Technically, we have a three-bedroom house, so you would think it would be easy to work out where Eleanor will be sleeping once she leaves our room. However, one of those rooms (the very nice large attic room) is our office, so there is no spare room.
Rosemary’s room is pretty tiny and only just fits her bed (cotbed in bed form), a wardrobe, chest of drawers and bookcase. It also has awkwardness, in that there’s a radiator on one of the long walls and a chimney pipe that comes up from the gas stove below on the other, making the placement of a full-sized single bed (or bunk bed) difficult, perhaps even impossible. If the radiator were relocated, a bunk bed could probably be squeezed in.
Our room is quite big and would probably make a pretty nice room for the two of them; one where they could play as well as just sleep. But then where would we go? Rosemary’s room would maybe fit a double bed and maybe a chest of drawers, but probably with almost no space on either side of the bed, if any. So, we’d probably need to store our clothes elsewhere.
The other option would be for us to move into the office and just keep one desk in there and then have another desk in the small room, with the girls in our room. Or even, somehow, try to squeeze the whole of the office into the small room. Not sure that would work, though, as it consists of three large desks with a computer on each (one of them could go, of course) and Rosemary’s desk where she now comes up to draw for a bit while we’re working. Of course, that could go into their room if they had a big room, but it’s nice having her come up with us for small chunks of time and I have visions of her sitting there doing her homework when she’s older. Perhaps even sitting at the other desk, checking the Internet for information about the Egyptians or the Vikings (that’s what they learn about at primary school, isn’t it?).
In the meantime, we need to work out what to do when Eleanor outgrows her crib, which is fairly imminent. Rosemary’s supposed to get a big girl bed and Eleanor go into the cotbed (back in cot form). But we don’t really want to get an ordinary big girl bed, if we’re going to have to get a bunk bed in a year. We don’t want to move Eleanor in with Rosemary until she’s sleeping through (Eleanor, that is, Rosemary’s pretty much got that sorted, apart from occasional awakenings for the toilet), because that would disturb Rosemary.
Rosemary’s solution is the simplest – she says Eleanor can just come and sleep in her bed with her and she’ll scoot over. Maybe we’ll just have to go along with that. Or we could just let her sleep in the buggy all the time.
So how did you work out the sleeping arrangements when you added an extra child to the family? Did you have problems when you had your first baby? I have friends who slept in the living room while their child had the only bedroom, for example.
Hmm, difficul, initially we had mini in with us and we were renting a two bed house, we bought maxi full sized bunkbeds with the intention of popping them bothin there, but there was no way one of them was going to sleep on the top!!
ReplyDeleteWhy dont you guys move in to the attic, put the girls in yours and then have the small room fitted out as an office, you could have someone come in and pop worktops in round all the things in the way
We live a 2 bedroom and have had all sort of sleeping arrangments.
ReplyDeleteDD1 born things fine , she "moved" from our bedroom at 6 months into her own room .Never really worked and she stayed in our room (and bed) .
DD2 born and i slept in the living room with her (in moses basket, she did not like to co-sleep) . So not to disturb dh and dd1 in bedroom. Then she out grew moses basket around 4 months and moved into her own room no problem.
Then came ds1 and we had no idea what to do , he slept in living room first in moses basket then travel cot till about 6/7 months. Then we were going to move him into our room and try and get dd1 into her own bed. Changed mind somewhere along the line and he went into the bedroom with his sister . Now dd2 and ds1 share a bedroom and dd1 (at 4.5years old) still shares our bedroom and bed .We cannot fit another bed into the other bedroom and don't want to do bunk beds .
It is not an ideal situation (espeically as DD1 takes up so much room in the bed that only dh or i can sleep in it so one gets the couch) . Hopefully one of these days our flat will sell and we can get somewhere bigger.
Upon arrival of baby No.3 we did the only thing remotely possible. Our 3 bed house consisted of two smallish bedrooms, and one teeny weeny fit-for-a-cot box room. And we also both work from home and need the office space.
