Shared Kids Room (Ours!)

At the start of 2017 I can officially say we have moved Baby Mae into Theo's room.  It has only been a week so I will certainly not have the lessons to offer like Em Morrice in her interview here, but I can share some early experiences.  It happened by chance over the holidays as we had friends over and put Mae's bassinet in Theo's room so as not to disturb her.  Both kids fell asleep in the room together, so when our friends left later that night we decided to not put the bassinet beside our bed.  

Since that night we haven't moved her back.  Mae has fussed a bit in the night (she has two teeth already!) without waking Theo (he is a heavy sleeper).  The really nice part about moving Mae into the bedroom is that I don't wake at every noise she makes.  I hope this is teaching her to self-soothe a bit.  Because she is still only about 10-15 steps away I can certainly hear her yell or cry and tend to her right away.  But I no longer wake with every grunt. 

The first night they shared a room, Theo awoke claiming a monster was in his room and I'm pretty sure it was Mae's nasally breathing.  I have since reminded him at night that Mae shares his room now and sometimes she's a little bit loud but there are no monsters in his room.  He seems to be sleeping better.  

At the advice of readers we have tucked an air purifying fan near her bassinet to add some white noise.  The fan doesn't seem to make a huge difference at night but it is critical for any naps we manage to get in the house in the day. We are still considering adding black out fabric to the doors on the kids room to create more room separation.  Currently the room has two frosted glass sliding doors.  The doors are nice for adding light in the day but at night they are bit problematic. 

We plan to move Mae out of her bassinet shortly as she is almost six months (!!!)  and starting to sit up and outgrow the bassinet all at once. I will share this transition as well. I am also looking forward to sharing more interviews in the Shared Kids Room Series soon!