As of now, the girls will need to share a room. Deadline is roughly May-June when DD2 is 5-6 months and outgrows her bassinet thing. DD1 will be nearly 4 by then. I dread the thought of this... DD2 doesn’t sleep through the night (she’s 3 months) so between an anticipated sleep regression coming up at some point, middle of the night feeds... How do I make this work without everyone all waking up? When the time comes to sleep train, do I do DD2 in the crib in the room and have DD1 maybe sleep on an air mattress elsewhere or something for that time? Am I overthinking the room sharing? Will DD1 sleep when DD2 wakes and needs to eat? Gah!
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Following!
DS will be around 2.5 when the new baby will have to “move in” to his room. The thought of it is scary! -
We have a 3rd bedroom so thankfully we don't have to face this issue, but if we only had 2 bedrooms, I'd either keep the baby in our room longer (in a pack & play or whatever) or put him in the living room or the closet or SOMETHING. My kids are 3.5yo and 9 months and there is NO WAY they could share. My 9mo is up all night and cries super loud. My 3.5yo needs like 12 hours of sleep and is the most beastly horrible child ever when he's tired. My whole life literally revolves around getting him to bed as early as possible and prioritizing his sleep at all costs because it is truly hell for everyone when he is tired. If he was easier going or I knew he would sleep through the crying, maybe. I don't think you can sleep train with 2 kids in a room unless you have a baby who only cries for like 2 minutes or something...
edit - I'm sure it's possible if your kids are less difficult than mine, overall. Lol
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@MrsADS: DD1 slept in my parents room in January and one of my parents is a horrendous snorer lol. We do have a travel crib we could keep DD2 in in our room, worse comes to worse... DD1 usually sleeps through the night (unless she’s bugging me lol) and gets about 10 hours. It does take a bit to get her down and I worry she’ll wake DD2. DD2 is a faint, calm crier lol.
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My DD and DS share a room and I remember being soo nervous about it!
We did wait until DD was a year, she slept in a pack & play in our room until we were ready to move her. I don't remember the initial transition but they go to sleep at the same time. DS, who was 3-1/2 when she moved into his room, was coming into our bed usually around midnight anyways, so MOTN wakings weren't a big deal.
I do know I built it up to be way worse than it was!
At 2 and 4-1/2 they now sleep together in a twin, we had to convert DD to a toddler bed and she hasn't slept in it since, preferring to sleep with brother.
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This was exactly my kids ages when they started sharing a room. When I was sleep training DS, yes, I moved DD into our room, at least for the beginning of the night. It’s hard because I felt I was often prioritizing one kid’s sleep over the other’s. But, DD has surprised me by how much she sleeps through! DS regularly wakes up before her and I just run in and scoop him up before he wakes up DD. They also sleep with a sound machine, which helps. Anyhow, they’ve now been sharing a room for 2.5 years and while there are some challenges, it also comes with huge rewards. Namely, I think my kids are way closer than they would be otherwise. DD reads to DS after lights out and will tell him stories and help calm him down if he’s having a hard time. It’s so sweet. I think they’re creating great childhood memories and will look fondly on the time when they shared a room. Good luck!
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When we moved into 850sqft in NYC, DD was 16mo and DS was almost 3. DD is in a pack n play and DS is on a floor bed, we placed a curtain partition in between them that we pull back when they are not sleeping. It went really well. When one wakes up and cries, the other almost never wakes up. We also use pretty loud sound machines.
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My kids share a room, they started when DS2 was 6 months and DS1 was 5. I was surprised at how much DS1 would sleep through! We also sleep trained DS2 at that time so DS1 would start the night in my room and we would move him to his bed when we went to bed. Thankfully sleep training was super easy for our youngest, he slept through the night way before our oldest!
Now they are 2 and 7. I just moved them to a bunk bed and the transition has been rough, mostly for the 2 year old. He was sleeping great in the crib but now he is having a hard time staying in bed to fall asleep. I'm going to have to break down and do some sleep training again.
Overall, having them share a room has been easy. I think the key is to just not over think it.
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Not quite the same but DS1 is 6 and DS2 is 6 months. About three weeks ago we moved DS2 to his room which is right next door to DS1. We are down the hall. I was so worried about the baby waking big brother but he hasn’t yet. Even with extra crying as we sleep trained the baby.
Hopefully you will get a pleasant surprise.
