How we catch our Zzzzz's over here

I had a sweet friend email me a few questions about our sleeping arrangements at our humble abode...Other than the obvious of our master being occupied by the Mister and I.
I thought her questions were really great questions that I so should have thought of a bit ago. We are in our groove now, content with what kids are in what rooms and it is working really well, but not to say there isn't room for improvement. Because there is always room for that lovely thing!

 So here is how we work it out.

When we moved into this house we only had our three oldest and they each had their own room. Honestly, I didn't love it because I wanted our kids to share rooms. My sister and I shared a room for almost our entire life before we wed. Even when we did have our own rooms, most nights we slept in the same bed because we just loved to chat into the late hours of the evening. I longed for that for my kids. And DJ & I feel very strongly that we are raising our kids to be best buds. Yes, they fight…like cats and dogs sometimes. Yes, they disagree…we have many chiefs in our tribe. Yes, they giggle and laugh late into the evening some nights, but I am so thankful for that laughter. Yes, they get out of their beds at least 1, 2, 3, 6…9 times a night - and we are still working on this one.

I know this is hard to see - iphoneography at it's best in low light - but this is how the girls sleep in their queen…like spaghetti and it melts me.

So we have the 5 year old and almost 8 year old boys together - bunked two high in their beds.
We have the 3 year old and freshly 10 year old in the same room and SAME bed. They had separate twin beds but slept together every night (amazingly enough no one was hurt from falling out of bed) so we decided to give them our Queen bed and now we have a KING…yes a KING!
And littlest boy, almost 1 now has his own bedroom. However, I am hopeful he can bunk with the boys in this  house... we'll see. None of our rooms are huge so I am not sure if that will work or not in this house.

We have always observed early bed times. I feel VERY strongly kids NEED sleep - for health, happiness and because they are growing like weeds. So they are in bed early but that doesn't always mean go to sleep right away. Even when they don't though, they talk and DJ & I have overhead some conversations which are absolutely precious. And I know they are making memories they will cherish someday.
The two oldest ones are able to stay up later reading or doing puzzles together now that they are getting older. And they do this often…I love seeing and hearing them read to each other. This does mean that little siblings are at times woken up when they hop in bed, but typically they just go back to sleep - I guess this is just part of it.

When all of our babes were new in our arms (with the exception of Arae because I didn't think I was "supposed" to do that…however the more babies we had the more I realized what a bonding experience it was and so convenient for nursing moms and good for babies who spit up), they slept the first 3 weeks or so in our bed, in my arms propped with pillows all around me (we so could have used the KING bed then). I LOVE these days so much! (side note, I know not everyone agrees with this…it's just how we do it)

After that, they slept the next 4-5 months in our room in a pack and play - again for ease of nursing and having them close by. We also have spitter-uppers - some severe and on more than one occasion we had to suction a baby's mouth in the middle of the night - which is so scary! Those are the nights that I am extremely thankful they were in our bedroom as close to me as possible so I could hear and help them.

Between 5-6 months of age our babies, typically, were sleeping through the night and then in their cribs in their own rooms.

After that point, they do not sleep in our bed again (with the exception of a sick child). I don't think it is healthy for them or us to have babies in our bed to the point they then don't want to sleep in their own bed (again, personal decision). If our kids are sick or have bad dreams or growing pains, as one particular son has often, and we cannot comfort them in their own room then we make a sweet little place of slumber on our bedroom floor. We have established this early on so honestly, they don't even ask to sleep in our bed. For them, the floor is where they want to be. I have held many a sweet little fingers over the side of our bed as they fell asleep.

This is just how we do it…what about you? Any novel ideas for having little ones sleep peacefully in their own room?