How Do Twins Sleep?
The answer is, of course, like babies. But that’s not what I’m after.
P.Pie and I have been having ‘discussions’ about whether or not to put the twins in the same crib.
P.Pie’s position is that they should definitely be in the same crib. They spent nine months (in theory), 24/7, with each other, so they should be able to co-self sooth and thus, sleep better.
In my mind, they spent nine months together. If I spent 24/7 with my sister, Tintin, I’d want to strangle her. Why should my children be any different?
I’m not saying they won’t want to sleep together, but they may have different sleeping patterns. One may be a kicker (professional punter?), the other may be a flailer (pro baseball player?).
Whatever the case maybe, I think we need two cribs from the get-go. I would hate to need a second crib and not have it.
But enough out of me; I want to hear from parents of twins and their experiences.
Did your twins sleep together?
Did you try separating them and it didn’t work?
How was it?
*WAIT*
Before you give me your thoughts, there are a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quos –
I’m not looking for Never mind, I want all opinions.
So that’s it; let me know what you think.
P.Pie and I have been having ‘discussions’ about whether or not to put the twins in the same crib.
P.Pie’s position is that they should definitely be in the same crib. They spent nine months (in theory), 24/7, with each other, so they should be able to co-self sooth and thus, sleep better.
In my mind, they spent nine months together. If I spent 24/7 with my sister, Tintin, I’d want to strangle her. Why should my children be any different?
I’m not saying they won’t want to sleep together, but they may have different sleeping patterns. One may be a kicker (professional punter?), the other may be a flailer (pro baseball player?).
Whatever the case maybe, I think we need two cribs from the get-go. I would hate to need a second crib and not have it.
But enough out of me; I want to hear from parents of twins and their experiences.
Did your twins sleep together?
Did you try separating them and it didn’t work?
How was it?
*WAIT*
Before you give me your thoughts, there are a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quos –
So that’s it; let me know what you think.
posted by Rob Barron at 7:17 PM
13 Comments:
Hello,
My girls are eight now and they have always slept separately but in the same room.
Here's some information from Tamba in the UK: (Scroll down!)
http://www.tamba.org.uk/faqs-and-research.php#can
And here's some news from a recent research programme:
http://www.dur.ac.uk/sleep.lab/projects/twins/
I hope that's helpful! I'm a relatively new blogger about twins and as my girls are eight now, it's been a slow start! But I hope you may like to drop by, I'd love to add more links, and hope you may find some of the information on my site helpful.
All the best to you and your family,
Linda
I'm not a mother of twins and I never played one on TV but... I am and "OLD" nursery nurse and I can tell you that research shows that, in the ICU setting, newborn twins' respirations and heart rates are slower and steadier when they are together...That means that they are using less energy to exist (a concern with new borns). So I would start them out together but keep the other crib in the garage to whip out the first time you hear, "Dad, he's on my side!"
All the doctors said to keep them together in the beginning. For the first week or two at home we would even swaddle them in their own blankets and use another blanket to swaddle them together.
They were in a co-sleeper together for the first six weeks and then we had a (gasp) family bed. It made it easier for me to nurse them at night.
Somewhere around nine months we started putting them to sleep in their own cribs. Ian still almost always ended up in our bed until about a year when we laid down the law.
Of course, until very very recently they would both still come to our bed between 4 and 5 am.
They napped together in a crib until they got to long to sleep sideways.
When your kids get bigger come back to me and I will extol the virtues of "the fish" and "the birds".
We've always used separate cribs, same room. I think our rationale was something along the lines of if we have to wake one up to change, wouldn't it be nice to not end up waking the other one up.
That didn't work out because we quickly learned that if you do something with one in the middle of the night, you might as well do the other, too, so that you don't have to come back just when you fall asleep again.
Ours were together in the same crib until they got too crowded. (But we also used whatever means necessary to get them to sleep ... bouncy seats, swings, etc.) Now they're in the same room, separate cribs. The plan is to put them together in a double bed when they graduate from the cribs ... with a toddler bed in the room in case it's necessary.
But that's what we did/are doing. I would just recommend keeping all options open. Your kids will do it THEIR way.
I had one twin that desperately needed (and still at age 6 needs) to be with his sister. Unfortunately, she was bothered by him being there. We kept them seperate, but in cribs next to each other. After a while she was still being woken up by him, so we moved them to seperate rooms and I mostly slept with him in my arms while I sat/tried to sleep in our recliner. We saw lots of owls out our window while he wasn't sleeping at night. I was mainly happy to be able to hold him (we had a hard time getting pregnant all but the last time which was a surprise) so I wasn't too annoyed at being kept awake all night.
We later found out he has really bad asthma and a few other minorly serious (does that make sense?) medical issues that were not allowing him to sleep. Then I felt terrible for being slightly annoyed that he never slept! He still never sleeps and he is six now. I guess some people just don't need as much sleep as others! (I'm sure that is just what you wanted to hear, right?) He still needs to be close to his sister while he sleeps, and she still has no need for him at night. At least with all the snuggling he needs, he will make a great husband for someone someday....
Also, we tried the whole wake them both to feed them if one wakes up. My daughter was an excellent sleeper and when we woke her to feed her with her brother she was pissed and let us know it. The next night we let her sleep through and she slept through the whole night. You will figure it all out. Somehow you just know what to do and what is right for your family. It wasn't "easy" but it wasn't awful either!
I kept my twins in the same crib until they were too crowded. They never woke eachother up and they didn't sleep as well seperately. Now they sleep in the same room (they are 17 months old) and absolutely refuse to sleep without the other.
By the way, you should check out www.lookydaddy.com too.
Chang and Eng shared the same crib with a separating bolster at first - then when they got too big (evidenced by one penning the other into a tiny corner of the crib) we went to 2 cribs. Now at 2 they have their own beds in the same room.
My only advise here is listen to your babies! My twins felt happiest and safest when sleeping together. They were born at 36 weeks and for their first month they slept about 20 hours a day. They woke long enough to look at us for a minute and eat. I think it was a combination of budget (we were able to get one crib at first) and the babies wanting to be with each other.
We only put them in different cribs when they started rolling around. I found Katie on top of Josie one morning (Kathleen and Josephine if you are wondering what the names are . . .) and that was the day we changed their sleep situation!
They are currently 19 months old and still share the same room with their cribs right next to each other. We have a third crib in the room too, for their surprise sister who is now 7 months old, but they are having a hard time adjusting to her being there and my interrupting their nightly sleep to feed her.
My boy twin was in the NICU for 2 months, so it wasn't an option for them to sleep together. When he first got home, we all four co-slept. We moved them out of our room around 4 months and they do sleep in the same room. It's simply amazing what my boy can sleep through. His sister can throw a middle of the night tantrum and he never knows it.
all you need is a laundry basket full of shredded newspaper and a [air of earplugs. everything else will fall into place.
I'm interested in hearing from other twin parents about the phenomena of our fraternal, boy/girl twins almost always sleeping in the same position. They had separate cribs and now separate toddler beds, in the same room. No matter what position they went to sleep in, more often than not we will find them sleeping in the same position, facing the same direction, with the same random arm or leg outstretched.
I know parents always want to attribute this to some "special ability" but I hadn't seen this discussed anywhere.
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