Bunk bed hell

I’m in bunk bed hell please help me. I have a 5 and 2 year old and I’m pregnant with a third girl due late December. My girls are a fresh 2 and 5 also, they just had their birthdays a few weeks ago. We live in a three bedroom house. From birth, I’ve never had the best sleepers, but a month ago we were in a pretty good sleep place with the older girl in a twin in her own room and the toddler in a crib in her own room.

We bought a new bunk bed a month ago and set it up in the older girl’s room with the intention of transitioning them into sharing a room before the baby arrives. Since the 2 year old was going straight from a crib to sleeping on the bottom of a bunk bed, I started laying down with her until she fell asleep to make sure she didn’t try to get out of bed or climb to the top bunk. We’ve been trying this for about 3 weeks now but it’s starting to seem like a disaster.

The girls keep each other up late just from hearing each other and taking a long time to settle. I’m very annoyed laying in there for an hour while they settle and fall asleep but I try (and often fail) to stay calm and manage behavior without saying much. After weeks of me laying there my 2 year old now has a dependency of wanting me there and the 5 year old now doesn’t want to sleep alone. They go to sleep late and then the 2 year old wakes both of them up way too early. We use a hatch light with red and green showing when to be in bed and get up but the 2 year old doesn’t understand yet. The 5 year old is then in a horrible grouchy mood all day because she’s tired. But heaven help us if she naps because then she keeps everyone up even later that evening.
She starts kindergarten next week and I’m so scared her bad mood is going to affect her at school.

I know we have months before baby arrives and I could just put everyone back in their own rooms and deal with a week or so of crying while everyone learns to fall asleep alone again. But, I keep thinking this is horrible and would be even more horrible with a newborn. I’m really starting to feel bleak about my life in general. My small house, my children’s behavior made so much worse by being tired, my own mental health, my upcoming additional child that is going to be thrown into the mess. Help help please help.🙏