It is not our ideal arrangement, but right now all three of the kiddos share one bedroom. Because our house has two bedrooms upstairs and two bedrooms on the ground floor, and because we aren’t yet comfortable doing two-story sleeping arrangements with our babies still relatively young, this is what works for us. I wrote about the boys sharing a room a while back, but this third kid thing has been a game changer and I’ve been asked a few times to write about how we make it work. The good news is: it does work. Here’s what it looks like for us.
{As I talk about all of this, I want to mention that OBoy will be five years old this week (HOW????), OBrother is three years old, and ODear is eight months.}
Furniture, storage and decor:
The only furniture in the room are the bunk beds for the boys on one side, a crib for ODear on the other, and a big ‘ol dresser between that holds everything for all of them including the changing station. Each kid has one large Clothes They Wear Everyday drawer, one small Pajamas and Underthings drawer, and then the boys share one more large Swimsuits and Other Infrequently Used Apparel drawer. Out of season and outgrown clothes are in labeled plastic bins in their closet along with miscellaneous winter coats etc.
The bunk beds were unbunked until last spring when we were expecting ODear and began playing furniture tetris. It was a hoot, lemme tell you. With OBoy at almost four years old and OBrother freshly two we stacked those beds, made very firm rules, and crossed our crossables that it would work. The rules include: they don’t play in their bedroom, especially with friends over (because it is amazing how quickly bunk beds morph into jungle gyms in the eyes of a child, and also because we have a playroom), and OBrother was not allowed on the top bunk or even on the ladder until very recently and even now it is only when a grown up is in there. (Remind me to tell you about the morning that we were in the hospital, 8 hours after giving birth to ODear, and we got a call that OBrother might need stitches on his head because of playing up on the top bunk. This stuff is real life.)
More generally, we treat the room as a sleeping room and there are other places in our house for playing etc.There are no bedside tables or bookshelves (or toys for that matter) because 95% of the time we play in the playroom and living room (and kitchen and dining room…). We utilize other spaces, the mudroom for example, if someone is napping and another child needs some alone time (whether consequence or personal choice).
O, and blackout curtains. Always blackout curtains.
Our rocking chair and ottoman were in the room when it was just the boys, but when ODear joined the ranks it was exiled to the hallway. At the time I though this was a negative thing – the kids furniture expanding into the hallway – but it has turned into a positive for several reasons. First off, I can nurse her down to nap in the hall which is at the top of the stairs and open the the level below where the boys are playing, meaning I can keep an ear on them but still be far enough away to allow sleep atmosphere for the baby. Secondly, it is common that the boys’ bedtime and the baby’s bedtime are staggered, so it is nice to be able to put the boys in bed and do their routine, then close the door to their room and be in a different but near-by space while rocking ODear to sleep.
The room was originally a boy room complete with navy walls, an americana theme, and airplanes hanging over each bed. One of the airplanes has been taken down, but the other one still hangs proudly over our daughter’s crib. To be honest I haven’t gotten around to decorating the room to include baby girl. (Poor ODear. Don’t tell her that her corner of the world consisted only of a third-time-around crib and a new-to-her mobile when she was a baby, m’kay?) I have made this mood board of a nautical themed room in greys and yellows and navys to neutral things up in there, and a mood board is half the battle, right?
Age of transition:
Age-wise, ODear has been in with the boys since she was about three months old which is how old OBrother was when we put the boys together as well. We stumbled upon this age when we went on a family vacation when the boys were little (OBrother was eight weeks old) and all four of us shared a bedroom. We were pleasantly surprised at what OBoy slept through on that trip and decided to try putting them together at home after that. When we do switch, we ease into the transition with a night time combo of baby in the crib/baby in our room depending on how soon we think different parties will wake up. For example, when she was four months old ODear would sometimes nurse around 4:00am and then want to keep sleeping, in which case we kept her in our room because more than likely she would sleep in later than the boys. This helps for a while but once everyone has their feet under them (usually by 6mo) then baby is in the kid room full time.
