Monday, September 10, 2012

double trouble

Finding out that we're having a third child join our family is awesome-- but it poses a bit of a challenge to our family's sleeping logistics.  We have three bedrooms upstairs and two downstairs (currently used as our office and guest room).  So, what to do?  We have two options-- convert our downstairs office into a bedroom for Caleb and move the office/guest room together... or have Caleb and Emerson share a bedroom.  At first I was really thinking that Caleb would be moving downstairs... but... the more I thought about it, the more I felt a little weird about it.  He'd be all the way downstairs... separate from the rest of the family.  He is ONLY 5... we're going to try and keep everyone upstairs for the time being.  This means... double room... double trouble.

I'm happy that all the kids will be sleeping upstairs across the hall from Doug and I-- but the thought of these two sharing a room is a little scary to me...  Will they ever sleep again?  Will I ever sleep again?


There are a few issues that will need to be overcome to make this work.  First, the kids have somewhat different sleeping schedules-- Caleb goes to bed later and is usually awake earlier.  Secondly, Emerson is a VERY light sleeper-- oh dear.  And lastly-- Caleb is SUPER territorial about HIS toys, HIS space, and HIS bedroom.  It's going to be an adjustment for us all.

And then there are other things to consider... how do I make a somewhat smallish bedroom functional for two kids?  How do I make the room cute and fun for a boy and a girl?  That's going to be my challenge for the next few months.

So, here's what I'm thinking.

First of all, beds with built in storage.  If Caleb does ever move downstairs, he's going to need a bed with drawers since the room is really small.  Instead of bunkbeds, I've decided that I'd like to use two separate beds with drawers since I think they will give us the most flexibility in the long run.  This means we're scrapping the idea of having a dresser in the room.  We'll have to outfit the closet with some super clothing/toy organization to help with the storage situation as well.


If Doug has time, he might try building the beds to hopefully save us a bit of $$.  If we run out of time... we'll be running on over to Ikea for their Brimnes twin beds :)

Now... how to make the room work aesthetically for both a boy and a girl.  Well, not too sure how it's all going to happen yet.  But so far here's what I'm thinking:
  • I'll keep the walls light and fresh
  • I definitely plan to add some vintage charm with artwork and accessories
  • Go for some graphic pattern-- maybe black and white?  maybe some stripes?
  • Maybe I can fit a chalkboard wall in there somewhere...
Here's some pretty pictures that are inspiring me...

Love the feel of this space... and that storage is amazing!!



Double beds... check.  Cute vintage charm?  check.


Loving this art wall.


This one too!


Oh yeah, and I like this one. 


Love that graphic black and white with the pops of red...


Chalkboard wall... stripes.  That's two from my list!  Oh, and great storage inspiration!


This room is pretty much shared room perfection in my books... just need to squeeze in two beds and my two kids could more right in :)

design by Black and Spiro via decorpad

We'll see what happens...

Okay people... so now you've gotta tell me... do your kids share bedrooms?  How do you make it work?  How did you ease your kids into it?  Any tips for me?  Please help!  I'm feeling a little worried :) 

10 comments:

Erica said...

My sister & I shared a room until I was maybe 12. We had bunk beds, and a pretty tiny room. We rarely played in our room, it was really just sleeping and clothing storage!
Also, the title of this post made me think you were about to have twins! THAT would be chaotic!

Tash said...

I have three kids, boy, girl, boy. When #3 came along, #1 & #2 had to share. It worked out well, they loved having a buddy to go to bed with, and once we hit a routine, they went to sleep right away. My oldest is an early riser, so we told him to sneak out of the room as to not wake his sister. Sometimes he did, sometimes he didn't! Now that my oldest is 7, he is downstairs, and all three have their own rooms. The only thing I regret is that I never decorated the room to suit both kids, we just stuck with what we had for paint and bedding. But now that they each have their own rooms, we are painting and making them each their own. All the best!

Anonymous said...

why don't you and doug move downstairs..get a baby monitor and/or let the baby sleep in your room for awhile

Anonymous said...

check out the blog..thebooandtheboy.she shows several sharing rooms. great blog for decorating kids rooms.

Anonymous said...

Ours have shared since Evy was a baby so they have adjusted. It works 99% of the time and then there are the nights I long for a third bedroom. We put Evy down first and then Wy goes in when she is asleep. If we put them in together she thinks its play time and he yells at her to go to sleep, and we end up with two unhappy children and two unhappy adults! The only time it is really hard is when one of them is sick. As for toys, we put a trofast wall unit up with some of his toys that she is too short to reach. They have been calling their little areas their rooms so I think its OK with them too.:)Sorry this is so long just thought I'd share my thoughts as our children are similar ages. Congratulations on baby #3 from all of us! Good luck with the room sharing.
Brianne

tan said...

Our girls share a room...we have bunk beds because their room is quite small. They had different sleeping schedules when we started, but it only took a few weeks of adjusting and then they did great! Now our oldest goes to bed a little later than our middle and they usually wake up around the same time. Hope everything goes good for you! Congrats on the new baby...having 3 us the best:):)

Danae said...

Our 4year old boy and 2 yearboldmgirl have shared a room since our 3rd was born. I was nervous about it as well, but it seems to have all worked out. We were very firm initially about not waking the other one, especially in the morning and now whomever is up first usually just sneaks out. They go to bed with music which seems to keep the chatter down as well! I recently started using http://organizingmadefun.blogspot.ca/2011/09/picking-my-organizing-brain.html
This folding technique for our limited drawer space and it is amazing how much space it saves plus the kids can see everything so they don't have to rummage around. Good luck, I can't wait to see how you decorate the room, I'm sure it will be amazing!

Amber said...

hey, we had 3 kids aged 3, 1 and newborn share one tiny room for many many months (about 2 years actually!) we had a set of bunk beds and about a foot from that was the crib. oh man...sometimes when one kid woke in the night, all kids awoke. it was a disaster. often we had one or two kids sleeping in bed with us (depending on what kind of middle of the night shuffling needed to happen in order to get the kids back to sleep). ANYWAY, ahem. You want tips?? Sorry.

One tip I can offer is this...we would ALWAYS put one kid to bed in our bed. Then we were wanting to go to bed we would do the transfer to the other room. That way there was only two kids falling asleep in the one room.

Ummm, other than that -Good luck!

JTay said...

My kiddos share a room and I love it. There's something nice about your babies all being together. And I have this romantic notion of it being like the old stories (like Peter Pan) when all the kids sleep in a "nursery" together. ;)

Now, mine have shared right from the start, but a couple things we do to work around some of the issues (my boy and girl are very similar to you in sleep patterns):
-Sometimes my older son goes to sleep on our bed, or reads books on our bed until his little sister is really asleep. That gives him the wind-down time he needs.
-For naps they often sleep in different rooms. (But naps won't be as much of an issue for you?)
-Have specific baskets for "my toys only" - that way each sibling can pick a few special items that are only theirs (and they don't have to share) and as long as the toys/items are in those basket or on their bed, the other sibling is not allowed to touch. Everything else is fair game to be shared.

P.S. - I love red accents for a shared boy/girl room!

arrielle_p said...

I love everything I see in these photos you have shared in here. Really a perfect rooms for kids. :)

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