Twins sharing a room/bed - your experiences?

[4Marmalade]

Our twins are 2 years old now and have co-slept with us since birth in what will eventually be their room (we will move back to the master bedroom downstairs). We want to give my oldest ds a room makeover which will involve him getting a new twin bed and we plan on using his bunk bed (double on bottom, twin on top) in the twins bedroom because it can also be used separate so we figure the twins can either sleep together in the double or one in the double and one in the twin.

I haven't transitioned 2 year olds to their own room before (ds1 was 5-6 before he consistently fell asleep without us there and didn't wander over in the middle of the night). I can't remember when dd1 did, maybe 3-4.

Right now the twins sleep fine with us. They sleep on either side of me and wake up once to nurse around 4-5am. They don't really seem to notice each other much although once in a while we find them snuggled up together. Just as likely though we have to go up at some point in the evening because one of them has kicked or rolled onto the other one and woke them up.

I think I'm just nervous about spending a lot of time in the room getting them to sleep in their own beds. Are they going to constantly be playing and not settling down?

I'm not sure I'm ready for us to not be cosleeping with them. Although I am really feeling the urge to organize bedrooms this summer as we get rid of baby toys and items. Removing all the toys from the living room would be nice too.

[hergrace]

We did not co-sleep, so our transition was different than yours will be, but we did transition them to beds right around the triplets 2nd birthday. We found that we had to make sure they were exhausted and not wired at bedtime for them to develop the habit of staying in their beds. We do have party time issues still if they aren't tired enough when we tuck them in.

[Llyra]

All my kids (DD1 is five, and the twins are three) share a room. The girls have bunkbeds, and DS is across the room in a twin bed. It's a really big room, though, bigger than most people's living rooms. Anyway, we do have awful nights where they keep each other awake, and phases where they have trouble settling and get up to all kinds of mischief. I tolerate it to a point, actually, because I think that stuff is part of building the sibling bond. When it gets ridiculous, I go and sit in the corner of the room until they're asleep. Usually after a few days of those shenanigans, they cut it out for a long time. Often I do find them in each other's beds, when I go to check on them late at night. I'm fine with that.

I transitioned mine from cosleeping as young toddlers, between a year and sixteen months, gradually. So I'm not sure I'm much help about the transition. I do think, though, that it was easier to transition the twins than it was to transition DD1 alone. I think they made the transition more easily because they weren't expected to sleep ALONE the way my singleton was. They still had each other.

It can be rough during periods of illness. I keep a mattress under my bed to pull out for a sick kid, so that the others aren't kept awake. (We did once have a lovely issue related to one child vomiting on the other.) Bedwetting has also been an issue-- DD2 will tell you with fury about the time that DD1 wet HER bed.

But on the whole, I LOVE that they sleep together. I like to think of all the wonderful memories they'll have and the bond they'll build.

I plan on keeping them in the same room until the twins are old enough that it seems better for DS to have his own room separate from his sisters. I don't know when that'll be-- I figure I'll know when it's time, and then we'll have to find a way to get him his own room.

But for now, it works well.

[Shuli]

We didn't co-sleep, but the boys did. They were in the same crib until they got too big to be in there together and then they were next to each other. We transitioned them last summer into beds when they were two a few months before I gave birth to their sister because I needed the crib for her and didn't want one to think he was kicked out. I was also tired of catching D mid-flight off the top of the closed railing of the crib.

There are still party days, but we try and spend at least two hours in the park at the end of the day (come home for supper) so they are tuckered out. Otherwise DH sits with them until they are almost asleep. It hardly ever happens but when it does as long as they are both on their beds even if they are talking and singing we allow it. Eventually they settle, but if they come out, it's right back in. It took some time before they could just go to sleep on their own, but it did happen with a lot of hard work and the no cry sleep solution.

[herdingkittens]

we are thinking about enticing our boys into their big brother's room, once we paint it, although I am sad to see them leave our bed, it might be nice to have all that extra room.....