Bedtime and mornings:
We have a light called The Good Nite Lite and we love it with our whole heart. It looks like a moon and lights up blue at night, then it changes to a yellow sun in the morning at the time of your choosing (7:30am for us right now, although it changes at different times of year). We have had it since OBoy was a toddler and we never leave town without it; that thing has seen both coasts of our great nation and several fly-over states in between. In the morning the boys are expected to stay in their own beds and not make more noise than quiet talking or singing before the light changes to a sun. They can come out to go to the bathroom (obviously) but other than that if they are out of their beds before 7:30 we ask ‘Is the sun on?’ and if the answer is no, back in bed they go. The Good Nite Lite schedule obviously doesn’t apply to ODear; if she is awake and hungry at 6:00am I nurse her and she is up for the day. With the boys, it gives us a clear boundary for what otherwise can be a hairy situation.
I should also talk a bit about sleep preferences here. My cousin recently put words to something DanO and I have believed for a long time about parenting that is played out in room sharing: We should teach our children that they are not their own. For us that is because of the sacrificial life of Christ which is our example. Even at this young age, our boys need to do things they don’t want to or not do things they do want to because they are serving others. The kids sleep with their door closed and we keep the white noise machine on at a dull roar. If this ever comes into question, we remind them that this is what needs to happen because of the others in our family, similar to cleaning up after ourselves or being gentle when playing near ODear. Each boy (and eventually ODear) has dominion over their own bed – which stuffed animals, which covers, pillow or no pillow, etc., but the room itself – airspace and door and lighting – is shared. Obviously when compromise is possible it can be a very good thing, but there are times when it is not possible and so we remember that we are not our own.
Because of our age spacing, we handle the kids’ bedtimes as ‘the boys’ and ‘the baby’. Sometimes the boys are tucked in bed and ODear is still going strong due to a long afternoon nap. This is where that outside-the-room rocking chair is pretty clutch. We have a place to ease her into sleep after the boys are asleep or while they are having their own wind-down time in their beds. Other times ODear just needs to be sleeping in her crib before the boys head to bed. In this instance we will do all of our in-room bedtime routine stuff with the boys (reading, singing, praying) on the couch in the living room under dim lights and then remind the boys that we are about to walk into a room where a baby is sleeping and that we are going to be ‘all the way quiet’.
We have found that the motivation of staying quiet in bed ‘because baby is sleeping’ is a powerful one both in the morning and before falling asleep. These boys love their sister and when we make it clear that she needs their help (in the form of quiet) they are valiant for the cause. We have also been known to threaten the removal of her from their room if they can’t be respectful of her needs. I will say that some of the most precious times between our three kids have happened when they are all awake and happy in their room before the sun is on. Giggles and songs and long distance games of peekaboo – it is so heart warming to hear them in there doing their thing.
Midnight wake-ups:
ODear is still nursing at least once a night. I have no illusions of ‘sleeping through the night’ anytime soon, nor do I try to rush that with my nurslings (<— separate post ;) ). When she wakes to nurse usually DanO goes to get her and brings her into our bed where I breastfeed her laying on my side (half-asleep) and when she is done either DanO or I will bring her back to her crib and lay her down. DanO and I sleep with our door open and are pretty responsive to her cries at night because 1) we don’t do the cry it out thing 2) we don’t want the boys to wake up if we can help it. To be honest, this way – the baby waking the boys – has never happened. I don’t know if this is because the boys are hard sleepers or because they do wake but just roll over and know that Daddy will come get her soon, OR because we have the sound machine cranked.
I think of room sharing with nurslings like the tooth fairy thing: it’s impressive what kids can sleep through.
We would enjoy a little more freedom here if they weren’t in the same room, to see if when she makes noise at night she is just working through bowels stuff and her fussing is short-lived or if she actually needs to nurse and is awake with hunger. I would say that this is the area where the three-to-a-room is hardest on us right now but it is nowhere near insufferable, more just inconvenient.
