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Yes, if I had 3 kids and 4 bedrooms, everyone would have their own room. What I would do, rather than a sleeper sofa, is to do a full bed with a trundle in one of the kids rooms. When guests come, the kids could double up in one room and the guests would use the free bedroom.

During the time that the third baby was small, and I was expecting frequent visitors, I'd leave your fourth bedroom as the guest bedroom. The baby won't be getting much use out of it at that point, anyway. This gives you another year to decide about room-sharing, and analyze which kids might make good roommates.

Personally, I like to have a dedicated guest room. It's easy for me to just shut the door, keep it clean and neat, and be ready to go for short-notice guests with very little extra work. I'd hate having guests sleep in a space I used for something else, because it could take a lot of work to get and keep the space "ready" for guests, particularly in a space like a playroom that kids think of as theirs.

In the end, I'd probably go with a setup like @looch: described. While we do have a dedicated guest room, our current set up is like that - there's a pull out in the nursery that could accommodate a second set of guests.

I'd have each kid have their own room. It's our house and I'm sorry but I'd want it to be most convenient for us, the one's who live there. We also have a basement that guests can sleep in and a huge couch in the living room, so we have alternatives to the guest room.

I second the idea of giving each child their own room and having them bunk up when your in laws come. We are in a similar boat and my plan is to have the girls share for a year or so since I figure the baby will be in our room most of the time anyway and then we'll convert the guest room for the youngest but we'll give her a queen sized bed unless she magically loves her crib in which case both will be in there for a little while.

I think your guest room is used pretty frequently, but not enough to bump a child's bedroom. Depending on birth order and spacing between kids we may have them share or everyone gets their own room. Would a queen pullout be a size upgrade from what your ILs sleep on now?

I would do what worked bestfor our family, since we live there, and make do for the times they come. So most likely that would be each kid having their own room. Whenthe kids are older I think it would be pretty easy to have them bunk up for weekends when you have guests, but with really little kids sleep is just to fragile and precious for me to mess with it. And yeah, their complaining about the size of the bed would make me feel a lot less willing to accommodate them! If you want a bigger bed, here's the name of the nearest hotel.

I would probably broach it with my inlaws when I was pregnant and say we can either get a queen sleeper sofa or we can split the cost of a local hotel with you.

IRL, my family always stays with us (like once or twice a year my parents use the guest room and my brother and his fiancée couch surf). My in laws always stay at a hotel around the corner once a year. My inlaws are amazing grandparents and they are super present for the kids but they appreciate being able to nap when the kids nap and go back to the quiet of their own room after the boys go to bed at night.

It's my house, for my family, I would let each child have their own room rather than have a room sit empty for the majority of the time. We do what @looch: suggested. We have two kids and a three bedroom house. Everyone gets their own room, but my son has a full size bed that gets used by guests (my in-laws) and he sleeps on a rollaway in our room or the nursery.

We have 4 bedrooms, but one is very small, no closet, and attaches to DS2's room via pocket door. The plan is to move DS2 in with DS1 (DS1's room is very big and has double closets). New baby will have the DS2's current room and we will keep the 4th room as a guest room. We have monthly guests and my husband takes overnight call and one of us sometimes sleeps there...but it's also just not a great bedroom. If we stay in this house long-term, we will probably add a true 4th bedroom upstairs so that one the boys are older and bigger, everyone has their own space again.

My DH and I are in this debate now - we have 3 bedrooms and a playroom (2 stories down). I am due in April and think our 3rd bedroom should be a nursery for new DS. DH wants to keep it as a guest room, even though we have a lovely queen sized pull out in the playroom with it's own full bathroom down there. Eventually I think it is fine for both DS to share a room if they want to but why should we smoosh them in there to accommodate random guests who have another sleep option? The debate continues at my house!

(side note: any complaints about the accommodations would promptly have me reminding them that the Hilton is down the street. And gosh, wouldn't it be nice if we ever got to sleep til 9 or 10.....)

I like the option of each person having their own room and guests using the pull out couch in the playroom.