Twins in the same room?

[laileybrooks]

I lucked out with two sets of twins, my doctor, midwife and health nurse all said to keep them together and we have they are so lost without each other. The oldest set is 7 and the youngest is 20 months. The youngest still share a bed they sleep kind of like little kittens all curled up together. and the oldest share a room beds head to head.

[Ceili]

Missed this originally; sorry. And congrats!

Our (boy/boy) twins share a room, and will likely do so indefinitely. It's not much of a choice for us: we have 4 kids, and do not have a 5-bedroom (plus a (needed) permament, full-time home office) house, so the kids share rooms. Our older two boys share a room, and our twins share another.

Although, even if we had more of a choice, I still think I'd likely keep them together (at least until/unless they asked for separate rooms, when they were old enough to do so). They're used to each other's company, from the womb onward, and (for the most part ) find comfort in it. I find keeping them together, esp. as wee ones, is respectful of and supportive of the twin bond and their emotional connection.

For us, the twins were in our room as newborns/young babies: they shared a crib (attached at the foot of the bed) until around 4 months, when they started to get too tall to fit laying in the crib sideways (so that they both fit), plus I had a bedside co-sleeper bassinet for ease of access (for tired mommy), plus they rotated in and out of our bed as needed. So, musical sleep surfaces , but all the surfaces were attached so it was like one big sleep complex. Then, they were in two cribs in our room (we have a pretty big master bedroom): again they could come into our bed for soothing/nursing as needed, and be returned to their cribs if/when I felt like it. Now, as toddlers, their cribs are in their own room, and they start the night (and nap) there, but we'll go get them if needed. (Little A often sleeps through. Little B usually still needs parental comforting at some point during the night.)

If we'd been planning on leaving our babies to “cry it out“ for sleep training, I could see that being infeasible when the babies share a room. But I have no interest in doing that; it's not something I'm comfortable doing with babies, room-sharing or no.

[Meows]

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!

I am ALL for kids sharing rooms. Yes, have the twins share.

[InTheSun]

I am a twin and I know we shared a crib for a few months at least, and we shared a bedroom until around age 10.

[Momof2possums]

Hey, Congrats! I remember my husband & I walking around the hospital with our new-born twins and feeling sorry for all the parents who had just one baby.

We have 4-yr-old b/g twins who still share a room. We have a spare bedroom but I can't convince them to split up. They shared a crib for the first few months, then they shared our bed until they were about 6 months & started wiggling too much! My advice is just do whatever works for you. We had so many people criticizing us for letting the twins share our bed (while my husband slept in a cot in the living room), but it was the only way I could get any sleep. I could just grab the crying baby, nurse him or her back to sleep, then go back to sleep myself. So, whatever works for you!

[Momof2possums]

Oh, to actually answer your question...they almost never woke each other up with crying - either when they shared a crib or when they were in separate cribs. That was never a problem. But of course I never really let them cry (I'm don't like the cry it out method).

[DMSco]

I would put them in the same room and sme crib you gotta remember they've been smoshed up against eachother since they were nothing more then cells. they would miss eachother.

[kikis6kids]

Congrats twins are awesome.

When our twins were born Jenna spent quite a few months more than Emma in the NICU and when she came home she was on a heart/apnea monitor so sharing a crib was not safe for Emma (was worried she would get tangled in Jenna's wires). During the day they did share a bassinet and a seater (those were the days I could fit both in the same seater lol) but only when I was right there and could see them.

They are 9 years old now and have always shared a room and always will. They started sleeping in the same bed together when they were 3 (would crawl into the same bed but started out in their own beds) So we got them a queen sized bed and they slept in that together until they were 8, now they have their own beds again

[Tannaleigh]

Congrats!

My DP's niece has twin girls. She keeps them in the same room. The cribs used to be on opposite walls but now as they are getting better they are together in the middle of the room. When the girls wake up in the morning they play together for ages! and its so cute to hear wee babies giggling with one another before anyone else is up in the am!

ETA: since I am in a small 2 bedroom, we are keeping our boys in the same room as well. They will have the same age difference as my sister and I and we shared a room for ages. We still laugh about some of the funny things we did while sharing our room!

[Mumma]

Congratulations! I second the suggestion to contact the London Multiple Births Association. I don't think I'd have made it through the first 8 months of my girls lives without their support and information. They have a website - see bottom of my post and are on Facebook - active discussion group there with great information, etc. The group also has social events going all year where you can meet and hopefully bond with other multiple families. I love taking the girls there because for a day, they're not the oddity in the room.

Our twin daughters slept in the bassinette feature of a play pen for the first 4 months. Then a shared crib til 7 months. I didn't want to separate them even then because they soothed each other at night but one girlie was flip flopping and waking the other.

So two cribs end to end and for 3 months, no one slept. Then I clued in and tied the cribs together by the legs, side by side. They could see each other, touch and things were great.

Until the flip flopper figured out how to climb into the snuggly one's crib. Snuggly would freak out because it's her space and she couldn't climb out. Trapped with her tormenting twin. And when they were getting along, they together started jumping in the cribs and broke one. That meant big girl beds at 18 months. And again, no one slept for months.

My girls will be 4 in May. They still share a room. We've, in frustration, spoke of separating them but have agreed that we want to wait til they express the desire to be separate. Until then, I don't want them to think we want them to be apart.

There are stages and cycles that all kids go through that are complicated, IMO, when the kids come two or more at a time. A new stage, even now, almost always means sleep disruption for all of us. However, when we're back on an even keel, the benefits of having them together are obvious.

I think the best answer is keep them together until you feel that's not working any longer.

I hope and pray my girls are as close and loving throughout their lives and Jenelen's post. I'm doing my best to not screw that up.

www.londonmultiples.com

[bikruca]

Yup my girls have always been in the same room, I don't see it working any other way any time soon. Congrats on the twin preganancy.