I am due with our second baby September 2 and have a son that is now 19 months. Reilley (my son) has not gotten used to sleeping by himself in his own bed yet and I am a little worried as to what I will do once the new baby arrives. My husband already complains about not having enough room with Reilley in the bed, and I don't really have much room either with my growing belly, but I would prefer to have Reilley sleep with us and me actually get to sleep, then to have him up crying all night because he doesn't want to sleep alone. I guess if anyone has any advice please let me know. I don't agree with letting him cry it out for a few nights in his own bed like some people have suggested to me.
I sympathize with your situation as my wife and I are personal believers in the "co-sleeping" technique. I often think about what it would be like when our second child arrives. Currently, we have our bed and our daughters crib with the (rail gaurd down pushed together), to ease the transition of sleeping in her crib. Its stayed in this position for months and we love the way its worked out. It gives us our own bed back with the benefit of having our daughter Kamryn near. I imagine that if another child were to just magically appear (haa), we would then either try to put Kamryn's crib in her own room or just upgrade to a king size bed? I just don't know how well that would work out with a newborn waking up sporatically through the night and waking up our 15 month old upsetting her as well. Its a tough dilemma but I'm sure you'll find the right method. Hope my comment at least sparked some ideas...
I have three children and have run into this problem many times. Ariel (the oldest slept with us until she was 15 months then moved into a toddler bed in our room. Our second child, Will, was born one month later and slept with us until he was about 6 months. He is a very independent child and wanted his own space. We moved him into the crib in the nursery and put Ariel's toddler bed in there with him. They slept great! However, I never just laid them down to fall asleep on their own. I always rocked or cuddled them until they fell asleep. When will was eight months old, I became pregnant with our youngest child, David. Before David was born Will was also in a toddler bed. I moved Ariel into what was once the play room and left Will in the nursery. The baby is now 3 months old and sleeps with us. Will and Ariel sleep in seperate rooms and fall asleep on their own with no problem. They are now 3 years and 20 months.
We're expecting our second at the end of August and I was so worried about this. We got a twin bed for Jake (24 months) in his room and after I get him to sleep I'll lay him down there. The down side is that he still wakes up in the night at least once, but he'll call out to me and I can go comfort him back to sleep. And then of course he's in our bed by morning. It's been a gradual process, but it's working for us. I've spent a lot of nights falling asleep in his bed only to wake up a couple of hours later and return to my bed, so at times it's not the most restful! I am concerned about how I'll be able to manage two little ones though after the baby comes if I'm running from one bed to the other! Good luck in finding what works for your family.
