Hi Ladies,
Our 10 month old son has been sleeping in our room (now in a crib). He will eventually move into his just turned 2 yr old brothers room. My dilema is that the 2 year old is a very good sleeper - goes down at night and for naps without a fight (I know,I am so lucky). The 10 month old does not sleep as well. He still wakes up at night once or twice and sometimes is totally awake sitting up at somewhere between 4 and 5. He takes a 1-2 hour morning nap and maybe a 1 hour nap in the afternoon sometimes longer. He is exhausted by 8-8:30. So I guess my question is two-fold. How do I get him to sleep longer at night and what do I do about the posibility of waking up big brother who takes at least a 3 hour nap in the afternoon and sleeps until 8 or so in the morning? Has anyone been in this situation?
I know you probably want to give the 8 year old his own space, but I would suggest putting one of the younger ones in with him for the time being.
My oldest child 6 has always shared a room with a younger sibling, first when he was 2 with his little sister and now with his little brother. They get use to the noise that may occur from sleeping with another child. Its not like its going to take you 10 min to get to the baby in the middle of the night if it needs you, or vice versa. They adjust to the noise more often then not enjoy the company. My sons both get bad coughs and they don't wake each other up when one coughs all night. Or one will wake up in the middle of the night crying the other won't wake up and if they do I just say its ok and they go back to sleep.
The only time that I don't want anyone to be loud is after 7 in the morning cause I run the risk of them waking up earlier then I want them to.
My 3yr old and 18 mon old have conjoined rooms. My son (18 mon) is the good sleeper and my daughter (3 yr old) is the "picky"sleeper. In the helping them sleep area, try wearing them out like playing outside or doing a project for a while. Also, a normal routine can work wonders!!
Are you unable to provide a separate room for the baby? As someone that had to bunk with my baby brother for some years - I would advise against it. It's not always possible to keep the other child from waking, especially if you have sick baby on your hands. (keeping them separate can cut down on the infections spreading from one to the other.)
There are other things I recall despising when I had to share my room. (But then I was older than 2yrs when I did.)
If you are stuck with having to share the room, I think you may have to risk it. I feel many children have their own 'schedule'. Unless you can supply more for 'dinner' and feed just before they go down, you may get more sleep due to a full tummy, but you also risk the wake-up due to a wet/dirty diaper. My son is five and still wakes up. Granted when he's up now it is to use the bathroom and then he wants to snuggle up to warm back up. He did not really sleep through the night until he was in school. This was due to illnesses, nightmares/night terrors, growth spurts, etc...
In our house we have an 8 yr old, 5 yr old and 2 yr old sharing a room... Our older two kids have shared a room since they were 3 and 7 mo. Then our 3rd was moved in when they were 6, 3 and 7 months...
BUT here is the thing. All of our kids have always slept thru the night.
I would always seperate them for naps. Big one goes in their room while baby sleeps in a play pen in my room... Then big one decides around 4 to not take naps anymore so they get "quiet time" and baby gets the room.
Try things out and see what works for YOU and YOUR kids.
My kids never have a problem with being woken up and going back to sleep by the noises of their siblings.
Until 50 yrs ago the average house only had 500 square feet... And there were larger families. Man kind survived and wasn't sleep deprived...