As far as the other way around – one of the boys waking the baby – yes. OBrother waking up crying from a bad dream has awoken ODear before. In fact, it happened last week. If it is close to when she normally wakes to eat I will just nurse her back to sleep, and if not she gets a little extra attention – back patted, rocked in the chair – and is quickly sound asleep again. Really though, this is maybe a once or twice a month occurrence and has yet to be a crisis.
Random important tip:
This might sound micro-managerial, but we have taught the boys to turn the door handle as they close the door so that the latch doesn’t click loudly and we have a small dot of rubber on the door frame to keep it from banging. The boys are known to use the bathroom at any time of night, and as you’ll see below they may also leave a room while someone else is napping. Practicing quiet door closing is a requisite to our room sharing model.
Nap:
Ah, nap time: you are simultaneously my best friend and my worst enemy. During some of my lower times, nap time snafus were a serious anxiety trigger for me. I still think I feel a higher-than-average amount of mental pressure for nap to go well, but even with that we are able to make room-sharing work with a routine that I’m comfortable with. My basic premise is that two kids can nap at the same time in that room and if three kids need to nap we sub in the master bedroom for the baby.
Believe it or not, my experience is that little ones can sleep through someone waking up, walking out, and closing the door to room they are sleeping (see: teaching children to close doors quietly and rubber bumpers). Sure, about once a week they wake up at the same time and I wonder who was the catalyst for whom, but overall I have been impressed by this aspect of nap room sharing. That said, I think two kids leaving the room gets to be a little risky, which is why I max it at two in a room at nap.
For a longtime, OBoy was still napping almost daily and even now when the morning holds something exhausting like swimming he will sleep. In this case I put the boys down together in their beds while holding ODear and then if she needs to start her nap while the boys are sleeping she takes that nap in our master bedroom. [NOTE: We do not have a pack’n’play set up in our master. Our bed is a mattress on the ground and if she is napping in there I strip the blankets and pillows and lay her in the middle.] More often, though, our oldest can be found in the playroom during nap time, sitting on a cushion reading books for an hour of ‘rest’. When this is the case, I put OBrother (3 years old) and ODear down together in their room after lunch. Most days ODear out-sleeps OBrother by a good hour.
Some things we haven’t figured out yet:
We have a remote-controlled video monitor in the room. We can scan over and see if the boys are being rowdy in their beds or aim it at the crib and see if ODear is pulled up on the railings waiting for us. I realize that it is not normal for a 5 year old to have a camera in his bedroom, but for now it is a necessity. Also on our radar is the shared gender aspect. I have no idea when that becomes an issue or if there are sufficient work-arounds so that the room can continue to be shared, but we know that that is a bridge down the road that we will cross eventually.
If three kids in one room is the situation you find yourself in (or want to put yourself into) I guess I’m just here to say that it can work and it is not nearly as anxiety inducing as I thought it would be. It works, y’all. It really does.
We have 5 in a room (4 girls and a boy). The other bedroom we have is super small and we’ve made that into a closet room. Bedroom is just for sleeping. The closet room/bathroom for changing. This works for now as their ages range from 11yo-2yo. I’m considering sewing a curtain for each bunk kind of like in the old rail way sleeper cars but haven’t decided. We also have a large playroom and live on a farm so if you need alone time there are plenty of places to go.
Yup! We’ve got 3 boys sharing a room (ages 10, 6, and 2) and their older sister (11) sleeps on their floor almost every night because she doesn’t like that she’s the only one in the house who “has to sleep alone” – funny how they view things. :) We love it but we don’t have a play room so things are a bit tight. We do live on a bit of property though so outside time (no matter the season) is a good option for playing.
I love all your pictures – such a cute bedroom (and kids – obviously!). :)
so glad you wrote this!!! we just had our 4th ( 3rd boy) a month ago and plan on doing the three to a room thing in the near future.. i even just drafted a blog post on ‘three boys, one room’ the other day in hopes to share ours too:) you give me hope though since the whole nap/ sleeping baby thing can stress a momma out… so thanks for sharing! love seeing your family grow:)
Love this! We only have one right now, but hope to have more, and expect to be living in a two-bedroom apartment for the foreseeable future. Things are tight, but we know we can make it work, and these practical tips are really helpful.
