Sibling co-sleeping?

[kaismamma]

I have a friend who feels that it's important for a baby to move from his parent's bed into the bed of a sibling because of the bonding that takes place whenever you sleep with someone. Thus, siblings are supposedly more bonded in the end. I'm wondering if any of you have seen or experienced this, or is this just theory? :shrug

We have a two-bedroom house and a 6-month-old son who is currently co-sleeping with us. I plan to make the second bedroom into his bedroom and our guest room for after he moves out of our bed.....maybe in another 6 months? So I'm debating whether to put a full size bed in that room which he and a future little brother can share - or - putting two twin beds in the room that would be easier for children to make and also be a better set-up for if our next little one is a girl. Any thoughts or opinions on what I should do? Maybe my other question is, what do you think of boy and girl preschool siblings sharing a bed?

Just a side note....if I start out with a full size bed and the next one is a girl, it would still be a few years off before she'd move into that room and by then we may have the apartment in our basement vacated and I could put a full bed down there and turn that into our guestroom and get twin beds for the kids room at that time. But that's not an option right now as it will be occupied for awhile.

[MamaCare]

Well, in the older boys' room we have twin bunk beds... but many nights, they end up in one bed together. (Less this past year, but still sometimes). We're currently co-sleeping w/the baby (Gigi is in a toddler bed at the end of our king, and joins us when she wakes early a.m.) and in the little's room (that has their clothes/toys) there is a full size bed. Not sure when we'll transition them to sleeping there... probably not for awhile yet. I'm okay w/the shared gender co-sleeping while they're little.
AFA bonding... seems to me my kids are *all* really bonded with each other. And they love to snuggle up with each other. My absolute favorite thing in the world is having my *whole* family in bed! :)

[deena]

Yeah, I transition my kids to parents bed to sibling bed. My ten and 7 year old sleep together. I've been very happy with the results. The pros:
The transition is smooth
If they're used to sleeping with a warm body there is no better way to sleep.
It's really heart warming to see them hugging in their sleep



The cons:
Sometimes they squirm/kick each other for a little bit before they sleep.


I know there's a lot of others on GCM who also have had positive experiences with it. Hopefully they'll chime in.

[GodChick]

my two girls sleep together. they love it and sleep well. they are very close, but i don't attribute that to just sleeping together . . . theu also tandem nursed and are close in age. we didn't feel it was necessary for them to sleep together to forge a bond or anything . . . they just kept climbing into bed together, so we figured we just buy them a larger bed to share. :giggle

[2sunshines]

My kids sleep together. I think that going from a family bed with parents to a family bed with a sibling helps that transition. We have two twin beds in their room, but they sleep together in one every night.

[canadiyank]

My girls sleep together. They're in a room with a trundle and loft bed, so sometimes they're each in one, both in the top, both in the bottom, whatever, I don't make a big deal about it. I have no idea if they're more bonded or not b/c I have nothing to compare it to. But they both seem to like it, for now. I suppose when they're older they'll have different beds, but that's what works right now. My mom shared a bed with her sister until she left home.

[kaismamma]

Very cool. My heart is to put my kids together in bed. I just haven't seen it done a whole lot. All my friends buy those little tiny toddler beds. It makes a full size bed seem gigantic! But I think I'm leaning towards doing that anyhow.

Don't full size beds sit a little taller than even just a regular twin? Maybe it's just the size of it that makes me think that, but I've wondered if little one is going to have trouble getting in and out of it. My husband and I have talked about rigging a slide for getting out and stairs for getting in....if we can figure out how to do it safely! :lol

I'm also a little concerned about whether it will be difficult to teach him how to make his big bed. I'm planning on using a duvet cover and filling it with his needed blankets so that there will be just one to pull up, but we're still dealing those pesky, but needed railings. What do you do, or do you not stress the bed making?

[canadiyank]

We don't make beds around here. :shifty My dd likes to do it sometimes. We just use a blanket. They mostly kick them off anyways. My younger doesn't like blankets much so I just put her in warm jammies.

[Elora]

I never thought of it like that, but that is exactly what happened in my house...all my little sisters slept with me when they moved out of my mom & dad's bed

...LOL and the littlest one still does when she stays at my house on her breaks.

We are SUPER close. I don't know if the bond is from co-sleeping but they are my bestest friends EVER :heart

[eejei]

when dd moves out of her cot (sorry I'm not a co-sleeper, i do try but it just doesn't work for us) I plan on putting the two kids to sleep together and I figure the best way to do this is in the same bed. Ds loves to snuggle up to us at night so I think he'll like to sleep with dd. My sil's kids sleep together. It is so beautiful to see her 4yo put her arms around her younger brother as they sleep.

[GodChick]

Don't full size beds sit a little taller than even just a regular twin? Maybe it's just the size of it that makes me think that, but I've wondered if little one is going to have trouble getting in and out of it.

They make "Low-rise" frames too. That's what we have on the girls' bed. It's still higher than a toddler bed, but not nearly as high as a regular bed frame. :tu

[deena]

Very cool. My heart is to put my kids together in bed. I just haven't seen it done a whole lot.


:jump2 Join the club. :kiss

[klpmommy]

E panicks if she is alone in the middle of the night. She sleeps with P b/c of it.

BTW- they sleep on a twin pushed up against a full, both on the floor. I get the crack when I join them.

[doubleblessings]

We had a full on the floor when they were hum :think less than a year and I would lay down with them while they went to sleep and then again when they woke during the night. We had a twin and a full on the floor until they were 2.5 or so (the full got a little small for all three of us). Then we got two twin beds (they are not on a frame, just the box spring on the floor with mattress on top of it). The twin beds are now in an L. They are sometimes in the same bed, but they each have their own bed (different color sheets) and can have space if they want.