...where do your overnight guests sleep?
With DS2 on the way, we're getting ready to convert our guest bedroom into a big boy room for DS1, but I've already had a few out-of-town friends/relatives talk about coming to visit when the new baby is here.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
We made the big kid room with two twin beds so we still had a guest bed.
eggplant / 11716 posts
We live in a 2 bedroom condo with 2 kids. Our guests have 3 choices:
--sleep with the girls in the queen bed in there, older girl is displaced to a toddler air mattress.
--sleep in the living room on an air bed
--sleep in our room and we take the air bed.
When our parents come (our most frequent guests), they sleep in the girls' room, the baby's crib will go temporarily in our room, and toddler sleeps on the floor on an air mattress. None of them seem to mind that.
When DHs sister has come, we give her (and her husband, and her kids) our room with the king size room, and we sleep with the girls.
When my niece/nephew have come on their own (they are teenagers), they get the air mattress in the living room, but when we all get up for the day at 6 am, they go sleep in our daughter's bed and we have the living room.
We actually haven't had any other overnight guests. Because only crazy people want to cram into a 2 bedroom with 4 ppl already there. =)
pear / 1955 posts
@T.H.O.U.: I'd love to do that, but our third bedroom (and current nursery) is the tiniest room in the house - we can't fit a twin bed without blocking the door. When DS2 outgrows his toddler bed, he'll be moving into a bunk bed with DS1, but we'll still be out a guest bedroom.
ETA: It just occurred to me that maybe you're saying your guests sleep on the other bunk? That never occurred to me - I wonder if DS would bug them all night, or if they'd actually be able to get some sleep.
eggplant / 11716 posts
@raspberries: you can get a twin-over-full bunk bed, or a twin-over-queen, or one of those pull-out single beds from Ikea that can turn into a King. Then your kid's room could be the guest room?
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@raspberries: can your current guest room accommodate two twins? We left the nursery as the nursery because it was the smallest too. And then we got a set of bunk beds but kept them apart for her big girl room. Later on the kids will be in there together and we probably will bunk.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
@raspberries: yes! LO1 just stays in her bed and my mom stays in the other bed next to her. Or if my mom and dad come, we can have LO1 sleep on the floor in our room and give them her room with two twin beds.
watermelon / 14467 posts
We've never had overnight guests in the 4.5 years we've lived here. My parents live close by and my inlaws never visit; everyone else goes to a hotel. But we have a full bed frame if we ever needed to turn our office into a guest room. I've also toyed with the idea of getting a sofa bed for our living room couch.
apricot / 424 posts
We bought a nice air mattress and a foam topper to go with it. We set it up in the play room after my kids go to bed (they are in bed pretty early at 7). My kids are too young (4 months and 18 months) to share a room in my opinion so we chose that option.
pear / 1955 posts
@Anagram: DS1 would only be 2 when these guests are staying with us, so I don't think he'd be okay sleeping on the top bunk, even if we got a twin over full. That'd be a really good solution though, if he were a little bit older.
@T.H.O.U.: That's a good question - I'll have to measure, but I'm pretty sure it could probably accommodate two twins if we moved things around a little bit. Thanks!
@avivoca: Ha, I kinda wanted to gently suggest they find a hotel instead of staying with us - in all honesty, it'd probably be a lot more comfortable for them to NOT stay in a small house with a newborn.
grapefruit / 4988 posts
We don't have overnight guests now that we have LO! We tend to offer people the couch, with the caveat that our cats will probably sit on them while they sleep. That tends to drive people away.
pineapple / 12566 posts
We have a 3 bedroom apartment. What we usually do is put the kids together in DS's bedroom and then put the sofa bed in DD's bedroom (her room is smaller). We have 4 different sets of house guests coming over the next 2 months, so we may just leave DD and DS together in the same room for awhile so that we don't have to keep moving the furniture around.
grapefruit / 4321 posts
When we did my daughter's big girl room we specifically got her a queen so it would be useful for guests (and so it would last her for a really long time). We have multiple guests coming for Christmas so although we have a guest room, we need two. We're just putting the additional guests on the queen in my daughter's room and she'll sleep on a blow up toddler mattress in either our bonus room or the master bedroom with us.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
We have a guest room (with a full sized bed). On the rare occasion where we need extra space, we have a twin sized air mattress. My son's bed is also full sized, so we could move him out and he could sleep on the twin in the master.
We could also put someone in the playroom, but not on couches, on an air mattress.
wonderful kiwi / 23653 posts
We're also in the process of converting our spare/guest bedroom into DD1's big girl room and DD2 will just take over current nursery.
We have a Queen pull out sleeper in the basement and a full bath one flight up so that's where guests will stay. My last house guest actually stayed down there anyway; DD wakes up before 7am so we didn't want all the commotion to wake her up so it was easier and more private for her to have the basement to herself, plus TV.
persimmon / 1467 posts
So we do technically have a guest room but we have a 3 bedroom house and two boys. DS 1 has his own room and DS 2 was in our room in a packnplay. Guests use the third room. We got a single over double bunk bed so we can fit more people in that tiny room. When we don't have guests DS 2 sleeps there in his packnplay. Eventually the boys will share a room so we can keep our guest room. Basically I'd rather have a guest room than a nursery and I think cribs are overrated.
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
We lived in a two bedroom condo with one, then two kids. Guest got the couch or air bed in the living room- and that was pretty much only our siblings. Anyone else stayed at a hotel. Or sometimes my mom or sister would come up while DH was out of town and they would share our bed. And one time DH's grandmother stayed with us and slept in the queen bed in LOs room while she was in the crib, but she snuck in after LO was asleep.
