Co-Sleeping with twins?

[lexbeach]

Well, I'm only 14 weeks pregnant, so this post is a little premature, but I've been thinking about it a lot lately. DP and I are very committed to co-sleeping (or at least trying it), and knowing that we're having twins hasn't really affected our committment. That said, I'm a little unsure about the logistics. My main concern is the fact that we only have a double bed. It is already starting to feel too small just with us and my growing belly sleeping in it. We'd thought that we'd just get a sidecar or something to make it a little bigger, but I don't know if that will be bigger enough for twins. Any advice from those who have been there, done that? Should we try to get a queen? Would that be big enough? I guess it'll be pretty similar to co-sleeping with two different-aged kids, but never having slept with an infant before, I am a little nervous about sleeping with two!

Thanks for any help!

Lex

[Cakes]

Hello Lex,
First of all .........go for the king size bed. i have 11mos old twins and a four year old daughter. We play musical beds between a king a queen and a trundle. Depending on the night depending on the person we end up in different beds. Check out the home birth segment. Alot of twin moms over there. Lots of great advise and support for a pregnant mom expecting twins.

Julianne

[charmarty]

Cpngrats on your twins!Twins are absolutely wonderful!!!!!!
We co sleep with our babies.It has changed from the moment we brought them home,we experiminted alot!Here is how we did/do it.
We have a queen,and for the first few months when it was obvious they were not going to roll over on each other,we slept like this...mommy baby baby daddy.when they needed to nurse and if it was at diffferent times dh and I would just switch sides throughout the night.Then they were getting a little older,and we feared they may roll onto each other so we slept like this......bedrail baby mommy baby dady...then room got really tight and dh kept us awake with his snoring!So dh took to the floor on an airmatress so our bed went like this.bedrail baby mommy baby bedrail.We sleep great like this now cuz more room!
Well now that they are toddlers they were starting to climb up on our headboard and I read a thread on here about the safety of beds by windows.We got smart,took our frame down put our QS matress right on the floor with dh airmatress so we have just about wall to wall bed!And we lovvvvvve it!so now we look this this...ONEHUGE BED bedrail daddy on airmatress baby mommy baby bedrail on QS.When they falll asleep I just slide on over to snuggle with dh and we all sleep wonderfully.The girls like it too cuz I am right there and so is dh.So there I hope this helps you out!
Thinking of you and a healthy happy pregnancy!

[momofmany]

I second the vote for a king! We have a king and a co-sleeper. The girls start out in the co sleeper together and both wind up in our bed.

Robin

[CheriK]

Congrats on your pregnancy! I second the suggestion - if you get a bed, go for the king. We're in a king-sized bed with 15-month old toddler twins, two dogs, and two cats, and it's too small! I'm trying to figure out how to sidecar a twin mattress in our too-tiny bedroom because I keep ending up sleeping at the foot of the bed, perpendicular to everyone else. My twins have been in our family bed since we came home from the hospital. Ds spent most of his early months sleeping on Daddy's chest. For a while I slept with one on either side of me for easy breastfeeding. Now they usually sleep side by side on 1/2 (more like 2/3) of the bed so dh and I can cudddle on the other side of the bed. We never had a sidecar (crib or cosleeper). We dropped the mattress to the floor once they started scooting. We definitely have a full bed, but I wouldn't change it for the world!

Cheri, mom to F and K 11/30/01

[1Plus2]

Add my vote to you getting a King size bed! We co-sleep with our 2 & 1/2 year old dd and 3 & 1/2 month old twins. I honestly wouldn't have it any other way. It's made nursing SO MUCH easier plus you get a lot more sleep...which you will soon know is priceless.

Congratulations on your twins!!!!! It's an experience of a lifetime.

Karen
Haven 9/2000
Lillie & Faith (MZ) 12/2002

[lexbeach]

UPDATE: We did end up getting the king sized bed (well, futon on the floor anyway). It is working pretty well. I certainly couldn't have made it through the pregnancy without it (needed extra room for all the extra pillows!). I haven't figured out how to nurse them both lying down, so I don't have the full benefits of the family bed yet. Maybe I will start a new thread about nursing lying down.

[momofmany]

Karen,

When were Lillie and Faith born? Owen & Clara (MZ Girls) were born 12/21.

Robin

[laralou]

Lex, I still can't nurse both lying down (over 4 mos). I am going to wait and retry this after they can make more of an effort to keep themselves on. I tried it and I had to hold both in place the whole time which to me defeated the purpose since I couldn't fall asleep.

[mamacate]

Here's how we work the cosleeping thing:

We have a king-sized bed on the floor like you. Definitely a good idea.

When they started crawling we pushed it up against the wall. We used to each take a baby overnight and DP would give one a bottle of EBM. Now I nurse both at night, and the setup is this: wall, baby, me, baby, partner. So one baby is against the wall and one is in between us, which was weird at first but is fine now. I sleep between them and I just flip back and forth to nurse them. It took a little getting used to, but now I barely wake up.

HTH!

Cate

[lexbeach]

T Mamacate! You live in Northampton?! So do we (well, just over the line in Easthampton, actually)! How fabulous. I sent you a private message, but thought I'd give you a note here too incase you don't know about private messages yet. Welcome to the boards .

Lex

[marblesmama]

Lex,
Obviously, I am just new to this and have all kinds of things to reply about...
Here's our variation on the king size bed...we have a California king, AND we turned it sideways. Because neither of us are tall, we still fit on the bed and have even more space for us and the kids. It's on the floor, in a corner, so it's baby, mommy, baby, daddy as bed rail. And we all have our own blankets.

Also, I didn't learn how to nurse either of them lying down until about 7 months, but now that's they only way we do it...and both of them at once!

[angie6]

nursing twins in bed

Well funny but true by the time youhave had six like me your breasts hang to the side enough to comfortably lay down and nurse them both and still fall back asleep.
Really though while they are both young and not able to support themselves it is difficult to do both lying down and fall asleep. When they were young I would bring my EZ to nurse breastfeeding pillow to bed and nurse them and then lay them back down. It was a rough first few months but as they got older nursing became much less work and more enjoyable.
Hang in there you willdevelop what works best for you over time.

Oh by the way we invested in a king size bed after we had our 3rd child. I too do not feel like it is big enough and my husband spends most of the night sleeping with our 5 year old while the twins and I share the king size bed. I put a guard rail up just to be safe.
Angie

[gcopeley]

We have two futon mattresses that we sleep on. What I loved best was having them both on the floor next to eachother but my partner really pushed to be able to sleep off the floor so this is our current sleeping arrangment. My partner and 3 1/2 yr old son on the double off the floor and the two 5 month olds on a queen size futon on the floor. I go back and forth depending on everyone's need and the night.