Sleeping in the Hallway

I always thought I would want my children to share a room. They would keep each other company, learn how to share, and hopefully have more fun. I did not anticipate how difficult it would be to put my 3-year old son (who is a GREAT) sleeper in the same room as my 10-month old daughter, who is a less-than-great sleeper.

You always here that kids can sleep through a sibling crying. My son, a very deep sleeper, gets frightened by the sound of his sister crying at night. So inevitably, we have to take one of them out - often several times a night - and no one gets any sleep.

Then one night, my son brilliantly - and a little miraculously - solved our dilemma. Knowing that sleeping in our room was not an option, he began requesting to sleep in the hallway. We would lay down his sleeping bag and the various blankets and pillows and animals that accompany him to dreamland on the carpet in the hall outside our bedroom - and there he would spend the night. He essentially created a third "bedroom" in our apartment, enabling us to finally sleep train our daughter and all of us to get a better night's rest.

I am hopeful that soon our daughter will be sleeping well enough not to disturb him anymore - and that they can finally begin to enjoy sharing a room. Until then, I am very grateful to my little boy for being so flexible and so creative.

He's a great little guy.