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What about giving each one of the kids a bedroom and then doing a murphy bed in the living room for the adults?

Same as @avivoca:. Either the kids share a room or they each get a bedroom and the adults sleep in the living room.

Besides the unfairness of giving one kid a room and the other one not a room, how would you handle bedtime?? Once you put your LO down for the night in the living room, are you guys banned from that room? Do you have to tip toe around? That just makes zero sense to me, on top of the fact it's incredibly unfair to the LO who doesn't have a room of their own.

I would definitely have them share a room over putting one in the living room. What would you guys do after your son goes to bed? I know walking around near my son while falling asleep would keep him awake for a long time.

We currently rent a 2 bedroom house and I am pregnant with number two. Our current plan is to have the baby sleep in our room for about 9 months-year and then we will move the kids into our room (because it is the bigger room of the two) and we will move into the smaller room. We don't know the sex of baby #2 yet, but they will have to share no matter what. Kids I nannied ( a boy/girl) shared a room for a long time around that age and they LOVED sharing a room with their sibling. They slept better together than they did apart.

I would have the kids share a room. I don't think a child should sleep in a living room as a permanent solution - for a variety of reasons. Mostly quality of sleep, lack of ability to use the living room while the child sleeps, and the general unfairness that one child gets a room and the other doesn't.

@Mama Bird: What if the 16 month old slept in your room?

@Mama Bird: Is there a way to put the kids together and divide the room?

It sounds like you and your brother had a really rough time sharing rooms. But thats not always the norm. There could be just as many potential issues with the "stigma" of one child getting a room and the other child getting the shaft of the living room.

@Mama Bird: can you get a temporary divider wall? or hang a curtain from the ceiling? Something to divide the room?

I dunno, sharing rooms is super common in my area. I don't know anyone who has put a child in the living room. I guess because most kids go to bed so early? We're still eating dinner, cleaning up dinner, packing lunches, watching tv, etc when the kids are in bed. So we like having the living room and kitchen free--same in the morning. We are up before they are.

I grew up in a 2 bedroom house, so I shared a room with my younger bedroom till I left for college. I know it sounds crazy to some people, but it's all I ever knew and I was never really that big of a deal.

@Mama Bird: were you miserable sharing? Or just when you were separated? I understood it as you guys had a hard time separating after sharing a room for so long. If that is your concern, maybe you could wait to split them until they ask? The family I nannied for had two twin beds in the son's room after they moved and the daughter slept in there for a long time even though she had her own room because they liked being together.

I think if you feel really strongly about everyone having their own personal space and being used to that you'd need to get a 3 bedroom. Because your son will never have his own space in this situation...he'd be sharing his space with the whole family rather than just his baby sister.

Personally, I'd give the kids the largest room and allow them to share. If you really want separate spaces, put up a removable wall or some other sort of divider.

Eta - My sisters and j always had my own rooms growing up and on multiple occasions we wanted to share and moved around. I have two kids and three bedrooms, and I'm considering moving them both to the larger room and having the smaller stay as extra storage.