Sleeping arrangements - newborn & toddler

I'm thinking a bit down the track yet since I'm not even PG with #2, but I was wondering......for those of you who have had children fairly close together, did you find that the sleeping patterns of the older child were disrupted by the newborn's cries etc?

Since we've had some problems with Jacob's sleep, I'm petrified of his sleep being thrown out by a newborn, who would be sleeping in our room with us until they move into a cot (and into their own room). The thing here is that Jacob's room is just across the hall from ours, and I'm thinking that the cries in the night etc when the baby is hungry and not sleeping through, would wake him? Our only option to avoid this would be to put the new baby into their own room right from the very beginning, as it is right down the hall away from both our room and Jacob's room so it shouldn't wake him, but we both really want the new baby to be in our room until they are too big for the bassinette and need to go into a cot, at which point we would put the baby in it's own room. Obviously having the baby in our room until this happens is great for us from a feeding/changing POV too.

So....what have your experiences been with this? Has your toddlers sleep been disturbed by a newborn, and if so, was it short-lived, i.e. did they learn to sleep through it??

I have never had any problems with babies waking my kids!!! Mind you they would both sleep through a bomb right outside their doors!!!

I would like to make one suggestion though ... would it be possible to move Jacob to a big boys room down the other end of the hall once the baby is big enough to sleep in the cot? Make it a huge occassion and a ccelebration of becoming a big brother???? I don't know if that is good for you, but as the babies came we moved the others further away!

Good luck in finding a solution.

Cheers

I was going to suggest exactly the same thing Kelly. Maybe you could entice Jacob by redecorating the room, even get him to help if he's big enough at the time.

Moving Jacob to the room further away make the most sence to me too, after all if the baby is that far away how will you hear it when it wakes?

My boys are pretty much 2 years apart. When Glenn came along Evan was still sleeping in our bed and Glenn was in the bassinett next to the bed. I never and still don't had a problem with Glenn waking Evan when he woke for a feed. Even on nights when Glenn has screamed the roof down for what ever reason, Evan just seems to switch off to that noise. I'm sure he hears it but it just doesn't register as a noise he needs to wake up because of, a bit like when you cough in the middle of the night I guess.

My two are 2.5yrs apart and one of my fears was dealing with 2 kids at all hours of the morning, but Lachlan crying through the night didn't even stir Kameron.

Even last night when I had to get up to Lachlan crying at 1.30am due to his Gastro, Kameron slept all the way through it.

Love

How funny is this Mel - my sister is just over 2yrs older than me & she never slept through the night until I was born. Mum said it was amazing, as soon as I was in the house she was the best sleeper. Maybe she just needed the noise or something?!

oh just to add to what I said. Kameron and Lachlans bedroom doors face each other so that is how close their rooms are. take out step out of Lachlans room and then step into Kamerons room. ;)

Love

Hi,
Emily wasn't botherd by Violet at all.
Although I am a bit scared because I have to move Violet into Emily's room at some stage and I am not sure how they will go... I've been meaning to write up a post about it....

Tanya

Mel......we have 3 week old Charlie in with us (next to my side of the bed, in his hammock) and the walls in our house are paper thin, and Olivia is next door......I was terrified of Charlie's cried waking her, as he is a lot noisier than she ever was in the night (he is a right screamer, whereas she was like a kitten!).

SO FAR SO GOOD! Although he wakes everynight at about 3am for a feed, Olivia, touch wood, has not stirred.......(she has got into the habit of having a 5 minute wimper at about 3am for the past few months, but this actually seems to have stopped now he is around? Weird!)

(We have a contingency........if he DOES start waking her, we will move her down the hall and swap her room & the guest room over, so that she is further away from his lound "Feed Me!" cries.......)

It had actually crossed our minds to move Jacob into the room further away as well, but we were worried about him getting upset at having to move into a new room. Has anyone else had problems moving their children into new rooms? It does make a whole stack of sense to do it though and DH is very keen to do this as it would eliminate a lot of problems.

Kimberley's room is just across from Alex's and she never wakes when he cries at night the only time she does wake is when she is sick.

Mel, it was relatively "easy" for us as we moved house when I was 6 months pg, so could plan Olivia's new room well ahead of Charlie's arrival. But we did "pinch" a number of her bits of furniture for Charlie, & I was scared she would feel "usurped" as she realised "her" changetable etc were being used for him. But it hasn't been an issue at all.

I think if you give it plenty of time and planning, Jacob will be fine.