I would love to hear your thoughts on sleep generally. We have been firmly committed to a no-cry sleep policy, but at great personal cost to me. We JUST got our almost-six-month-old on a decent napping schedule (which still varies day-to-day, but he is now napping at least 3-4 hours a day instead of 1.5) and his night sleep has improved as a result (i.e., I only nurse him twice a night now, not five times). Even so, bedtime is a nightmare. We have a routine and have been consistent with it, but he fights sleep for 1-2 hours (as we rock him, shush, bounce on the ball, etc.). We’ve tried moving bedtime up, moving it back, no dice. We’re using “The No-Cry Sleep Solution,” which has been helpful, but obviously hasn’t solved the issue. I thought that he was resisting sleep because he was overtired, but I think he is caught up on sleep now and is STILL doing this.
This is a MAJOR problem for me not only because it is exhausting to soothe a baby for 2+ hours nightly, but because I am a full time grad student with only 20 hours/week of childcare. I NEED those hours at night to work and the anxiety that I am feeling as key deadlines are approaching is….too much. My husband is also working 50+ hours/week and is similarly exhausted by these bedtime shenanigans. Oh, and did I mention that we are making a cross-country move in three weeks? Yeah, the stress level around here is pretty high.
I realize that this is a desperate cry for help (help!), but I’ve been reading for years and have always appreciated your thoughtful approach to parenting. So if you have suggestions on how to create healthy sleep habits and what you’ve done with your kids to that end, I would love to hear them.
Anne that sounds super intense! I’m so sorry. Each kid has been so different. Your first sounds like our oldest. I wish I had more helpful, tangible tips! The two things I can think to say are 1) we’ve usually taken the ‘nurse, nurse, and nurse some more’ approach. There are entire bookshelves at book stores filled with parenting books condemning nursing babies to sleep because they will become dependent on it (lay them down drowsy! only nurse after they wake up!) but honestly that just didn’t work for us. And the good news is that the 5 year old sleeps just fine without nursing these days. ;) 2) It really, truly, honestly will not last forever. This brought me exactly no solace with our first baby and there were some serious seasons of doubt when our second was over a year and still nursing at 2am for funsies. But hand to God: you will wake up one morning a few (several? not too many?) months from now and realize that the fog has cleared and that more nights than not, you are getting good* sleep. That doesn’t help the grad school or the move or the immediate shenanigans. I know. But it does get better. Sending you over-the-internet hugs in the meantime.
*Good being relative, obv. But good is good!
Anne, All that you have going on is crazy! I hope you get to a calmer phase of life soon! I’ve read about infants and children picking up on a parent’s stress. Maybe your son is anxious because he can feel how stressed you and your husband are. He may be (unconciously) seeking more comfort and attention as a result. It is just an idea, I’m not a professional, and I’ve never been in your situation. But sometimes a child’s behavior is based on something that isn’t on our radar. I hope you find an approach that lets you get more sleep. Best wishes!
Hi Anne – I hope you don’t mind me jumping in here to add my thoughts. I’m new to this blog (having linked here from Sortacrunchy today) but love this post and Allison’s obvious love for her kids and for gentle parenting. I have two kids – almost 4-yo daughter and 18-mo son. We too are firmly committed to the no-cry sleep policy but I know also from personal cost how hard it can be. Your son fighting sleep for 2 hours at bedtime sounds like what both my kids do/did when they’ve had too much sleep during the day. Rather than having a consistent bedtime, I had to learn that she just wouldn’t go sleep easily unless it had been _x__ number of hours since she’d woken up from her nap. That number just kept shifting longer as she got older. 3-4 hours of napping sounds like a ton to me (even for a six-month old) but then again, my kids never have seemed to need more than 2 hours of napping in a day, regardless of their age. So perhaps less napping might equal easier bedtime? (I do aim for consistent nap and betimes within reason but generally just have to accept that if the nap was later than usual or longer, then bedtime probably has to shift a bit later too.) I’m in totally agreement with Allison’s two points – we too, nurse nurse nurse for sleepy times (nap and bed) and it does get better. For me, with both my kids, it seemed to smooth out by around a year, sort of in spite of my efforts to change things, as in my kids just had to grow a bit bigger and their brains mature a bit and then things calmed down. I think the 4-9 month age feels particularly tricky with sleep. I’ll add my hugs too! I hope things get better soon!
