Ideas for sleeping arrangements for newborn twins

purplecat

Hi
I am just looking for ideas about , sleeping arrangements for twins, we are going keep them in our room Is it suitable to keep them together in the one cot? or could we put two together in a one mosses basket,? not really keen on these, don't know if i want to buy two of them, and then we will be buying two carrycots attachments for pram/buggy we are ordering is it worth it. ?
We are trying to keep our budget down. As there is lots outstanding things like bottles, blankets, etc. Not sure whether to buy a monitor as they will be in with us Do we need one?
Sorry for all the questions? just like to get others ideas and what they did with twins...
Thanks
Purplecat

Cat Melodeon

My cousin has twins and was advised by the hospital to swaddle them individually and put them in the same cot/cotbed for at least the first 4 months, as they are used to being together in the womb and should be allowed gradually to get used to being separated. I've read of some parents keeping their twins together until they were able to roll about as they'd wake each other up from then on and slept better apart.

Personally I don't like Moses baskets and there is a tip risk if they are placed on a stand - I'd imagine this risk would be higher if there were two babies instead of one, others might know better.

A couple of websites that might be of help:
http://www.imba.ie/
http://www.twinsuk.co.uk/res_about_twintips.php

We had a monitor and never used it as our lad stayed in the room with us until he was a year old. I can see it might be useful this time as we've moved to a dormer so it won't be as easy to keep an ear out for the newborn if it's asleep upstairs. On the other hand, we've got a travel cot so I might just set that up downstairs for daytime naps. That might be an idea for you too to keep costs down - they could share a normal cotbed at night and sleep in a travel cot (like a pack'n'play) during the day.

I never had a carrycot for my lad, had a bouncer but I've since gone off those as well! It's safest/healthiest for little babies to lie flat, so any bouncers/swings etc really aren't necessary. One of the things I used most was a playmat/gym thing which I got fairly cheap online. If you've got dogs, you might want a playpen to keep the babies safe when they're on the mat on the floor. Obviously you need a decent double buggy suitable for newborns and 2 car seats. You could really keep costs down by breastfeeding - if that doesn't suit, there's no need to go overboard with the bottles, just make them up as you need them.

quozl

We found the moses baskets invaluable - but our twins were 4 1/2 lbs so they would have been lost in the cots. It also meant that we could easily bring the moses baskets downstairs so that the babies could sleep while someone was minding them.

We put them to sleep separately from day 1 - they were in separate incubators and cots in the special care unit for 2 weeks so we stuck with that. We would often put the two in the same moses basket to sleep when downstairs though at the start. Neither approach bothered them. I believe that they would have been happy enough in one cot. We did have one baby who slept well from month 3 or so, and one baby who is only sleeping well in the last few weeks. So perhaps it was good that they weren't in the same cot. The sleeping baby will sleep through his brother roaring his head off but I wonder if he'd have slept through being booted by him

We'd the boys in our room after the first few weeks (when someone had to stay up with them) but with them having to be fed every 2 hours, and still taking well over an hour by this stage to be fed combined with the fact that they were SO noisy we moved them into the room next door once we were past the first month (or two maybe, I don't recall exactly it was all a blur TBH).

We have a monitor but never used it - we can hear them from the room next door. In fact moving to a new house 2 weeks ago was a delight as now while we can still hear them, it's a whole lot quieter and we're more likely to sleep through random brief cries during the night. They're a year old now. Wonderful but still somewhat tiring. So incredibly easy compared to the start though - it gets progressively easier all the time

BTW, check out the baby sleeping bags from IKEA - they're cheap (but as far as I can tell, just as good) versions of the expensive sleeping bags you can get from posher stores. They are an absolute god-send as babies can't wriggle out of them during the night.

Our boys were too small to wear even the smallest (non-specialist online one) for the first few months and kept wriggling out of their swaddling and waking up cold at random hours of the night The sleeping bags were just wonderful once the boys were big enough!

2sounds

I think your in for a lot of trial and error on this one, however its good to have a plan starting out but you need to be prepared to alter this as required. From memory....my boys are 2 now....we used two cots side by side from the start. We were lucky our bedroom was big enought to accomodate this. We got a lot of the " oh they will sleep through each others crying and the closeness will be comforting " etc. Not the case with our two. One of ours was very demanding and loud , the other not so , resulting in two unsettled kids. One piece of advise which was very useful , wake the other when one wakes for a feed, at least in the short term. Its exhausting but with your partner or significant other awake too it helps re support and words of encouragement or simply "jaysus pass me that nappy quick" or " this bottle is leaking, ***k". Sleep routine for your arrivals is vital from the beginning. I remember on our first we were far more " baby whisperer" that gina ford but on the twins it was somewhere between the two approaches. You could start them in the same crib/cot but have access to a second one in case plan b needs to be implemented. good luck

quozl

2sounds wrote: »

One piece of advise which was very useful , wake the other when one wakes for a feed, at least in the short term.

This is very true. If we hadn't done this we'd have ended up with the two babies on interleaved wake-up schedules and us driven (further) to dementia

branners69

We have our twins in the same cot in our room, feet both ends! Our 4 year old asked why is one of them upside down:D They are nearly 5 months now so we bought another cot to put in the room with us when they hit 6 months!

We bought an out'n'about double buggy, whilst not cheap it is superb. They are so good we also bought a single one for our 20 month old! We bought a lot of stuff from kiddicare and saved a small fortune!

newmammy2011

Hi there,
I currently have 5 and a half month twins.
They both slept in one cot in my room up until about 4 weeks ago when I moved them into 2 cots in their own bedroom. For the first few weeks they were side by side at one end of the cot, but then had to put them with their feet at either end of the cot when they started clobbering each other.
I had a travel cot with raised bassinette for sleeping downstairs during the day. Found this very handy and would definitely recommend instead of moses baskets.
Didnt use a monitor for the first couple of months as baby's slept downstairs during the day and were only brought upstairs when I was going to bed at night.
I have a babyjogger city mini twin buggy and have found it great!
If youve any other questions....fire away with them!
Best of luck with the twins!