Infant sharing room with older sibling - Sleep HELP!!?

Does anyone's infant have to share a room with an older sibling? DS#1 is 4 1/2 and DS #2 is 6 months. DS #1 was a GREAT sleeper - went to sleep pretty well early on and was STTN from around 9 weeks. He was in our room until almost 4 months - mostly b/c the holidays were coming up when we was about 3 months and we were having company and didn't want to have to move him twice. So at 4 months, he went into his crib, no problem.

But now with DS #2 - he is not STTN - I am BF (DS#1 didn't latch so I gave up even trying around 3 months but he mostly had bottles at night anyway.)
So, DS#2 falls asleep nursing around 8-8:30. I put him down and he will usually wake right up. We've been trying CIO with some varied success. But around 12ish now he cries and will keep crying if I don;t bring him into bed (I always said I'd NEVER do that ) Usually he wants to nurse, but sometimes I can just get him to go back to sleep. But he's up again around 3:00 and wants to eat. Then it varies, sometimes he'll wake around 5-5:30 to nurse. sometimes it's like I have 10 minutes more to sleep and he wakes to eat.

What my real question is, is how do I put him in the room with his brother? The last thing I need is for him to wake the older one up. So I can't just let him CIO in there. I really need to get him out of our room. I sometimes think he is wanting to eat because he senses me there. Just so frustrating!!! And I'm so sleepy!!

Any help would be so appreciated!!!

Re: Infant sharing room with older sibling - Sleep HELP!!?

Bump...
Anyone?

Re: Infant sharing room with older sibling - Sleep HELP!!?

From experience, my kids learned to tune out the crying baby. Either they just got used to it or they are heavy sleepers. The times you listed were also the times my DD would wake up to be fed. I also breastfed, however, we co-slept so it was easier for me to feed her. Boys had their beds in our room, we're all there (we prefer it that way). At first, they'd wake up too when the baby cried. But they got back to sleep quickly. A few more times, they don't even flinch even if we were having a bad night and DD will be wailing (especially during that time when I was doing transition and sort of lessened the time I breastfed her through the night).

Re: Infant sharing room with older sibling - Sleep HELP!!?

I have a similar problem with my DS who is 2 and DD who is 8 months. They share a room and I get so worried when DD wakes up. There have been times when she will wake up an I'll go in the room an he will be standing in his crib. It's horrible when you have 2 kids up at 3am. I try an rock her if she wakes up in the middle of the night and if he is snoring I know he won't wake up. I do have a rule where if she makes it through the night and wakes after 4 I'll take her into bed. I need my sleep and he is an early riser, 630 and she will sleep late at my mom's or in my bed. It's hard though and know if they each had their own room things would be easier.

Re: Infant sharing room with older sibling - Sleep HELP!!?

My kids have always shared. They are 3 years apart. I put my youngest into his brother room when he was about 5 months. My son was still BF as well but was a pretty good sleeper. But he woke up at least once a night, and sometimes still does at 22 months. When he does wake up he cries super loud and now that he is older I let him CIO at times. It's not as easy as it would be if they had separate rooms. I have to stager there bedtimes because putting them down at same time just doesn't work so well.
My older son sleeps through 95% of the crying. My oldest is not a heavy sleeper either. You will be surprised.
I would try moving your youngest into the room and see how it goes. I always found both my kids slept longer at that age when they weren't in my room. They for sure sense you being there.

Re: Infant sharing room with older sibling - Sleep HELP!!?

Ugh, my DS1 (age 4 ) was/is a great sleeper and DS2 (5 months) sounds just like your DS2. I'm BF this time around too. I don't really have any advice for you bc my DS' don't share a room but I will say that when DS2 wakes and screams, DS1 will sometimes wake up too. Having 2 awake is the worst. One thing you can try is to have a sound machine (the sleepmate ones are about $50 but are great bc they have no discernable pattern to the sound ) in the room. That may drown out the crying a bit so that maybe your older DS won't wake.

Re: Infant sharing room with older sibling - Sleep HELP!!?

Thank you so much for the replies.

Guess we will just have to give it a go. I feel like we really need to stagger the bedtimes, but right now it's so hard since I don't get home till after 7 and they both generally go down around 8 - or we try at least.