Same gender twins

If your twins are in seperate rooms, what made you decide to do so???

Currently, our 22 month old girls share a bedroom. We're thinking of seperating them though because T loves to get her sleep, but J keeps waking her up when she's done napping/sleeping. This pisses T off, and generally leaves a grumpy kid for the rest of the day. She can't go back to sleep easily once she's awake. T likes to take 3-4 hour naps, and would sleep until noon if we let her. J on the other hand, she's up at the crack of dawn (or earlier) and only naps for an hour, 2 tops if we're really lucky.

And J can't just walk out of the room and leave it be. She will stop by her sister's bed and poke her, saying 'Wake up, wake up' until T finally wakes up. If we catch it, we'll try to snatch J out of the room before she has a chance to wake her sister up, but sometimes she's sneaky and hardly makes any noise so we don't always catch her in time.


I really don't want to put them in seperate bedrooms, I think they like each other's company and feel secure with the other one there, but on the other hand, T has really been a bear lately not being able to get the sleep she needs.

So what made you decide to put your same gender twins into seperate bedrooms???

 

Mine were still not sleeping through the night at 9mos. so we separated them. I have one sleeper (Jack) and non-sleeper (Lily). The night we separated them they started STTN. Also, we have always separated them for naps due to their different sleep needs. It was a huge weight off my shoulders the minute we separated them. Now, I can let them cry a bit if they need to sleep longer and I do not have to go running in their the minute one makes a noise!

 

Ours are not the same gender, but I would have separated mine eventually regardless! We gave them their own rooms at 18 months. Their sleep habits improved immensely! I figure they spend too much time together as it is...giving them a bit of their own space only helps!!!

 

My boys are about to turn 2 and we keep them in the same room, but they are still in their cribs. I have been thinking about this, because as many have said, they are 2 different children and have different sleep needs. Would they really be sleeping longer/better if they were separated?

I have the extra space to separate them, but I like having a sleeping room and a play room upstairs. I think that if mine got to the point where one wasn't getting the sleep he needed, then I would separate them to see how it went. If they are getting less sleep because they "need" each other, then you put them back together. I figured I would wait until they "told" me that they needed their own rooms. Maybe yours are "telling" you this?

 

My boys have always slept together at night, but we separate for naps. I want them both up in the morning at the same time so really if one wakes the other it is OK. Middle of the night= normally one won't disturb the other. I like that they have each other for company. But naps, I think one might need more sleep than the other== normally my Paul will sleep 1.5 to 2 hours and Jack can still sleep 3 or 4! Naps won't last forever anyhow-- but we do have a dilemma as we have Paul still in a PNP in our office for naps and Jack gets his crib in their room. Paul is a bit big for the PNP already, but I can't put him in with his brother anymore! Anyway, my situation has worked well-- but now we are getting to the point where we need to rethink this one!!
Lanie

 

Shortly after 2 years old, we also started separating for naps. If we didn't, they'd just talk and never fall asleep. In your case, I'd start with that and see how the girls do.

 

I'm having trouble with this decision now at 7 months. They are waking each other up at night it seems but then sometimes they will sleep through pretty much. It doesn't feel right to seperate them from eachother but they would probably get better sleep that way... it's a sucks to have to make the decision but it's good to know other mom's have done it and it's worked out okay...

 

At a very young age (probably around 4-5 months) we separated them for naps only because they napped so differently. One napped for a long period of time but took awhile to go down while the other fell asleep easily but didn't nap long. They still shared a room at night though.

We moved them to their own rooms at 18months old when we moved to our new house. They still have very different sleep habits and we wanted them to have their own space.

They love their own rooms. I know though that there will be many nights (when we move them out of their cribs) that we will probably find them snuggled up to one another in each other's beds. I look forward to that!

 

Mine are still in the same room because we have no option, but we would have separated them around 18 months if we could have, for exactly the reason you describe. Amy usually falls asleep faster and wakes up earlier -- Sarah would sleep an hour or more later if Amy would let her.

We do separate them for naps, because otherwise they wouldn't nap at all. That lets us get Amy up first and let Sarah sleep a bit more. But in the morning, Amy wakes Sarah up pretty much every day.

It works for us because Sarah is cheerful anyway (as long as we give her a chance to wake up fully before getting her out of bed). The only time she is grumpy is if both of them sleep in, and we have to wake both of them up to get ready for daycare. But even then, Sarah gets over the grumps after half an hour or so.

I think they really do enjoy sharing a room (especially the time between bedtime and actual sleep, which can be anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half!). And since neither of them seems very sleep-deprived, I don't worry about who wakes up whom, for the most part. It is also very helpful to have them on the same schedule.

 

We haven't seperated them, but if that was going on we would. I did use to seperate them for naps, probably about 12 mos - 18 mos, putting Hannah in her crib and Natalie in a PNP in our bedroom because Hannah needed a much longer nap. Luckily their bedtimes & wake times and naps since then seem to be pretty much in synch.

 

Our boys have just about always had seperate rooms. After they were born, we took one home from the hospital with us and our little guy stayed behind for a couple more weeks. Once home, our smaller son, had to be fed every 2 hrs and therefore was on a totally different schedule upon arriving home. We had the room in our house, so we thought it was just easier logistically with their routines to have seperate bedrooms.

Having them in seperate rooms had many benefits. Luke requires more sleep than his brother. He wakes up later in the morning still and when they napped, he always napped about a half hour + longer. We had no problems with them transitioning to big boy beds and I think being in seperate bedrooms helped. No drama or horseplay in their rooms, which often can be the case with young twins in the same room. Consequently, they also napped until they were almost 4.

I thought about moving them back together when they were around 2-3yrs old. They wanted no parts of it. They liked having something that was just theirs. Everything else in their young lives had been shared...toys, feedings,baths, etc. They take great pride in their rooms. Each bedroom is decorated to suit their individual personalities. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. Ultimately whatever suits your family's needs best.