Big girl bed dilemma...

as some of you may know, i'm a single mom and my girls are almost 18 months old. i moved in with my parents when i was 18 wks pregnant because i knew i'd need help with childcare with it being twins. my parents' house is tiny, 3 bedrooms. i have one bedroom, my parents have one bedroom, and the girls have one bedroom. the bedrooms are soooo tiny. anyway, i'm looking into getting them some form of big girl beds, but not sure which way to go. since i'm single, money is obviously an issue, and so is space. i dont really want to buy toddler beds because i dont want to pay for mattresses that they'll only use for a few years, if that. should i go with twin size beds? but then i've got to buy mattress for those? and with 2 twin beds in their room, the beds will practically be side by side. in that case, should i just buy them a full or queen size bed for them to share and hope that they dont mind sleeping together til they're like 10 or something? lol, would i be a horrible mom if i did that? does anyone have any stories about their twins sharing beds til they were preteens?

ps- this is also an option because it is low to the ground and i wouldnt have to buy a mattress... i'd get 2 of these... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B001EQ66WK/ref=ord_cart_shr?_encoding=UTF8&m=A1D0CRCMAZVKHK&v=glance

opinions, please?

 

I would go for temporary beds (like the link), it's going to be a pain! In terms of space (and money), I would probably get one queen. My friend's twins are almost 4 and share a queen bed together, their room isn't huge, but 2 twin beds would fit and it's not about the money either. The girls just like it that way. I agree that toddler beds would be a waste of money, and bunks are clearly not an option yet.

Have you looked on Craigslist or something ... maybe you'll find a fairly inexpensive solution there ...

Not sure you have an IKEA closeby, but in my twin girl's room I have one of those foldable chairs which turn into a single bed (quite easy to do, you can leave the fitted sheets on). They're a little over $100 a piece?! They're called Lycksele. Not sure whether that could be an option, but definitely check Craigslist too ... you never know!

Good luck!

 

Ours were also in PNPs. We bought bunk beds for them when we moved and put away the PnPs. They had just turned two. Their room is really small now so there isn't really room for anything else. I full/queen might have fit, but it would have taken up most of the room. I wanted to give them a place to play as well, plus their dressers needed to fit in the room. We haven't attached the ladder to the top bunk. So currently they are both sleeping on the bottom together. I figure when they are big enough that it is safe to put up the ladder they can split up at that time if they want to do so. With most bunks, you only need the mattress and no box springs. Many places sell really cheap mattresses for bunk beds. However, we got ours at a yard sale. The bunks and mattresses (practically new) for $200. Yard sales, consignment stores, craigslist are the places to look for used beds. I have even seen some given away on Freecycle.

 

We have 2 twin captain's beds for the girls. They have drawers in the bottom for extra storage. Mine really like to sleep together though so most of the time they are in one twin bed

 

Have you considered taking down the cribs and just putting the crib mattresses together on the floor? I would maybe try that before I bought anything and see how it goes.

ETA: I think a full size bed would work. It would be a little bit less expensive and take up a little bit less space. DH & I slept on a full size bed for years so I'm sure the girls would have plenty of room.

 

What about a twin bed with a pull out trundle?? That way they could each have their own bed (one in the bed and one on the trundle) but it would save on space???

 

My kids would kill each other if they slept in the same bed (but then they were always used to sleeping in cribs across the room from each other). We did decide to go straight to twin beds even though their room is pretty small, because they were already 3 when we moved them and we didn't want to buy toddler beds just for a year or two. But FWIW, they are 4 now and can still sleep on a crib mattress quite comfortably (Sarah is doing that this weekend at my parents' house). So if you think your situation might change and you might ever have a bigger room for them, you could buy a few years by just putting their mattresses on the floor.

If you are pretty sure this is a long-term scenario, you could look into bunk beds (not bunking them at first, but planning to do that eventually), which is what we did. We found that decent bunk beds are cheaper than two separate twin beds of the same quality, and the mattresses are cheaper too because you don't need a box spring.

Some friends of ours who have two kids with an even smaller room got this L-shaped setup:
http://www.bedroomfurniture.com/asp/show_detail.asp?sku=FX1214

It works great in that space, plus it includes storage. But it was pretty pricey, and I've never seen anything similar for less.

 

I think I would get 2 twin size mattresses and keep em on the floor.
Then when they are older (around 5) I would get bunk beds.

 

toddler beds use crib mattresses, don't they? they make some really cheap toddler bed frames and you would use your existing mattress and bedding.

don't rush this....

they haven't started potty training yet. consider the bed wetting and sheet changes yet to come. that's going to be expensive for a while.