Monday, January 23, 2006

Roommate advice needed

No, I'm not having problems with my roommate. He's about the easiest person in the world to live with. But I'm afraid Emma and baby Garfield may have roommate troubles soon, so I'm looking for advice. I know many of you have little ones who share(d) a room.

Garfield's about to outgrow the bassinet that's in the office, so he'll soon need to be moved to the crib in the kids' room. However, I need suggestions for how to make the transition. Here's our situation: baby sleeping through the night, but wakes up a few hours earlier than Emma for first feeding. Emma occasionally waking up during the night, sometimes crying, for various reasons. Baby still napping about 3 times daily. Toys are in kids' room. Both kids relatively light sleepers. You get the idea.

I'm envisioning a scenario where none of us ever get a full night's sleep again, but I know many of you have conquered this one already. So please enlighten me! How, and at what age, did you make this transition, and what would you recommend doing or not doing to make it as smooth as possible?

8 comments:

Janice and family said...

OK Steph,

My advice, just do it. You know me, I'm not really into "transitions". Tell Emma that when Garfield is napping, she cannot go into the room. You can spend that time with her reading books, coloring, playing with play dough, puzzles, whatever. She may wake when he does at night, but she will be tired and you can just have her stay in her bed. This may take a week or so for her to get used to, but the sooner, the better. They will learn to block each other out. Have fun!
Janice

Anonymous said...

Well, Steph, I can't really say as we will run into this problem soon enough in our house. I will be interested to see what you will do and how it works out for you.

To build on Janice's advice, you could make a corner of your master bedroom a reading spot/toy area for Emma during a quiet time. Maybe even put some old baskets to use for storage on shelves if you are concerned with clutter in the living room. Hope it works out.

Good Luck! Sarah Meche

Anonymous said...

I agree with Janice. You just do it. It is not likely that Emma will even wake up when Garfield does for his first feeding. Abi and Jordan were together at about this time. I just went in and got Abi and fed her and then put her back down and then Jordan would get up and we would have time together before Abi woke up again. You may need to put a small basket of toys downstairs somewhere. I think it will go smoothly. Jordan and Abi had the most special bond when they roomed together. See you tomorrow, Amy Soupiset

Krista said...

Steph!

I wish I could advise you in this area, but you may have to wait 5-10 years for that! Anyhoo, just wanted to let you know that I set up my new blog. http://kristamightyq.blogspot.com/
I hope you have a great week!

Anonymous said...

I wish I could advise you, too...but I forgot all about that stuff decades ago.

In fact, I think I just forgot what it was you wanted advice about...

Grandfather

Kim C. said...

I'm in the "just do it" camp, too. If the baby wakes up the others, I just tuck them in and tell them to go back to sleep. After a couple of nights of whininess at worst, ours have all learned to sleep through it or go right back to sleep.
If the others wake up the baby and I know it's not time for baby to be hungry, I encourage her to go back to sleep (usually with a quick pat, a reassuring word, and leave her).
Of course, this works better with some babies than others - ours have all been trained to fall asleep on their own so an untimely awakening doesn't usually mean an unexpected feeding or 30 minutes in the rocking chair.
If you'd like some tips on helping a baby sleep through the night, you might take at what we do - it has worked well for us. Maybe you'll find some helpful tips for your own family.

Anonymous said...

Have you considered a noise machine if both are really light sleepers? It also comes in handy when traveling. I don't use it much but it is handy when I need it.

Stephanie said...

Thanks, all of you, for your advice. We still haven't bitten the bullet, so to speak, but it'll be soon. I'm sure it won't be as hard as I anticipate. I built myself up for the worst regarding potty training and moving from the crib to a bed, and Emma did great with both. I appreciate the tips!