Does anyone sleep on a different floor to baby/child?
I know town houses and 3 stories are quite popular at the moment, and the layout sometimes means that kids rooms are on a different floor to the parents. How do you feel about this? If you do this, does it work ok?
Basically, we've got the opportunity to move to the country (from a fairly rough but up and coming city) but the property is a converted bungalow. It has 6 potential bedrooms but they're all over the shop. There's two upstairs, two in the middle of the house and two behind the kitchen in a sort of annex - but still part of the house. We have Isaac who's 20m and we're due our next baby late September. Our thoughts are that we will sleep in the annex (it has it's own bathroom, is close to the kitchen etc) and baby will be in with us until 6m ish, then we could potentially move baby into the bedroom next to us until it's sleeping through consistently. This leaves us with putting Isaac upstairs (its quieter, and eventually his sibling will be in the room adjacent) we would then turn the remaining two bedrooms into a study and dining room. Isaac is a brilliant sleeper, sleeps at least 12hrs every night, never cries even when awake and his happy to lie there until I go in! I just don't know how I feel being so far from him, wwyd? Obviously I'd use decent monitors throughout. The house is lovely in every other way bit does need a bit of work, so it's hanging on the bedroom situation really!
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We're in a bungalow with an odd layout. At the moment j is in the same floor but quite far away, and we're moving him to the sole upstairs room when the new baby needs the nursery. I'd rather have him a bit closer, but with a decent monitor I don't think it'll be a problem. I'd go for the house based on what you've said.
We do. We moved in December to a three storey house. Our bedroom is on the top floor and Bs is on the middle to be totally honest I didn't even think about the fact that he'd be on a different floor before we moved! The only annoyance is when he's up in the night and you're going up and down stairs, other than that it's not a problem. We do have a video monitor which I think Eases my mind a lot! If we have a second they'll be with us in our room for 6 months and then in our dressing room next door until they are sleeping through then they'll be downstairs, not that I've thought of it at all!!!
See we are moving as currently in a chalet bungalow with 2 upstairs bedrooms and 1 downstairs. ...I didn't want the children on a separate floor but that's just my personal preference
We have a three storey town house and we converted the upstairs into one massive bedroom with dressing room and en suite when we moved in. Just before we had S we moved downstairs to the spare room and it was definitely easier in terms of getting up in the night and even when she stopped night feeds, I still gave her the first bottle of the day in our bed. Now she's a bit older, we'd quite happily go back upstairs with the video monitor and on the very rare occasion that she wakes in the night, we'd just go down to her. THe only thing that's stopping us is laziness of getting the TV set up back upstairs!
I wouldn't but if I absolutely had to I'd go on the floor below the children. We spoke about this as I hadn't considered it at all as we are converting our garage to a playroom, I said when they were older it could be a bedroom and h said that if intruders got in he wouldn't want the kids on the floor below and the first point of contact with any intruders.
So if I had no option I'd go on the floor below but I'd rather not.
We also live in a town house. With 2 bedrooms on the top floor & 2 on the middle floor. Currently we are on the top floor (it's where the ensuite is!) & the nursery is the other upstairs bedroom. The aim is to move our toddler to 1 of the rooms on the middle floor in the summer then the nursery will be ready for our new arrival in Oct (to store clothes etc). The long term aim is have the 2 of them on the middle floor with their own bathroom. Not sure if I can ever give up the monitor though!!!
We did until 3 weeks ago. Zoe's bedroom was on the floor above ours (3 floor townhouse) and it wasn't a problem until she got older and started moaning about sleeping on her own, however even now we are all on one floor she still would rather sleep in the same room as us so I don't think the floor made a difference.
Thanks for your thoughts. I think long term it doesn't bother me, I'd have two children upstairs and that doesn't seem as bad as him being on his own! Then in many years when the children leave, we can reclaim the upstairs and have the annex for guests. I honestly don't think he'll be phased by it, he loves his sleep and so long as it's dark and warm he'll sleep anywhere. We decided that they'd be safer upstairs too. There's also the option to have more children if we like. It's me that's going to find it hard, but perhaps a video monitor would put my mind at ease...
We have a 4-bed three story house. The master bedroom and one other bedroom is on the middle floor. Two double bedrooms and another bathroom are on the top floor. The twins will have the whole top floor so we can keep the bedroom next to ours as a study/dressing room (it is the smallest room and whilst still a good size, a bit too small for two cotbeds and furniture).
They will of course be in with us for a good while before going into their own room. I definitely prefer the idea of them being directly above us than below. There will be lots of stair gates in our house!
Ducky - I'm just having to go out and buy four!