Childrens Bedrooms

butterflylady

Evening all,

My OH and I are currently having a debate in regards to the sleeping arrangments in our house.

We have a 3 bed semi, with 2 double bedrooms and the box room, which isn't that small it currently has a single bed in it bookcase and desk with PC.

We have a DS aged 2.5 and I am 29 weeks pregnant with our second, the plan has always been that the baby would come in with us until it needed the cot and then would either go in with DS if it was a boy or into the box room if it was a girl.

We were talking today as DS room needs re arranging and redecorating and then he can go into his bed, OH has today said that it would be eaiser to move DS into the box room as it is already blue and would reduce the need for redecorating if the new baby is a girl.

I think this is unfair as DS will under go a huge change once the baby is born from having mummy and daddy to himself to having to share, I know he will adapt to this and is quite excited about the new baby.

But still I always thought that the oldest had the biggest room, but then I am an only one so don't have any experience of this.

So I asking all of you lovely people what would you do?


Butterfly xx

pigpen

I'd have DS in the bigger room for now with his toys so he can get out of bed and play for a while in a morning... the baby will be with you for a while anyway.. you may decide to move before it moves out of your room.

msb5262

Hello OP,

I understand your feeling that your DS needs to be nurtured around the time of the new baby arriving...it's not the easiest time in the world but you'll be fine. Your DS may well find it harder to have new baby sharing your bedroom than possibly evicting him from his.

You can always explain the new bedroom part to him by letting him choose (from options you'd accept!) how to decorate/furnish/ arrange it and tell him it's especially for him.

However, I must admit that I would work on the basis of putting both children in the bigger room together until they are old enough to need/appreciate having rooms of their own!

We did this with our first two children (boy and girl) and kept the other bedroom as a spare room/study, then when new baby (#3) arrived, DS1 got his own room - the smallest - and DD and DS2 shared the larger room. (We still had a spare room as we'd converted the attic into a bedroom for us.)

They shared until DD was 9 and DS2 was 7.

You said you mightneed to redecorate a blue room if you put a girl in it - why?

You could always leave it until it really needs doing, by which time your daughter may well be old enough to choose something she'd like.

HTH

MsB

Rachel83

I wouldn't swap his room esp if your putting him into a bed too, sorry if I'm wrong but from your post thats the jist I got from it. Both of them are quite big changes just before your new arrival appears too.
My DD was 3 when my DS was born he's 9 months now she always had the bigger of the 2 spare bedrooms we had. My DS stayed in with us for 4-5 months then went into the smaller room, we decorated both rooms when I was about 25 weeks, as I didn't want to do babys room and not hers. She picked out her pink paint and we painted hers then all did her brothers room together.

butterflylady

Thank you for all the responses.

Rachel you are indeed correct I am going to move him into a toddler bed once the redecoration is done. DS has had the cot and the toddler bed in his room for a while and has asked to sleep in his big bed!!

I'm not sure what this baby is, the old wives tale test would indicate a second son but a scan possible seems to indicate the oppersite, so I don;t want to decorate the smaller room until I know for sure. In the processes making additional work for OH!!!

We have talked to DS about the new baby sharing a room with him if its a boy and he seems ok with this, he has shared his room previously with an older child.

In my head again its probably me being an only child I wouldn't want DS and the new baby to share if it was a girl, I'm in the lucky position of having the 3rd bedroom so would want to use it.

Make-it-3

I agree to some extent - not only is he not going to be getting all the attention anymore - he looks like being relegated to the smaller bedroom.

I think leave him be - there's going to be enough upheavals. Wait and see how things pan out once you are ready to move the baby out of your own room. And - nothing wrong in putting a girl in a blue room if that's the room you decide on (and you have a girl).

savingmummy

We are moving to a 3 bed this year and my daughter (4) will have the big room, my son the box room (2).
Girls in both our families always had the bigger rooms whether they be younger or older mainly because they have more things and used their rooms more x

Alikay

Until the children are quite a bit older (maybe at junior school) I don't think it matters if boys and girls share. They will however have different routines for a couple of years: You may want to put them to bed at different times, and DS1 will want a bedtime story which may be easier with the baby in another room.

I'd put the cot in the little room and move your son into a newly decorated "big boy's room"

dizziblonde

Decorate the box room in something like a yellow or pale bluey-purple and then you're ready for all eventualities? Can always buy some of those stick-on decorative bits for the appropriate gender, or border when you know who's going in there. You might find your boy chooses to go into the "new and shiny" bedroom of his own accord - or you've got a ready painted nursery for the new littlie.

As a little girl my idea of hell would have been a pink room - I had an obsessional hatred of the colour (I wear it now but only the very bright shades) - do rooms have to be as simple as pink/blue? If I ever have a little girl I'll be the one going nuts trying to find non-pink clothes for her!

Janepig

Alikay wrote: »

Until the children are quite a bit older (maybe at junior school) I don't think it matters if boys and girls share. They will however have different routines for a couple of years: You may want to put them to bed at different times, and DS1 will want a bedtime story which may be easier with the baby in another room.

I'd put the cot in the little room and move your son into a newly decorated "big boy's room"

My DD is 6 and DS is 4 and I have a terrible time trying to get them NOT to share! I try to put my foot down and say they can sleep in DD's bed on the weekends, but if there's school in the morning they must stay in their own beds - however most nights when we check on them before going to bed ourselves they're in together and have to be moved.

I also went through a phase of sharing with my brother who is five years older than me. My two love me telling them how my brother used to have a sleeping bag under his sheets which we used to snuggle into together, and then he'd push my head into the sleeping bag and fart!! Happy days :rotfl:.

Jxx

Triggles

We have much the same set up here. We have a DS who was turning 3 just when our newborn was born. 3yo has the larger room, as that is the room he was already in, and we felt as the older child, he would need the space for toys and playing area. Plus we didn't want him to feel displaced by the baby. The baby is now in the smaller bedroom, as he really doesn't have many toys at this age and doesn't play independently in his room, so doesn't need the play area either.