ReplyDeleteSo we built more bedrooms.
Luckliy we live in a semi that had space to the side, so we extended, built 3 extra bedrooms (losing an original room to a new office), and gaining a nice new sittng room underneath.
We are constantly moving around. But our room is the smallest, tiniest one as really we don't spend that much time there (certainly not waking hours!)
ReplyDeletere getting a big girl bed. We are having the same dilemma, didn't want to get a bed when we were going to be getting a bunk bed soon. So we've used a mattress on the floor which also minimises falling out of bed issues. Has worked really well and they can also jump like loonies on it because they don't have too far to fall!
Good luck. Let us know what you decide on!
I feel your pain - El's room is small and we're in a 2 bedroom at the mo. When little Peanut makes an entrance it's going to get very cosy!
ReplyDeleteI found a high sleeper cabin bed which Els can go in with her current cotbed underneath - we can convert that back to a cot for Peanut. It's a good short-term solution but I hope we can upgrade at some point in the not-too-distant future.
We've just put our two in together. Bunk beds sounds like the way to go unless you can move or extend.
ReplyDeleteHmm tricky. Ours share a medium sized room. I actually got a second hand cot for geekyboy, and geekygirl at 4 is still in her cot bed. Maybe you could do something similar, gets small toddler bed for Rosemary, ikea carrys cute ones here, and people often sell them used, and keep them like that until they are both ready to move to a bunk bed in the small room? I can see that with working from home the office is pretty important.
ReplyDeleteI had my two in the same room long before number 2 slept through and it wasn't a problem, he never woke her.
And regarding Rosemarys idea, I have a friend who preschooler climbs into the cot to sleep with her baby sister, she keeps finding them snuggled together in the morning!
We had to lose our office and are now pondering a agarge conversion so I can get some space back! rather than being stuck under the stairs as I am right now! lol Mich x
ReplyDeleteWhen DS came along and we were living in a 2 bedroom, he stayed in our room till he was 19 months old. Then we moved to a larger house. OK, not helpful I know!
ReplyDeleteBefore DS arrived, we moved DD out of the toddler bed, as the mattress in it came from the crib and we were going ot need it for the crib again. Dh was going to build her a bed, so we just got a mattress to put on the floor 'for the time being.' 7 years later and now both kids have mattresses on the floor, and still no sign of permanent beds. They don't seem to mind!
We're lucky - four bedrooms... well, three and one study. But four really. The biggest problem we had was persuading Sally to move out of her cosy little bed and move upstairs (we're three-storey) to what was then the spare room. Easy! Well, sort of. Easier, for sure.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a 3bed house with a decent size 2nd bedroom, the 3rd bedroom which we made by putting a partition in our bedroom (which used to be massive!) and our bedroom which is just the right size. I have 4yr old and 3yr old in bunk beds in the 2nd bedroom and 2yr old and my pud in the much smaller 3rd bedroom.
ReplyDelete2yr old is in a peppa pig toddler bed (a bargin at £65) which is a bit bigger than a cot bed and the pud is in her cot. When our little man is here it will pose a few problems but i do like part mummy part me's high sleeper idea with a cot underneath (i may steal that idea lol)
I will either have to move into the 2nd bedroom with hubby (it would be a squeeze) or put 2yr old back in with the older girls, and little man and the pud can share. Either way i'll find a way, my house is up for sale but its not going anywhere so i will plan for it not selling.
I'm sure you'll find a way i'd say put the office in your current bedroom, you sleep in the loft room and put the two girls together in rosemary's current room xxxx
Thanks for all your comments. We're veering toward a loft bed, that we can put the cot underneath at the moment, if we can find one that will fit. But we'll probably get a travel cot for when Eleanor grows out of the crib - any second now, quite literally. We also like the idea of a mattress/mattresses. It certainly avoids falling out of bed issues!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like some of you have even more complicated sleeping arrangement issues than we do - Laura McIntyre, Amy!