Hi,

My wife and I have 6 month old twins, Dylan and Chelsea. They have always slept in separate cots in the same room. For the first 4-5 months, this was fine as all they did was eat and sleep. Now that they are awake more during the day, they seem to constantly wake each other. Also, Chelsea tends to want to be up more than Dylan, so she quite often cries to get up while Dylan is trying desparately to sleep. We find that we often end up with over-tired babies, which leads to feeding problems and trouble settling them after feeding. We have considered moving them to separate rooms, but are unsure if they will fret. Has anyone else had similar problems, and did moving to separate rooms help? I would appreciate hearing your stories (good or bad), any solutions, or any tips on how to make the transition to separate rooms as smooth as possible.

Thanks in advance, Andrew.

HI
We seperated ours when they were about 16-18 months old due to the waking problem and I was more upset then them. I don't think they even realised, as there was no fretting or anything. My two also share one cot for the first 4-6 months.
But each child is differant, you can only try and see if it help. Maybe just try putting a portacot in a differant room during they day and see how that goes.
Good luck


Joanne<BR>
11/2/02 Mikayla & Ethan
Born too early @19 weeks twin babies David & Sarah 3/9/04
Due 1/8/05 - Just 1 this time

We also have 6 month old twins and are having similar problems. We have a porta cot set up in the spare room where we put Luke at night as he keeps waking and was waking his sister. This worked at night but does not tend to work during the day for us as she can still hear him or vice versa and they wake up (the rooms are not far apart). I have just put them back together over the last few weeks and they are sleeping better when together during the day, althought they do "chatter" to each other through the bars of their cots when put to bed. They seem to get plenty of sleep though and I figure chatter is better than crying!!

I haven't noticed them fretting when I separate them.

Good luck. I will be interested to hear how you go..


Julie
DS Luke 6/8/04
DD Jenna 6/8/04

<a href="http://lilypie.com"><img src="http://lilypie.com/baby1/050806/3/18/0/+10" alt="Lilypie Baby Ticker" border="0" /></a>

Hi. Thoroughly recommend separate rooms.... I separated the girls at around 3 months as there was just too many nighttime antics to contend with. Amber sleeps really well and used a dummy whilst Olivia is a really light sleeper and still(21 months) gets up during the night. We have always let Olivia cry for a few minutes and the she'd go off to sleep but we couldn't do that with Amber in the room.
I also fed Olivia at night till 12 months or so as she didn't want to wean.

We have just moved house and it's really nice that the girls have their own space in the house. they are ALWAYS together so I think as they get older it's nice for them to have their own toys, clothes etc.

Most people dont have singletons sharing rooms but it's almost expected with multiples. If you have the space go for it!!!

I agree...if you have the space, do it !! We bought another house just so we could do exactly that. I have one room each for them and then a communal baby room which has the change table and their clothes etc in it. They were in the same room until 3months of age when we moved. We never really gave them a chance to show us what they were capable of until we moved and they had their own room. The first night in our new house, we let our little girl wake up and grizzle a little...normally we'd fly into the room and get her out of there as to not wake the other one...first night in our new house we let her grizzle for about 2mins and she put herself back to sleep. Ever since then she's been sleeping through the night...she sometimes wakes and talks to herself but then puts herself back to sleep. I'm just glad that we can allow her to do this. We're lucky we separated them before they were actually even aware that the other one existed. Good luck.

xx Megsy, mum to 4month old b/g twins (thanks to IVF)

This message was edited by Megs71 on Friday, 25 February 2005 @ 2:39 PM

My girls sleep alright together of a night in the same room but seperate cot but I seperate them during the day, Kasie wants to sleep more during the day and Taylor wants to have a quick nap and get up, I found it easier that way. If I had another room I would seperate them all the time, Taylor has moments where she is unsettled during the night but this only happens once a month, I think Kasie is getting use to it but I would seperate them if I could. :-)

Thanks to those that replied. Your advice was very useful. We moved Chelsea out of Dylan's room and into her own room a week ago. From the outset Dylan slept weel during the day, and all through the night without a sound. Chelsea slept well during the day straight way too, but took a day or two to get used to sleeping in the new room overnight - I think because it was different. Now she is also sleeping through the night more nights than not, and is generally much more settled overnight. Dylan is not disrupted by Chelsea at all now, no matter how loud or often she cries. Separating them was the best thing we could have done - for them and for ourselves.

Regards, Andrew.