Sharing A Bedroom With Your Baby

There are so many decisions you have to make when you become a parent.  As many things in life some of these decisions we have more choices in than others.  One of these decisions is should you share you bedroom with your baby? Although in our case it wasn’t really much of a choice to share our bedroom with our baby (we only have a one bedroom apartment).  We share our bedroom with our baby, well more like our little baby daughter shares it with us. I’m going to be discussing the pros and cons of our experience in sharing a bedroom with our baby. My hope is it can help someone else in their decision whether to share or not and/or at the least provide someone else in this same situation with comfort and maybe even a laugh.

Pros:

• There’s an unspoken closeness and it’s reflected in our bond.

  • There is nothing comparable to the proximity of being close with your child. She knows we are there and it provides her and us with comfort.

• We are able to quickly respond to any concerns or issues.

  • Life with a baby is all about being the first responder and we can do this job very vigilantly by being so close together.

• We are very aware of her state and what’s going on with her.

  • This puts a parent’s mind at ease.  It’s reassuring to just hear her breathe or look over and see everything is as it should be.

• We may be getting a bit more sleep.

  • In the morning she wakes up before us and plays calmly before waking us by yelling.  She sees we are there and isn’t worried so she plays with her toys and bed while we are half asleep in our bed. This may be debatable, but it may be a factor in how we get a teensy bit more sleep in the mornings. Or maybe not and we are just always waking up early (who knows anymore) =p

• Everything is quickly within reach when we need it.

  • Everything we need for ourselves and for her are in one room.  All things are so close together that everything is on hand.

• One monitor with only one speaker is enough for the whole apartment.

  • We were able to invest in a simple monitor with only one speaker.  It’s a little thing, but every little bit counts when you are trying to save money.

• Only one humidifier is necessary for us all.

  • Similar point as the previous, we are able to save money by only needing one humidifier or certain resources and only replacing one filter at a time.  This equals saving money, which adds up.

Cons:

• Once she is asleep- we are silent- there is no walking around, opening doors, doing things basically.

  • Once she is asleep we cannot creak the floors (our wooden floors creak a LOT) and cannot shift around in the bedsheets even because the slightest noise start to wake her.

• Not waking each other is difficult.

  • We all have different bedtimes and wake up times! This is the hardest part because when we wake up for work in the very early am. We try not to wake our partner or worse the baby for our partner who is sleeping because they start work a little later in the morning.

• Funky smells in the sleeping vicinty.

  • Sometimes there are funky diaper duty smells and we need to air out the bedroom (more often than not) :/ and it’s a stinky situation (literally) when your baby’s bathroom is also your bedroom.

• Destroys and takes all things within reach.

  • We can’t keep anything nice around our bedside stand or near her bed because she reaches items through her bed bars and pulls them into bed.  Then she will either eat them or break them in some way.

• Lost half our bedroom- our space is greatly reduced

  • Let’s face it it’s her bedroom and we share the corner with my husband.  This is just her world now and we’re just living in it.

There are two stories to both sides, and there are pros and cons to sharing a room with your baby.  If you have the choice, here a a few things to consider.  If you do not have the choice and are sharing your baby’s bedroom, don’t fret.  Although it is difficult there is a wonderful connection that you and your child share strengthen by this experience.  In the end the choice is your own, you can always choose your outlook on the matter.  Our point of view is that this is our first child, and in many ways we yearn for our own space, but this experience is absolutely amazing and unlike any other.  It’s hard to describe the connection and closeness we have with our daughter, but it’s something we value over anything and we hope we can maintain and grow this special bond.

Do you have any experiences with sharing a room with your baby?  What were your struggles and insights?