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My kids were this age when we moved them together. I felt like the baby was sleeping worse in our room bc she knew I was right there. I was nervous about it and didn’t see how it could work bc the baby was nowhere close to sleeping through the night.
And it’s been fine! DD1 sleeps through everything, even like 20 minutes of crying. The only issues were bedtime bc the baby goes to sleep first so my DH just does bedtime routine with our older daughter in our room and then they go into her bedroom with lights out for songs.
We have to get up early during the week so it’s sort of a non-issue but they do sometimes wake each other up on the weekend. Though DD1 is now pretty well trained to come into our room and not wake up the baby, it’s mostly the other way around. We did have to take the door monkey off though so she didn’t need to yell for us and could get out independently.
Anyway our experience has been easy and positive and the baby sleeps better in her own room (though def not thru the night yet...).
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It went really easily for us. If DS2 had a super fussy phase when he was under a year he would end up in our bed for the second half of the night so DS1 could sleep better. They rarely wake each other and LOVE the company. Sometimes they crawl into each others beds instead of waking us which I love. DS1 just turned 4 and DS2 is 2.5.
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My girls have been sharing a room (and with us actually) since 3 and 1. I find that my older one is able to pretty much sleep through anything once she's in deep sleep. My little one has cried, yelled, gotten up, DH & I have talked, also have had to turn on a little light to clean up puke, etc... With that said, we also do have white noise on. I think without white noise it'd be harder not to wake each other up.
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Our girls have shared their room from about 5 months and 3 2y11m to now, 10m and 3y4m. For the most part, it has been fine. There have been a few awful nights where they've woken each other up, but the only time it is really bad is if I'm solo parenting and have to try to soothe them both by myself. If there are two of us, we usually take the baby into the living room to rock her/feed her and the other one tries to get the 3 year old back to sleep in her bed. But the vast majority of the time, the 3 year old sleeps through some impressive crying/yelling, feeding, rocking, etc. She's even slept through me tripping on toys they left out and swearing.
In the morning, baby usually gets up first for a bottle and I can often get her back down for an extra hour, all without waking 3 year old. Sometimes 3 year old wakes up first but she usually just drags her blanket and stuffed animals out to the living room without being too noisy, so that works too. I also think that having the baby in the room has helped with the 3 year old's anxiety, and that their bond will be stronger because of it, especially as they get older. The 3 year old already has big plans for bunk beds, or "up top beds" as she calls them. 
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So I just had to share this picture I sent to my mom. We’ve had the bunk bed for about 2 weeks now. This is how they end up most nights. Either on the floor or on the bottom bunk together.
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It's not exactly the same situation, but DD1 (6yo) and DD2 (3yo) share a wall. Although I tried to at least place their beds away from each other, I couldn't get the layouts to work so their beds are literally against each other with the wall in between. Our walls are VERY thin and I was pretty worried with the set up, but they sleep through each other's noises and rarely wake each other up. This has been for about 2 years now. Recently, they both decided they no longer wanted sound machines. I'm not sure why, but I rolled with it and hesitantly agreed with the stipulation that if they both started to wake each other up, I was going to put the sound machines back on. It's been a little over a week now, and no problems at all!
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@KT326: This is so sweet. O talks about wanting the baby to sleep in her bed NOW. I keep telling her that she's too young, but that when she's old enough if they both want to sleep in a bed together, they can. I hope she still feels that way when N is 2.
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@Mrs. Turtle: My oldest has been waiting for this day since his brother was born! It's adorable. We've had a lot of sleep issues with the oldest and this has helped tremendously!
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@LindsayInNY: Could you keep DD1 in your room while you sleep train DD2 in the separate room? And then when DD2 is settled into some kind of sleep routine, you can move DD2 into the shared room. I bet the kids won't wake each other up. My girls have rooms that share a wall. I use strong white noise in each room. My DD1 hit a major sleep regression this year and she will scream for me. She has never woken up DD2. Also, DD1 never woke up while I sleep trained DD2. And in general, my kids don't cry much now because I hear them and go to them during the night fairly quickly. So I bet it will all work out just fine for you!
In the morning, baby usually gets up first for a bottle and I can often get her back down for an extra hour, all without waking 3 year old. Sometimes 3 year old wakes up first but she usually just drags her blanket and stuffed animals out to the living room without being too noisy, so that works too. I also think that having the baby in the room has helped with the 3 year old's anxiety, and that their bond will be stronger because of it, especially as they get older. The 3 year old already has big plans for bunk beds, or "up top beds" as she calls them. 
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