Joining twins after room separation

Rather than hijack the recent thread about separating twins after living together, I want to start my own to present exactly the opposite situation - has anyone joined their twins after separation?

HERE'S OUR SITUATION:
We have a 5 bedroom house with a 3-2 split floor plan, including 1 master and 1 nursery on the east and, on the west side, 1 guest bedroom, 1 twin room, and 1 manroom filled with cr@p my husband can't part with ( ).

The girls were in our room immediately after they were born, but Twin A quickly moved out and into the "nursery" near our master so she could sleep (sound sensitive - DH snores like a bear). Eventually, Twin B (light sensitive) moved into the west side of the house so the rising sun wouldn't wake her. Both girls require a little assistance to fall asleep at nap time and at night. Since we have a nanny and my mother (who is retired and no other local grandchildren) it hasn't been a problem so far - someone is always there with a lullaby and a pat. HOWEVER, 3#, Little Man, is going to arrive in July, so things need to change.

Little Man will stay with us for a bit, but eventually he will need the nursery. This means Twin A needs to move at some point, but the question is to where and when? Since both need assistance falling asleep, it would seem to make sense to join them so one parent can sing to them simultaneously while the other parent cares for Little Man. BUT, are we inviting trouble since they have been apart so long? Should we put them in separate rooms next door to each other and deal with re-establishing sleep rituals that aren't as posh as they are used to? Eventually the plan is to let them choose to live together or apart, but I don't think a 2 year old understands such a decision yet. Should we do the move now before little man arrives, or should we wait until he actually sleeps through the night and deal with it then?

Anyone have any experience or thoughts on (1) how to add #3 to the mix with twins and (2) joining twins after separation?

Thanks

 

Personally, I'd get rid of either the man room or the guest room, or get your hubby to get rid of SOME stuff and combine them (use dressers in the guest room or a closet to put his stuff in). It's just that down the road, the twins will probably want to be separated anyway, so might as well keep them split up.... And yeah I'd do it now so they have some time to adjust before another big life change. Or you could just move the baby in the guest room when he's sleeping through the night, then worry about changing the rooms once he's out of his crib... that way you probably wouldn't have to move twin A at all, and just use a monitor for baby. It's probably what I would do, personally... gives you some time to deal with the dh crap issue without any more stress right now.

 

Thanks, Fran27.

The stunning lack of responses on this one makes me feel better - I take it to mean I am not the only one completely baffled by what to do here. Like you - I agree that at some point, the girls will choose to live apart. Once school starts, I want them to have their own quiet place to work and decompress. DH, however, came from a big family in a small home and thinks they will choose to live together. Nothing has moved yet so, perhaps by default, it appears we'll taking your advice - sticking with the status quo and moving little man from our room to his room when he's ready. Ultimately the plan is to move him into what was the guest bedroom, combine the guest bedroom and manroom into what was the nursery, and make the manroom either the other twin room or a study room (depending on what the girls choose). I guess time will tell.

Thanks for your thoughts.

 

I would keep them separated, if I were you, and I change Twin A's room before Little Man gets here, so they don't associate him with this big change, maybe they will resent him for disturbing their routine on top of everything else a new sibling involves.

My kids are younger than yours and they are sleeping MUCH better at night since we separated them at night. They used to wake each other up at night a lot. Since yours are used to being separated, I think they would bother each other in their sleep and they will give you more reasons to wake up in the middle of the night. Being that you will have a newborn, do you really want to deal with the twins waking up also?

And as a side note, what is it with men and their highschool/college junk that they didn't touch in 10 years but they don't want to get rid of either? Needless to say, my husband sounds the same as yours from that point of view .