Young Siblings Sharing a Room?

I have a 19 month old and a 6 1/2 month old (both are boys). The 19 month old sleeps from 7pm to 6am without waking. The 6 1/2 month old sleeps from 7:30pm until about 7am. The problem is that he still wakes up a few times a night (once or twice).

Here is my problem - they are supposed to share a room. we have the 6 1/2 month old in the pack and play in my husbands office right now - because we are afraid of wrecking my older son's sleep if we move them in together.

Any advice?

My husband thinks we should wait to put them together until they are BOTH sleeping soundly through the night. When my 6 month old stops waking, he thinks that's the time.

I need advice from people who have DONE IT BEFORE. When did you move the kids together? How did you do it? Advice on what to do if the little one wakes up... will it wake up the older one?

I can't bear the thought of having two kids awake at night needing attenion - I will NEVER get any sleep! :) :) :)

the only way to find out is by doing it and seeing what happen, try it and you can always go back to what you are doing now

i have a 3 year old and a four month old, most nights i let the four month old sleep with me. my son sleeps through her crying but i don't want to chance it. you are right if you put them in a room you probably aren't going to get any sleep unless you are one of those people who can wake up as soon as the baby starts fussing before they start to cry. your son might sleep through the fussing. good luck

when you find out how to handle this.. please let me know.. cause i am about to go through it myself.. have a 14mo and am 36wks pregnant.. i'm a little concerned of how room sharing is going to go myself..

I waited until they both slept through the night and didn't wake each other. You can try putting them in the same room and playing soft music so that any noise would not be as jarring during the night.

My sister went through a similar thing and at first it was rough but eventually her older son got use to it and slept through the waking baby and eventually the baby started sleeping through the night. You have to do what feels right to you though. If what you are doing now works best then continue to do it. They will eventually be fine in the same room if you want to wait or you can do it now and they can get use to being together.

My oldest 2 slept together for years and it goes quite nice at night, once they are asleep. They like to play when they both get put down at the same time, it was fine until my oldest learned how to turn on the light and give her brother toys. Anyway, when the littler of the 2 woke up, it woke me up, occasionally my husband, and rarely my daughter, and when it woke her up, she didn't cry, just opened her eyes, and went back to bed. No biggie, the hard thing is having them together for daytime naps, you should be fine.

Mine have all shared a room and have never woken because of another child crying. However your older son is used to having a quiet room, whereas mine are all used to sharing, and sleeping through the noise. For this reason, I'd continue with the pack n play in your husbands office, and perhaps try them out in the same room on the weekend, when you can afford to sleep in the next day if you have to.

We had our kid's baby cot next to ours till they were 4 at least. Some times when they needed us, they still share our bed at 10 and 5 yrs. I think, keeping infants away is not a good practice. It is catching up in a wide spread in the US to keep the kids away, but it should be avoided. Children till they are 5 should have their parents at their vicinity always.

We did the same for both of our sons. It is little difficult in many ways, but it is very very important for the mental balance of the children when they grow up. Also many habits, including sleeping habits they pick up from parents. If you leave them away they will be confused even for the basic things like what to do when its dark and what to do when the Airconditioner goes off......

Even if you wait until your younger one is sleeping through the night, there will be times one of them will wake up for whatever reason. I moved my two boys together when my younger son was occasionally sleeping through the night. So there were definitely many nights he'd wake up crying. What worked for me, is I tried to keep their cribs/beds as far apart as the room allowed at first. I also ran a fan in the room year round to create some white noise. And I have to say they very very rarely wake eachother up. I made sure if the baby was screaming ballistically and if it looked like it may take a bit to calm him down that I took him out of the room. But usually he'd stop the minute I picked him up, so he wasn't crying long enough to wake my older son.

On the rare occasion my older son did wake up, I would simply tell him everything was fine and to go back to sleep (he was 20 months old at the time) - he was fine with that.

Good luck!!

i have a 19 month old and an almost 6 month old the 6 month old moved in with the older at 2 months when he woke at night i just feed him and put him back my oldest woke up once in a while but mostly slept through it all.they will have to get used to each other.beware though i have caught my 19 month old climbing the babys crib to get in and play.and be sure to take all hard toys out of the room so if the oldest thinks the baby is bored and needs toys to play with your little one doesn't get hit with a hard toy being thrown in his crib.but move the baby, in it will teach them both how to self soothe there selves back to sleep.