@raspberries: I think it's totally reasonable to not host guests for a while. Even just having people over all day without staying with us was incredibly draining after lo2 was born.
honeydew / 7622 posts
We rarely have anyone stay over. But we have an aero bed we can put in M or my office if needed.
persimmon / 1026 posts
When we bought a new couch earlier this year, we made sure to find one with a sleeper sofa.
pomelo / 5129 posts
My mom doesn't have a guest room (she has a "loft" like room at the top of the stairs outside of her bedroom)
She got a day bed with a trundle. It takes up most of the room when the trundle is popped up, but it works for occasional guests. Maybe a trundle option could work so that normally, you have more space, but when guests come you have more beds.
grapefruit / 4278 posts
When we converted our guest room into the nursery for #2, we took the full bed from the guest room and made it #1's big boy bed. Now when guests come, they sleep in his bed and he sleeps on a foldaway twin bed.
pomelo / 5573 posts
We have a pull out couch in the basement. That being said, I think there are ways to politely say that you'd love to see people but you don't have the space for overnight guests right now, if you were so inclined. THAT being said, I think at least for the first little while you could put baby in with you and get an inflatable bed for guests to go in the nursery.
pear / 1961 posts
At our old rental, DD1s room had a twin-over-full bunk bed with a twin trundle underneath too. So that was one potential option for guests -- either DD1 could sleep upstairs in our room and guests could have her full-sized bunk, or DD1 would stay in the full and a guest could sleep on the upper bunk. DD2s room was the nursery, but it also had a murphy bed, which was fantastic. It was easy to move her up to our room (in a PNP) and pull the bed down for guests, and it was more comfortable than an aerobed. At that age (<1y), DD2 was pretty flexible about where she slept, too.
When we've had extra guests, we've also put an aerobed in more "unused" rooms like the study or bonus room.
Honestly, I *hate* having people out in the true living space...like a family room or living room. I think it's awkward for everyone!
grapefruit / 4717 posts
They stay in a hotel. I feel badly, but we don't have other options. Our visitors like their own space anyway, so maybe they'd do the same even if we did have a slot for them.
pomelo / 5789 posts
We are about to turn our guest room into a room for #2. We will keep the guest bed in there and add a crib. If we have guests they will sleep in there and the baby will sleep in a pack and play in our room.
Once #2 is not a baby, guests will still sleep in #2s room and #2 will sleep in his brothers room on the trundle.
persimmon / 1095 posts
Hotel, we are in a two bedroom apartment.
My mother did stay on an air mattress when my first was born. We have a set of bunk beds and a trundle bed, so if someone really wanted to stay the can have the upper bunk or the trundle. We had a difficult enough time getting my 23 month old to sleep on the bottom bunk that I'm not moving him off it when anyone wants to stay in January for the new baby.
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21616 posts
We never have visitors. We live in a small two-bedroom apartment. There's a couch if someone was desperate?
pomegranate / 3350 posts
We have a daybed in our finished basement but with the location of the thermostat its not really an option in the winter. We also have our couch or air mattress. We have LO1 in a full size bed so the plan is to get some kind of trundle bed option in LO2's room so guests could stay in LO1's room.
pomelo / 5257 posts
My family was just here after LO was born and they stayed at an Airbnb. My ILs will do the same in October.
pear / 1879 posts
We hair turned our guest room/office into LO's big boy room this past weekend. We got rid of our queen size bed in there and decided to get LO a trundle bed (twin size). This way, when someone comes to stay, there is room for two to stay in his room and he can come sleep in our room on an air mattress. Not totally ideal, but we don't have a private guest space anymore like we used to.
cherry / 160 posts
hotel! We have a murphy bed in our 3rd bedroom which works if we take the crib out. I'd do it for a friend who was staying 1-2 nights but otherwise I think everyone is more comfortable if they stay off-site 
pomelo / 5258 posts
Our guests use LO2's room, LO2 goes in a pack in play in our room. We sleep in the living room. It is the combination that works best for us at the moment. My kids wake up at 4:30 & 6:00 so even though my guests would sleep in the living room it isn't convinient. I don't want anyone else up with us that early. Two grumps are enough. Plus DH likes space to himself at night to play video games.
pomegranate / 3658 posts
We set up an air mattress in the office. People who are too fancy to sleep on an air mattress (i.e. all four of our parents) rent a VRBO when they visit.
pomegranate / 3764 posts
We don't have a spare room for guests, but we have a small upstairs living area that has a sofa bed. It's 99% left as a sofa, but comes in handy to pull out for visitors.
nectarine / 2115 posts
We have a futon in the living room and an air mattress we can put in the den.
pear / 1622 posts
The nursery stayed our nursery. LO1 moved into our guest bedroom when he was 18 months old and we have a sleeper sofa in our living area. We offered to sleep on the sofa and let my ILs take our room when they visited for 2 weeks but they slept on the sofa. I think the same thing will happen at Thanksgiving. When the boys are old enough for bunk beds, we'll have them share a room.
nectarine / 2210 posts
It depends who it is. When my dad comes out with various family he'll book a hotel. But if a close friend stays she'll sleep on the couch.
clementine / 756 posts
We live in a two bedroom house. When we had our son, we kept a queen bed in the nursery, along with his crib. It's a little tight, but we don't do much in there, so it's fine. We considered a murphy bed for the nursery, and may do that when we buy a house.
When he was a newborn, he slept in a bassinet in our room and guests slept in the bed in the nursery. Now that he's in his crib, we sleep in the nursery when guests sleep over and they sleep in our room. Though, last week my step-mom spent the night and offered to take the baby overnight, so she slept in the nursery!
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