Oh thank you, thank you, ladies! I’m sorry that I disappeared for a few days (see: grad school + baby + move).
So, in reading your responses, we figured out a few things. First, we were trying to put him to sleep too close to his last nap. So we started stretching out that last part of the day to get him really nice and tired before bedtime. Second, the arms-to-crib transfer? Not happening. Maybe he has an extra-strong Moro reflex or what, but it was causing the multi-hour bedtimes. He would wake up after I tried to transfer him from our bed into his Pack-and-Play and we’d have to start bedtime all over again. So, we put a twin mattress on the floor next to our mattress and baby proofed them both for safe co-sleeping and now…
We have had a week of bedtimes lasting an average of 30-40 minutes and NO crying. Hurray! We go in, I give him a new diaper while singing him “The Gospel Song,” turn off the lights and turn on the white noise machine and then nurse until he is done. He decides when he is finished and then I just lay next to him until he is very sleepy and/or asleep (I do have my iPad with me so that I can get some work done, since there is no telling how long it will take him to fall asleep). Mommy reads 17th-century Spanish plays (I’m a literature Ph.D) while baby drifts off happy as a clam. It is such a relief. I know that he will probably change, and this may not work forever, but I am just glad that he is content to go to sleep – we had been trying so hard to create positive sleep associations for him that the crying was really distressing.
So thank you for your encouragement and cheerleading. I will say that these sleep issues have been, by far, the most demoralizing aspect of parenting, and it has made it hard to talk about sleep with anyone else (since most people are just like, “Oh let him CIO”). Therefore, I do appreciate your support.
I think it sounds so fun to share a bedroom with siblings. Have you read the book Seven Silly Eaters? Their bedroom is my dream.
I also like the details you included about turning the doorknob and using the rubber bumper. It’s been my experience that children really rise to the occasion when you include specifics and the reasons behind them.
Nicely done, and thanks for sharing!
Hey Allison,
I re-read your post from “my baby boys share a bedroom” after reading this — still have a question about naptime… my girls are 3 1/2 and 19 months and have been night-time sharing for the past 5 or 6 months (we have a very similar routine to you) with very few problems after the initial adjustment. However, they still nap separately (pack-n-play in our closet). But Baby #3 will be here in 1 month or less and we’re gonna need that pack-n-play. So… how did you get your boys to actually nap in the same room? My oldest falls asleep probably 3-4 times in a week and otherwise just sings/talks/jumps around the room on the other days (no toys/extra furniture in there either). Nap/Rest time is from 12-3 with rare exceptions. (Mommy needs her quiet time too!) The soon-to-be middle child naps for 2-3 hours every day and I don’t want that to stop just because her sister isn’t sleeping… any thoughts? Did your boys every actually nap in the same room or did your oldest drop his nap before that was necessary?
Meg – The boys napped in the same room for almost two years. I would have them go potty at the same time and get them both tucked into their beds, then I would lay down next to each one until they were all but (and sometimes all the way) asleep. I laid down with the one who fell asleep the easiest/fastest (my now-middle) and then when he was on his way to dreamland I would check on the oldest who had been laying quietly (and if he began to be too active or make noise he was reprimanded. Laying still and being quiet was a requirement). Sometimes OBoy was asleep before I laid down next to him, but if he wasn’t I would scratch his back and lay next to him until I thought it was clear that he, too, was headed for sleep. That was when it was assumed that he would nap. These days it is much more complicated because *sometimes* he naps and sometimes he doesn’t. Basically I have to make the call pre-nap time whether or not OBoy will sleep and then set him up with whichever I expect. (Like I said, swimming lessons were a guaranteed nap, other intense gross motor play was the same.) I usually err on the side of not napping, but if I do have him lay down for nap but he is still rolling around and not on his way to sleep after a bit, I will sneak back into their room and bring OBoy out of the room and have him sit down in his rest spot. When he is in rest time I expect him to stay seated, stay quiet, and not come out until his brother as awoken from his nap. It’s not quite your 12-3, but it is always at least 2 hours.
