2 in 1

I am definitely no expert, but have been requested to share my experiences with 2 Masters sleeping in 1 room. There really is no trick to reaching the bliss that parents feel when their kids are sleeping soundly in their "own" room. Here in NYC, space is a premium, so we could not imagine both little ones in their own room. Knowing that in most places all over the world kids (and sometimes entire families) sleep in one room helped to ease my initial anxiety. I spoke to friends who had done it and posted on HRPMamas and the advice I remember the most was not to fall in to the trap of playing musical beds. In other words let the kids get used to each others sounds and do not be too quick to run in and save one from the others waking.

My desire was to have them in bed at the same time and up at the same time (ambitious but what the heck.) At that point Master D was sleeping roughly 7-7 and I planned to sleep train Master G and set his clock for the same hours.

Here is what we did...At 6 weeks I started G's night time routine (bath, book, bottle) and put him down at the same time Dorsey went down in our room. Over the next 3 months he went to bed around 7 and I would feed him on demand throughout the night. I attempted not to go to him at the first sign of him waking but allowed him to try to soothe himself but as we know its just too hard when mom and baby are sleeping in the same room. When he was 12 weeks old we put his crib (what he would be sleeping in his own room) in the TV/guest room. I continued to feed him on demand but I think it helped that I wasn't right there and he seemed to do a bit better and it took me a bit longer to get to the other room in the middle of the night so there was some delay. He was waking 2-3 times/night at that point and at 16 weeks we sleep trained via CIO. The first night was alot of up and down, the second once or twice and the third he slept 12 hours +/-. That was pretty consistent (luckily Master G is a finger sucker so he soothed himself quite well) so in 2 weeks we moved the crib to Master D's room and put them down together at 7. For those who do not have a third room to sleep train in it is advised you keep the baby in the room and Mom and Dad sleep in the living room for a few nights.

For naps we have a Pack and Play in our bedroom so that Master G can nap in the afternoon in our bedroom and Master D in his crib. When Master G turned 1 year and the 2 were pretty consistently going down around 1 for their afternoon nap we tried to put them together to nap but because it was a novelty the wound up standing and laughing and fooling around so I went back to separating them for nap time.

There has never been any issue with the middle of the night. They do not wake up fully in the middle of the night. There are occasions when they cry out but quickly put themselves back to sleep. I can see on the video monitor that their eyes are closed and just feel around for their lovey and or suck their finger and go back off to sleep all while the other child sleeps soundly without even a flinch or a little roll to their other side and I am sure are unaware of it.

Back to my earlier point, I would hesitate to go in and scoop up the crying one so they don't wake the other because you get in to the habit of rotating beds, pack and play, cribs etc and makes for a disruptive night(s). In my experience the kids are completely used to one another and don't even notice.

In the morning it is a bit more tricky and this is where we have tried to adjust accordingly as sleep habits are ever changing in these little ones. For the most part Master G sleeps later, as he needs more rest than Master D even with his marathon naps. In the beginning we were able to go in and sneak Master D out in the AM and let the little guy sleep but now that he is just more alert he will pop up even when we go in as quietly as we can. We then shifted Master D's bedtime to 7:30, and unless he is sick, do not let him nap for more than 2 hours so that he sleeps a bit later in the morning. At this point Master D wakes up somewhere between 6 and 7, occasionally later and will wake up Master G. He yells for G and tells him to "come on" "what are you doing?" No one is screaming for me so I let them hang out for as long as possible. Often they stand up and "talk" to one another and lie back down and go to sleep.

For the most part they just get used to each other and you have to be on your toes to work out the best way to get them to both sleep the longest they can. I think if one gets less night time sleep than they need it is made up in the nap(s) theoretically.

It is working for my kids but of course everyone's situation and kids needs are so different. I do not know if there is a magic trick to making it work but I can say for us it was not as much drama as I thought it would be. And I know it has brought them together and closer which is the cutest thing.

I hope this is somewhat informative!