Room sharing??

Just wondering if anyone has thoughts / experience with room sharing. Currently DD (4) and DS (2) have own rooms. With bub #3 due in March, and a move in Oct to a three bedroom house we are starting to think about the bedroom situation.

These are the options:
1) Put DD and DS in together and bub in own room until big enough to share with whoever is unlucky enough (or lucky enough) to be same sex as bub.

2) Put bub in with whoever he / she is going to share with straight away.

Another complication is that we won't know what we are having until after we move, so can't paint the biggest room pink / blue depending on who will share; and we wanted to have painting done before moving. May just have to go neutral and paint in a few years time.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have all the same gender but at such a young age I don't really think it matters. My two eldest boys share, they have shared a room since DS2 was 15 months old. Through choice more than anything. I think I would leaning towards putting your eldest 2 in a room together and have bubs in its own room. Might mean less disruption for the older children during the night to begin with.

Hey MP! How is everything going? SO excited for you :)

Personally - I would put the new baby in with he sibling he/she will share with. Will you have a bassinette you can wheel between rooms until bubz is bigger?

We have our two girls in together - we did have DS and DD2 in together, but he would wake her up with his tanties at bedtime (he's 3.5) so we put the girls in together and at the moment its working fantastic!! They both self settle though, so we put them down at the same time, and then they both go to sleep on their own. DD1 has just turned 2 and DD2 is 8.5 months.

Thanks girls, it seems that different things work for different people so we might just see how we go.

Hi Naenae, hope things are going well for you, hope this is a sticky month before the FS in Sep. We may have a bassinet - we have always shared my sisters and so far have managed to space babies out but this time she is due two months ahead of me so may try and borrow from someone else (not keen to buy now as will probably be the last time).

Arimeh's Eden and megs, you have made me think that it really does depend on the kids. Our DD is a great sleeper and settles well, whereas DS can be naughty at times. So even if its a boy it could be best to have DS in his own room for a while longer. Our DD would also probably love to share come to think of it, and she is probably getting old enough to be involved in that decision??? (she would probably choose a baby over DS!).

Thanks again girls.

Just quickly - we made the decision on who was the best sleepers. However, we first had DS and DD2 together, because he wakes up in the middle of the night, and just comes in, whereas DD1 sometimes still cries out and could wake her. However, because of his... inability to wind down before bed and actually go to sleep, it was too much commotion in there and would wake DD2.

So far DD1 has only woken DD2 up once with her crying - and it was around the time DD2 wakes anyway for a feed.

Another alternative might be to have the baby in your room until he/she is old enough to develop a reliable sleep pattern. We did this with both our boys. Ollie (the youngest) developed good sleep habits fairly early on but for various reasons he was in our room til just under 12 months of age (in his own cot, not co-sleeping).

I've found that our boys generally don't wake eachother up, even if one is screaming the house down. Perhaps this comes from room sharing (with us, at least) from birth? I can certainly walk into their room at night and tidy up and put things in their drawers without them stirring, so either way room sharing from an early age (for our boys, anyway) tends to mean they can sleep through anything.

I have my two eldest (DD and DS1) sharing while the 'baby' has his own room, makes it much easier at nap times. When DS2 is old enough and ready to move from the cot to a bed, DD will get her own room and the boys will share. And then we go back for no.4 (if we are still in this house) DD will share with the baby.

Thanks everyone for your great suggestions and insight. I think we will put DD and DS in together and bub in my itself. Will probably be in our room in bassinet then move into own room when going into the cot. I would rather leave room empty until then so it's not like the kids have their own room in the new house and then someone gets booted for the baby!

Thanks again everyone....