Does that answer your questions? xoxo
Yes, thanks friend!
We are just getting ready to transition #2 to a regular bed and I think the laying-down-beside strategy may work for her. I have a feeling once #1 starts pre-school in September she will be wiped out on those days and co-napping will be no problem!
Thanks for the more detailed nap discussion!!!
If you’re ever back to visit our alma mater, don’t hesitate to let me know so we can have a play date with all these crazy kids!!!
Love all of the details you provided! I love having my kids share a room from the aspect of the sibling camaraderie. They love it too! Naturally there are issues to work through, but the benefits far outweigh the downsides. I cannot believe how old kids get so very fast!!!
And my goodness – the hospital visit 8 hours after ODear was born – Oh my! I have three young ones as well – it feels like life continues to get busier. And I love them with all my heart!
When I got out of the shower this morning and crept back to our room, I found Jon on his phone. He smiled up at me and said “Three Kids in One Bedroom.” To which I replied, “She posted it?!” and he nodded. We’ve been looking forward to this post! As we embark on the two-in-one-room adventure in the new house, we’ll be referencing your ideas here! Thank you for sharing!
This is incredible that you make this work. I don’t have multiple children yet, but this is incredible. I may need to reference to your ideas in the future!! Thanks for sharing, you’re just lovely :)
Thanks so much for posting! We only have two, not three, but as we prepare for the boys to share a room, this was very helpful! The baby is 7 months, but not sleeping through the night yet, so we had been hesitant to move him into big brother’s room yet (which means he’s still in a pack n’ play in our room, which is also not ideal — because like at your house, our other bedroom is on a different floor). But your post gives me hope that we might be able to go ahead and get them in the same room. It’s not like he howls when he wakes up in the middle of the night, so I probably could grab him quickly and get him back into my room to nurse.
I am looking forward to the day when they share a room. I think it will help cultivate a close bond between them!
My 8 year old still has a monitor in her room ;) Love this post!!
My two girls also share the bedroom. We have two bedrooms in fact for them, but they love to share so we just go on :)
We’ve had our 5yo boy, 3yo girl, and 1yo girl together in one room since the baby was about a month old. Their room is set up much the way you describe with a bunk bed, crib, and dressers. We also have a bookshelf and rocker/footstool. I’ve always attended to the baby in the room as needed. I’ve been amazed by how the kids very rarely wake each other up. On the very rare occasion it does occur, we just turn the bedtime music back on, and everyone settles right back down to sleep. We put them all to bed at the same time now, and they are very good about leaving the room quietly in the morning when they get up.
It’s been great to use the third bedroom in our home as a playroom. The 3yo has started sleeping on the futon in there some nights. I don’t mind so much as long as she goes to sleep and stays that way! With one last baby on the way, I imagine the bedrooms will have to be reshuffled at some point. For now, I’m really enjoying the time of having them all together!
This is totally not a room-sharing comment – although I loved sharing a room with my little sister and I’m convinced it’s part of the reason we have always been close. So yay for sharing! I was just wondering if you’d seen this amazing room inspiration blog. All mood boards, all fun. http://laybabylay.com/search/posts/in/style-boards Yours is looking great, by the way! :)
What an inspiring room! The children must absolutely love it being together in such a lovely room. When I grew up I shared a room with my siblings, and we had such an amazing time, until we all grew up and needed our own privacy. That won’t be long though =p
I love the colors that you chose for your boy’s room! I think that navy blue and yellow go really well together. I’m still trying to decide on colors for my son’s nursery. I don’t know if I should go with bright colors like red and blue and yellow or go with the more mellow blues and grays. Hmmm. Anyway, I hope everything works out with the bedtimes and such.
