Tuesday's Twin Tidbits - Room Sharing

So as you can imagine when I found out we were having twins the first thing I did was head to the book store. This girl that loves to research had to find out as much as I could about being pregnant with twins and raising them! Eeeek!

I did find a few books that I thought were great and had a lot of valuable information. (I'll post them later) But the one thing that almost every book had in common was the advice to have the twins share a room. They all said that they will get used to each other crying and it eventually won't wake them up.

Well, let me just tell you that this did NOT work for us. I really wish early on I would have had a twin mom tell me that they split their twins.

The first month the twins were home they slept in the pack 'n play together and it was fine cause they were still in their sleep coma. At 4 weeks, when Everett was diagnosed with reflux we put him in the Nap Nanny next to me on the ground and Emery stayed in the pack 'n play. So, when we moved the twins to their nursery at 4 months they were used to sleeping in separate beds but in the same room. 

I'd say until about 6 months sharing a room worked great. Every once in a while one would wake the other, but rarely. At about 6 months, they just became so aware of each other and their surroundings. 

The biggest problem for us is that they have completely different sleep needs. It can be really easy to have the same expectations for them since they're twins. But really, since they're fraternal twins, they are just siblings born on the same day. That's really the best way to explain it.  Everett is just like his dad and just doesn't require as much sleep. He also is very sensitive to getting over tired.  This means that he almost always takes a shorter nap then Emery and wakes earlier in the morning. 

Before I split them up Emery was always being woken up by Everett, but was still tired since she requires more sleep. When they were in the same room they also went to bed at the same time. But after we split them I quickly found that since Everett is so sensitive to getting over tired, he needs to go to bed earlier. Having them in separate rooms has made this so much easier. I don't have to worry about sneaking in with Emery to put her to bed but being worried that I'll wake up Everett. It also has made it so much easier for those random nights that they wake up because they're sick or teething. When they were in the same room I would have to rush in to the one crying so they didn't wake up the other one. And I'm totally in the camp that it's ok for a baby to cry sometimes.  So this made it really hard.

My husband and I were both really apprehensive to split them, but once we did at about 9 months, it made such a huge difference. I really wish I would have done it earlier. They were both able to get the sleep that they both require and not be bothered by the other one. They still are on the same schedule but Emery usually gets about 30 mins. more sleep then Everett. Not enough to throw everything off, but enough that she wakes rested. 

Hope someone can find this useful & know that it's ok to split twins! We did and haven't looked back!

Right before we split them. Didn't even bother hanging names since we were thinking about splitting them. Wish we would have so we could at least have a picture of the nursery when they were together.