To split or not to split

Do your kids still share the same room? If not, how did splitting them up work out?

I'm just not sure what to do. They usually love being in the same room, and DD hates being alone so I know she'd HATE sleeping alone, it's just that DS needs less sleep overall and tends to keep her up. It happens in phases though and today was the only time it has happened since we moved a month ago. He always wakes up first otherwise but it's not that much of an issue as they tend to sleep longer than I'd like anyway (sleep 10-11 hours at night and nap 2-3 hours, then have a hard time falling asleep at night).... but DD is usually pretty crabby too so I'm not sure how much her brother has to do with it.

We have an extra room - we'd have to put the office furniture in the basement and cram the guestroom into the office but that's doable... We'd probably need to get a new dresser and another rug (it's HARDwood floors.. lol). Not really excited about that. And we have to think about switching them to toddler beds at some point, although we're not there yet...

I'm going to wait until the end of the week to see if it happens again, but I could use your experience and advice. Honestly if it was up to me I'd like to wait until they're old enough to ask for their own room, and we could just pick furniture together (we have some twin beds in storage but it's a split bunk bed and not great quality, although it would work for a few years), and have a nice guestroom in the meantime, but I don't want things to be much harder now just because I want to wait either.

 

If they're generally happy being together, I wouldn't split them up. You may gain a little extra sleep for one child, but at the cost of having to keep them company yourself rather than letting them keep each other company!

We'll probably never be able to split ours up (unless we move), and they'd definitely sleep more if they were separated, but that's about the only benefit. They really enjoy their time together after "bedtime" (it's their best bonding time!) and we enjoy that neither of them is scared of the dark or needs us to help them fall asleep.

 

I would love for mine to share the same room...I want my office back! I split them when they were 5 months old and each time I think they are ready to move back in together one has a growth spirt or illness that causes night wakings. I kind of wish I never split them up so they were able to acclimate.
I think if they are generally okay with sharing a room (I did until I was 18 yrs old!) than I would stretch it out for as long as possible...

 

Mine share a room since we don't have space to split them up in our house. But I also have one child who needs more sleep than the other one. The mornings are the hardest since the one that likes to wake up early usually ends up waking up the one that likes to sleep in later (she is also the one that wants to stay up late but needs more sleep). We have worked on when one of them wakes up they have to stay quiet until the other one gets up and for the most part it works. We did just have a problem a couple days ago with the one waking up her sister and then her sister was cranky and complained that she was woken up but they are older now so they understand more to keep quiet. One thing I did do though was when they were younger I separated them for nap time since one didn't need as much sleep as the other. It worked out nicely one slept in my bed while the other slept in her own bed (they have been in twin beds since around 2 1/2, i think).

 

If they are happy sharing a room, I would leave them that way. My 2 still share a room and, more often than not, a bed as well. I know there will come a time when they really want their own space and we do have an extra bedroom so that will be doable, but until then I love that they are so close & like to sleep together. :wub:

 

ours are still in the same room. though when for a brief moment I switched to toddler beds I wondered if they would do better separately... but then instead of separating I just put the cribs back up. I do think they'd miss each other. I intend on them sharing at least until Kindergarten... if not further... but we'll see. we don't have an extra room... well, it is a junk room now, but I would love a play room or craft room for me!

 

This topic fits us perfectly. I went through many bad sleep phases since they were about 5 months old where I wanted to split them up but never did. I remember being totally sleep deprived and trying to cram a crib through the door of the bedroom when they were just infants, but it just would not fit without being disassembled! I'm glad we didn't separate them early on though. I love their room and I loved them being together and they liked it too.

Fast forward to our toddler bed transition this summer and I was ready to separate again, but we held off. The only reason we switched to toddler beds was to get them ready for our vacation where they'd be sleeping in twin beds for the week. My son was not ready and would not stay in bed. It was a rough several weeks before we left. Then on vacation he was even worse. By the time we got home we put his crib back up. But now he knew he could get out (never occurred to him before beds). So he'd throw himself out in a raging fit unless we sat in the room with him. He'd wake several times a night wanting us to sit with him. If we didn't, he'd be out on the floor before we even reached the door. This meant he wasn't napping, wasn't sleeping well at night and was being completely impossible during the day with tantrum after tantrum since he was an overtired mess. We finally started getting the two spare bedrooms ready at this point. I was disappointed because I wanted to wait until they were both in beds (not even toddler beds, but big kid furniture) so we could buy bedding and really personalize the rooms for them. But we had to do it on a whim. We painted, put up ceiling fans and put up shades. That's it, nothing fun or fancy. We luckily already had a changing table dresser and a chest of drawers for them, so we didn't need to buy anything extra. A couple nights before the move, I bought a crib tent and it made all the difference in the world (THANK YOU TWINSTUFF!!!). I almost didn't want to go through with the move. But the rooms were done, so we went through with it.

I was really sad and scared about another bad sleep phase. But they did really well. I was the one who was a wreck. From the first night there were no complaints. We made a big deal about their own space (we painted the rooms the colors they asked for), and they seem to really be happy about it. We kept the bedtime routine the same except we read stories in one room and say prayers in the other. I don't know that it's really improved anything, because they were fine together with the crib tent those last couple nights anyway (of course my son is still in the crib tent and we did NOT put his bed back up!). Their rooms are close enough that if one woke and cried for awhile, the other would probably still hear, but it's a little better than being in the same room. My son has been sleeping great. My daugher still gets up earlier than I'd like because she's in her bed. But she's doing relatively well with it, so I can't complain.

In your situation though, I'd probably keep them together if there's no real immediate need to move them. An occasional sleep disturbance wouldn't have been enough for me to split them up. And the extra cost is a pain. The paint, shades and ceiling fans weren't in our budget since we just took our vacation. In the end I'm happy it worked out and they're doing so well. But I kind of wish we could have waited another year. And now when I see their old room all empty, it still makes me want to cry!

 

We split our twins up when they were 7 months old. We figured we would eventually do it so we did it early and we had enough rooms to do it. All 3 kids have their own rooms and it works great. It works well since my DD tends to sleep later than my DS. :good:

 

Mine sleep together and always have. My DD needs less sleep but they are in regular beds so she just gets up and come in my room and DS sleeps in. Not always but sometimes. Mine have been in big beds since just before their 2nd birthday when they learned how to climb out of cribs at 21 mo. You could always move to big beds and then the early riser can just get up.

 

we split ours up at 3 when we moved to our new house...they don't mind being split up and will go play in each others rooms from time to time...