Don’t worry too much about the gender stuff. I was in a room with my brother until about 12 he was 10. Other than a few fights over who got to use what space it seemed to work. My mom had us in a two bedroom apartment and she created me a space with my closet using my dressers as a wall and he had the rest of the room. It was quite nice. The only problem I have is now I need another person or music/noise maker. Luckily I have my hubby and when he’s gone for work our 2year old insist on being in my bed.
Thanks for sharing this! It came at a perfect time for us as we are just starting to have thoughts of “are we ready for #3?”. We have a three bedroom house. A seven year old boy in one room and 20 month old girl in the other. I feel ready for #3 but keep thinking, “where will we put another baby?” It’s nice to know that room sharing can and will work. I do have a couple of questions though. My 20 month old is somewhat of a light sleeper and my seven year old would sleep through me running the vacuum next to his head. Would we be better off putting a baby in the room with the younger child since they are closer in age? Or would it be better to have the baby share with the older since he’s gone at school most of the day and won’t disturb nap time? I have concerns that my younger child just won’t sleep with another baby in the room. But I also have concerns that my older child is at an age of needing his own space and privacy, and since he has always had his own room he may not like having to share all of the sudden. Thoughts? Thanks in advance!!
I have 3 boys in one room. A twin bed toddler bed and a crib. Very small room. No play room. I’m considering a bunk bes but feel my older two at 4 and 1 are to younge. But mainly how do u fit clothes for 3 in one dresser. I’m having a hard time with that. BTW most night 1 to all 3 end up in my bed for a while. I’ve considered sleeping in there floor to keep them there lol.
Hi there- I have two boys (4.5 yo & 16 months) and plan to room share once the little one is in a bed. I really enjoyed this article and the pics are sweet. I only wanted to point out one thing that caught my eye (was checking out the crib, love the chevron sheets). I would strongly suggest lowering the crib. Your darling daughter is tall and could easily fall out if she lifted her leg :)
OK. I have four sons ages 14,7, 4, and 9 months. Currently baby is cosleeping with mommy and daddy, the 7 year old and the 4 year old share a room, and the teenager has his own room. It’s time for the baby to move. What’s the best way to arrange these boys? I really don’t think it’s fair for the teenager to have his own space while everyone else shares.
We have a total of 8 children with 2 bedrooms and main floor and completely finished basement that also has 2 bedrooms. We’ve lived here for about 8 years and when we first moved in, we only had five kids. Since my older boys are only with us on the weekends, they used the basement bedrooms. However, my three younger ones at the time (twins that were 2 and their brother that was 3) were to young to sleep downstairs, by themselves….I wasn’t comfortable with that either. I had them three boys sharing the 2nd bedroom. However, now, like I said, we have 8 kids. The boys get the basement and my three girls (5, 2, 1) now share the 2nd bedroom on the main floor. This they will too outgrow. Hopefully, by then we will have a new home. We are currently trying to sell ours.
http://www.little-old-me.com
How do you enforce keeping the boys quiet in their beds when they go to bed before ODear?
I googled – 3 kids 3 and under one bedroom – because naptime/bedtime are hard and I am finally experiencing a quiet time in my home as they all nap. {like you said, naptime is your favorite and least favorite all in one} Mostly because they have a hard time calming down and not wanting to play together when it is time to sleep. The baby (almost 1) is usually ready to lay down, but the 2 and 3 year old are ready to sneak around the room, swap beds, laugh, etc. It has been a huge frustration and I am trying to figure out how to biblically handle the whole thing, discipline and all. I really appreciate your bit about “we are not our own”. I think I need to zone in on that and remind them that we need to put others above ourselves and do what we can to make that happen. Again, with the ages of 2 and 3, that can be difficult. I’m sure my 3 year old would grasp, but the 2 year old might be a little harder to talk this into. Thanks for your post, I appreciate the heart behind what you have to say :) And I wish we had a video camera in their room!