I need some help. I've been thinking that I'd like to move Cooper out of our room. He'll be one in March and is still waking up twice during the night to eat. I think he'll do this less if I'm not right there next to him. This means moving him into Peter's room.
Here's my dilemma: both boys take a while to go to sleep. Cooper still cries, although not much, and both boys sing and talk to them self before they fall asleep. I'm afraid that if we put Cooper in there neither boy would ever sleep again. And then I would cry. Often.
Those of you that have experience having two kids in the same room (or know someone who does) how do you do it? Do they actually sleep?
I'm also kind of scared that Peter will want to snuggle Cooper and climb into the pack n' play (we don't have a real crib) with him.
Ideas?
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7 comments:
Brady and Carson are 5 and 3.5 and I STILL can't get them to actually go to sleep in the same room. Carson has to go to sleep first, Brady goes to sleep on our bed, then we move Brady in. If they are in there at the same time there is just a lot of jumping, giggling, sneaking into each other's beds, all of this eventually leads to fighting and crying and yelling (on my part). i'm interested to see if anyone has good ideas....my kids each need their own room (at least to fall asleep in). Own rooms on opposite sides of the house would be preferable.
I actually just experienced this. I just moved my 8 month old into my almost 3 years old's room. My baby, Emma, was waking up every 4 hours in the night to nurse and was nursing every 3 hours during the day. I moved her into her older brother's room, and she suddenly can go for 6 hours at night and only nurses every 4 hours during the day. I think me being in the room with her, she could smell me and therefore wanted to eat more often. Now, my son was given a stirn lecture to NEVER give her toys or blankets to her. (I know he does it out of love, but I had to be stern on this one. He did it once, went to time out and could tell I was more upset than usual. He is a sentitive guy so that is all it took.) For night time my son has to go to bed first. We give him 30 min. to fall asleep and then put Emma in. This has worked so far. Yes, together they keep each other up. He has to stay out of the room when she goes down for naps. So that is how we are doing it. Hope this helps.
Give it a try. What have you got to lose? You can always go back to the way things are now. They might give each other comfort knowing they are not alone. It might help if Cooper had a real crib. It would at least give him more protection.
I moved Joshua in with Logan when Joshua was 4 months and Logan was just shy of 3 years (this is also about the same time I moved Logan into a twin mattress on the floor). Mostly I did this out of selfish reasons (I wanted my room back!) I did notice that he slept better in another room (although it wasn't until he stopped nursing completely at about 17 months that I wouldn't have to get up at night anymore ... same with Logan.)
I had a lot of the same worries you did (not so much the crib-thing -- but that DID happen once or twice, even though Logan had never been a climber before). But so many people said to just try it; they get used to each others' sounds (I wonder, now, if they almost need it to doze off). Logan would sleep through Joshua's cries in the night and even as he was falling asleep (that's right -- I was pretty cruel to do the cry-it-out stage with Joshua WITH Logan in the same room, covering his ears ... thankfully that didn't happen too often).
Anyway, I second the idea to just give it a shot; you don't have anything to lose (and everything to gain! It is sweet to see my boys sharing a room, and even sweeter to only have to share my bedroom with my hubby!) ;-) Peter is old enough (I think; exactly how old is he again?) that he can be reasoned with and given this big "responsibility" of being with little brother at night.
Oh, and all that said -- I don't have them nap together (not that Logan naps very consistently anymore). Something about the afternoon would make it so they'd keep each other up, whereas at night they'd fall asleep. Logan rests (naps and/or does quiet time) on my bed while Joshua naps in his crib.
Good luck!
I only have 1, but I will tell you how heavenly life was when at 9 mos I night weaned Alana. I had to let her cry, which was hard, but it only took a couple of nights. Could you try putting Cooper in your Living Room until he gets used to sleeping without you? Then maybe put him in with Peter.
I don't know... this could be bad or really good. I would try to find a way to protect Cooper. You can buy either a crib tent or a crib tent for the pack n play online. We have both of these things and they are wonderful to keep the kid in. I hear it also protects the little one inside from the older kid also... except that Peter might be able to unzip it. Does Peter sleep soundly? You might still have Cooper waking up to nurse and that could wake up Peter - unless he is a really deep sleeper, then it should be okay. I'm curious how this goes, let us know.
We put our girls together for awhile and we always had to put the younger one down first and then make sure she was completely asleep and then the older could try and go to sleep. Well, Abby still wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to eat something and then once she was awake, we would try and put her back to bed but she would inevitably get out of her toddler bed and go smack her sister until she woke up to play. Needless to say, we put them back in their own rooms, because my older one, Ellie had not slept in her own room for many weeks, because of Abby waking up and then not wanting to go back to sleep. We put them together when Abby was still in a crib and it actually worked, but now that she is a toddler, no way jose!
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