It might be hard to believe, but it is possible to have your baby and your toddler share a room and still make the sleeping hours go smoothly. Try these 5 ideas!
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My kids are 19 months apart – almost by the day. After the initial 6 months when the little one slept in the bassinet by my bed, we started wondering how the sleeping situation was going to go. I was not sure if we could make a shared toddler and baby room work, especially for sleeping/nap times.
Just like with everything else in motherhood and parenting, every day looks different. There are some days when everything goes as planned and nap time is smooth as silk. Other days it’s like my kids have incorporated Thanos and want to destroy mankind. (Little Marvel geek fan over here, sorry not sorry).
But these 5 simple, easy things have helped TREMENDOUSLY n my household.
How I optimized my small toddler and baby room
1: The Perfect Sound Machine
There are many great sound machines out there. My suggestion for you is to purchase from a place that accepts returns if it doesn’t work for you.
I’ve gone through dozens of them until I found “my” perfect one. Well, to be totally transparent, my amazing mother-in-law found it for me (bless her heart!).
They tend to break or quit working. I also didn’t want something that required a phone app and didn’t need anything with a nightlight on it.
I use this Sound+Sleep one and love it. It’s simple, it works well, it’s sturdy, when I had a minor issue their customer service was amazing and resolved it in a day. Total win for me.
Here’s what to look for on a sound machine:
- Volume: does your child sleeps well with outside noise coming through? Or does he/she need total acustic? Many sound machines’ volumes don’t go too high, so check that out before you buy.
- Timer: trust me on this – you DO NOT want a sound machine that you can’t turn the timer off. And there are hundres of them like that. Search for one with an option for 12 hours timer or one you can simply not have the timer on. There’s nothing worse than a sound machine that turns off after 4 hours and wakes your baby up in the middle of the night.
- Battery vs. Plug-in: This makes a difference if your family travels a lot or you have the habit of spending the night out. I am actually on the hunt for a great portable one (if you have a recommendation, please help a mama out!). For the home, I got a plug in because I 100% do not want to be worrying about batteries or having to charge a sound machine. I’ve heard great things about this portable one, but have not used it myself to give you an informative review.
2: Beds apart!
My kids won’t sleep while seeing each other. They giggle, they “talk”, they want to play… it’s impossible to get them to settle down as long as they can see the other.
My solution was to put their beds on the same wall, but separated by the dresser! Such an easy fix, but a game-changer at that!
Ever since then, getting them to sleep has become way easier than before.
3: Make it cozy
It’s true that kids do not need “fancy”. But it’s also true that, especially once they start growing into toddlers, kids like cozy.
It calms them down, and it makes them enjoy the place they sleep in!
My daughter, who is almost three, immediately asks for her “fairy lights” once she gets into the room for our nighttime routine (I use these, which are great and work on a timer – we don’t need them on all night unlike the sound machine).
I also included some cozy elements to the room: framed artwork (I designed it myself), canvas pictures on the walls, and some stuffed dolls and animals that we collected throughout the years. Cozy and simple!
4: Lights out… nightlights on!
This is the reason I didn’t need or want a sound machine with a built-in nightlight: I did not want my kids to see it as an artifact to look at. You almost want your sound machine to be invisible because kids will be kids and they want to TOUCH whatever they notice exists.
I have nightlights pretty much all over their room, to give it a very ambiance atmosphere. All the lights are dimmed to the lowest setting so that, even though there are a lot of them, the room is still mostly dark.
I use the fairy lights on my daughter’s toddler bed (since she is old enough to not touch them), the letter signs over their beds, and a cloud nightlight on the opposite wall.
5: Stick with a night-time routine
This is probably the most important step for me: being consistent!
We do the same exact nighttime routine, every single night. True, it doesn’t always go as planned and even when doing so, sometimes my kids are just not having it.
But I’ve found that, for the most part, this has helped my kids understand what is happening and give me less “trouble” to fall asleep.
My schedule, in sum, usually goes like this (give or take):
- 6 PM: dinner
- 6:45 PM: bath time
- 7:15 PM: toys cleanup
- 7:30 PM: nursing time (I still breastfeed both of my kids on demand) + story or music (I read or sing to them while they nurse). Also, YES, they nurse at the same time before bed, one on each “booboo”. Moooooooooooooo!
- 7:45 PM: bed time
I tuck them both in at the same time and sit on the rocking chair until they are asleep. Most nights I will continue reading a story or singing a song for a few minutes (I’m the worst singer ever but they don’t seem to mind lol). Then I stay in there silently.
When you have a shared toddler and baby room, be consistent!
My daughter is usually the one that fights to sleep. She likes to snuggle. And while that is so sweet and even healthy for her to get that, I just could not maintain the 3-hour bedtime routine long term.
At one point, something had to give, so I try to snuggle her as much as possible within the timeframe that worked best for me. See how I did that here.
So being consistent is what makes it all work. Even on the nights when they are being “monsttlers”, I maintain my schedule. It took a few weeks for them to understand that this is the routine we will stick to, whether they attempt to bring the house down by screams or not. But eventually, it kicked in.
Berta says
Its true about the beds apart. I just changed my kids room last night and put them on the same well and it worked!!!!! they fell asleep faster than they used to. thank you for sharing!
evelynrountree says
So glad it worked for you! <3
V at Love Becomes Her says
Thanks for this! My second is on the way (2 more weeks!) and I am super unsure about pretty much everything in the room now lol, but this helped give me some perspective fro sure.
evelynrountree says
So glad I could help! It can be overwhelming for sure, but I’m sure you got this! Let me know if you need anything <3
Xo