Question for parents of twins

Ludo

Our twin boys are 8 months old now and generally very good sleepers (7.30/8pm to 7am). But after they are gone to bed in the evening we have to keep the baby monitor close to us at all times. The reason for this being that if one of them wakes up and cries, he will wake the other one. The first one will generally go back to sleep quickly oblivious to what has happened while the woken one will be incredibly cranky and inconsolable for a long time and very difficult to get back to sleep.

This means we race for the room when there is a cry. 90% of the time we don't have to go in as the single cry stops and no one wakes but thinking about it now we would look like right idiots to an outsider watching us

How do other twin parents handle this? Do ye put them in separate rooms or is this a normal issue for twin parents? It is no big deal really but I was just curious how others out there handle it. It seems "wrong" (not sure of the correct word to use there) to separate them but I wonder do others do it?

littlebitdull

I dont have twins so I am using guesswork. I just did not want to read and not reply!!

I can see how the woken twin would be harder to get back to sleep, as there was nothing wrong with him, so you can not just fix it like you have done with his brother!

I would think that you just have to continue as you are, they will either grow out of waking each other up, or as most kids do will just settle into a permanent sleeping pattern, few two year olds wake at night, if you follow me. So its a stage that will pass ....

I too would be reluctant to put them into seperate rooms - you always think of twins as belonging together.

If you have them settled into sleeping 11-12 hours at night all I can say is well done - your obivously doing a great job, and whatever you have been doing is working, so just keep it up.

snellers

we have twins due in the next week or two.....and have read probably every twin related book possible to prepare!!

the general advice we have read is that 'typically' the twins get used to the other one crying and therefore no need to put in seperate rooms. It is recommended that they have seperate cots however (once they reach a certain size) to minimise interference with the sleeping one.

It sounds like you have done a cracking job with their sleep habits - we are looking at following the gina ford/alice beer twins system to try and replicate what you already have....fair play to you!!!!

Hope everything continues goes well for you all !!!!!

silja

Hi,
mine are just over 5 months now, and the fleep in the same cot (a co-sleeper attached to our bed). We put a rolled up fleece between them as often in the mornings, they flail around with their hands and can hit eachother and wake eachother up- the fleece barrier prevents that and it smells a bit of mom which they like. I must say cry very little, eally only in the mornings when they are ready to get up and we didn't pick them up in time. But maybe that is because they still get a feed around 9.30-10.30pm, and have their nap before that in the bouncer in the living room, so by the time they go to sleep in the bedroom, they are out of it, and then sleep till 7am or so.

We plan to put them in their own bedroom when we move around 8 or 9 months (currently we can't as we are in a one bedroom flat!), ie both in the same room but in seperate cots, and only give them seperate rooms once they want to play seperately and have boy/ girl toys etc, I'd say around 3 years old.

My twins are now ten yrs old. When they were quite young too one would cry and cry and cry....Eventually I got the brainwave that maybe she couldn't see where her twin brother was so I moved the cots and took off the bumpers. Lo and behold silence descended.

Ludo

Thanks for the feedback people. I guess there is nothing to be done about one waking the other really and it isn't a big deal.
We got very lucky with their sleeping to be honest. The first 4 months were a complete nightmare...no sleep at all for either of us but once their reflux and wind problems eased off a bit, they were grand.

Best of luck Snellers. As I said the first few months can be hard (as you no doubt know) but it all gets forgotten very quickly.

OsciiBoscii wrote: »

My twins are now ten yrs old. When they were quite young too one would cry and cry and cry....Eventually I got the brainwave that maybe she couldn't see where her twin brother was so I moved the cots and took off the bumpers. Lo and behold silence descended.

This is actually a great tip. We put them in their own cots in a their own room at about 6 months and had to move cots after a few days so they could see each other better. They do keep each other calm in the mornings when they wake a bit early when they can see each other.