 to join her sister in their room until she’s sleeping mostly through the night, so we still have some time to figure out the logistics. The biggest hurdle, for example, is that we still need to buy and get Bunny into a big girl bed and figure out where it’ll go in the room. Right now she’s still totally content in her crib (I should knock on wood for writing this); she sleeps through the night and has never even attempted to climb out. I’m hoping in a few months we can start the big-girl-bed transition.
The nice thing about having them share a room is that we actually eliminated the need to go out and buy all new things (the new toddler/big girl bed will be an exception). There are already two dressers in the room, so we shifted clothes around and made it work for a toddler and an infant. The room’s decor is pretty much set as well, and since we have a gallery wall up as the main attraction, it’ll be easy to add to it and make it grow with pictures and special knick-knacks for the new baby.
Right now I’m feeling pretty content about having them share a room. Some moments nesting gets the best of me and I want to scrap the whole idea and start a new from scratch, but then the actual thought of doing that exhausts me too much to ever think about going any further.
Do your kids share a room or are you planning on having your toddler and infant become roommates?
guest
Do you love that dresser? I want to get the same one when we have baby 2 and use it as a changing table as well. The room is adorable!
pomegranate / 3414 posts
DD (4yo) and DS (2yo) share a room and have since DS was about 5m old. Our old house only had 5 rooms total (3 being bedrooms) and DD was working from home when DS was due so we had to leave one bedroom as an office. DD is a very sound sleeper so even though DS continued to get up 1x/night to nurse DD never woke up. We’ve moved to another house but have kept them in the same room because they like having each other close. We are getting ready to get DS his big boy bed; haven’t fully decided if we’re going to bunk the beds or leave them as two singles (can do either). Eventually we’ll need to put them in their own rooms but right now it works.
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
Such a cute room! I think the girls will love sharing it
Nikki – we have that same dresser in Liam’s room and love it so much we bought another one for baby #2’s room! It’s great for using as a changing table – perfect height and good storage.
pomegranate / 3858 posts
Nikki – we also have that dresser in LO’s room, and I concur with Mrs. Tictactoe.
blogger / clementine / 750 posts
@purrpletulips: So happy to hear that room sharing worked out for you guys!
Nikki: the other girls mentioned it already, but we love the dressers! Perfect to hold almost everything and the perfect height for a changing table. The last time we were there we noticed they even have a slightly newer version out that we like even more.
pomegranate / 3272 posts
I would say that the dresser is a little higher than the average changing table but you get used to it really quickly. We have that in DS1’s room and will be buying a new one for DS2 very soon.
cherry / 147 posts
We are expecting #2 in May and are planning for the two boys to share a room together. I’m looking forward to it – and think it will be fun for them. Older boy will be 2.5 when #2 is born. I agree that it would be better once the baby sleeps through the night!
guest
I’m doing nearly the exact same thing for my new baby. I have a 2 1/2 year old boy who’s totally happy in his crib and I’ll put his little brother in his room with him after he outgrows the pack and play in our room (I plan on keeping #2 in our room for a year or two like I did with the toddler). Then I’ll put #2 in the crib and move the toddler to a twin bed. That’s the plan anyway… I don’t really expect everyone to totally cooperate!
guest
For those of you that have that dresser, how did you babyproof the drawers? I have a baby that just started to crawl and I’m trying to figure out the best way to go about this!
apricot / 425 posts
MGM – we have the same dresser and love it. We never attempted to baby proof it and my daughter (now 4) has never attempted to open i/climb it/destroy it.
blogger / clementine / 750 posts
MGM: We didn’t baby proof it at all. We were always in the room with her, so we kept an eye on her if the drawers were open. She did smash her fingers a couple times, but nothing horrible. Actually (hope this doesn’t make me a bad mom but…), she learned from smashing them and whenever she did open them again she would very purposefully close them slower.
guest
What a beautiful nursery! My DS and DD are 19m apart and share a room. We’ve been so happy with how it’s working out. DD started napping and sleeping in their shared room when she was a few months old. I nursed her in the middle of the night (often multiple times a night) and only very rarely woke up DS inadvertantly. I especially love the sibling bond that I already see my children developing as they share their space!
guest
We’re having #2 in March, when LO (DD) will be 25 months. LO is very happy in her crib. No intention of moving her out, to the point that we ordered a 2nd crib! We’re team green so whatever the baby is, they will share — we’re also unsure when that will be though….
nectarine / 2705 posts
@Mrs. Rabbit: Where did you get your lovely gray cushy chair? We have an old chair in our son’s nursery that works just fine. But I tried to dye it gray myself and it turned…purple
Not that I can convince my husband we need a new chair…but I do love the chair that you have and it’s the perfect color 
blogger / clementine / 750 posts
Em: So happy to hear that it works for you guys!
Mamah: I’m slightly considering getting another crib, too. Bunny seems to love her crib and (knock on wood) has never tried to escape. We’ll see what the future holds!
@sweetooth: Oh no! Purple definitely doesn’t sound like grey! So, that chair was actually one of our extremely large splurges for this baby. Since we didn’t need to buy anything (saved all the clothes and didn’t need any other items), we bought the chair. It’s FANTASTIC and I wish we bought it earlier, but it comes with a hefty price tag. They’re called “Best Chairs” and this is the Irvington in “ash,” I believe. You can see them at Buy Buy Baby—this one glides, rocks, and reclines!
nectarine / 2705 posts
@Mrs. Rabbit: ooooooh, glides, rocks AND reclines?! Thanks for sharing the details! Hope you enjoy the chair!