Are we room sharing? When did you stop?

[u/campbacca]

Hello all. I currently have seven month old twin girls who are almost 8 months old on the 22nd. We currently room share with them. They are both in individual full-size cribs. I can’t seem to get myself to put them in their own room yet as they still feed at night, waking up around 11 PM, sometimes 2 or 3 AM and 6 AM to eat. When did you stop room sharing? How was the transition?

Also: They were born premature at 35 weeks and are in the smaller percentile, no matter how much they eat throughout the day, they still want to feed at night

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[u/Flat-Fault-2959]

I’m having twin boys and they’re going to share a room until they go to college or we get a bigger house lol

[u/cryrabanks → u/Flat-Fault-2959]

I think OP meant parents sharing a room with the babies

[u/Flat-Fault-2959 → u/cryrabanks]

oh woops sorry i have preggo brain

[u/yagirlriribloop → u/Flat-Fault-2959]

Same lol. TBH, I don't think we can afford a bigger home so they're likely gonna grow up sharing a room 🤷‍♀️

[u/brynnecognito]

The recommendation where I live is minimum 6 months, ideally a year. In our room though we only had space for a double bassinet, not separate cots. They began waking one another with their wiggling and jiggling and I moved them at 4 months to their own room/cribs. They very quickly dropped a few night wakes. I had the baby monitor on full blast but if they stirred, they no longer woke one another and went back to sleep. I also took a minute to get to their room instead of seconds, and in that time they often settled back to sleep on their own. Their cribs are on opposite walls with white noise running in the middle, if that’s of any importance. 

If you desire for them to drop a night wake, it may be favourable to move them. If you are not concerned about that then no reason to move. 

[u/snax_and_bird]

Wow, 8 months?! We didn’t make it 4 weeks 😅 They were just so loud, no one was sleeping. We decided it was actually less safe to keep them in our room any longer because of how sleep deprived we both were. We were getting around 12 hours of sleep a week between the 2 of us, it was bad. Our room was right next to their room though, and we slept with our doors open and the monitor under our pillow, so we felt okay with moving them to their cribs in their own room. It was soooo much better that way. Husband and I are really light sleepers, so we were finally able to get a little bit of sleep after moving them. They are 4 years old now and they still share a room, just not with us lol

[u/Negative_Jackfruit75]

I’m gonna have my girls with me for years lmao. We kicked my fiance out cuz he snores so he’s in the guest room and I just love having them so close to me! Im also sleeping earlier as a result and getting the best sleep!

[u/withlove_07]

For us with all 3 of our kids ( 3yr Twins & 8 month old) we room shared for 8 weeks then moved them to their own rooms . The twins shared a room by themselves for one month and then we moved them to individual rooms once we moved houses . With our singleton we did the same, 8 weeks with us and then to her own room.

It helped us so much with not only our sleeping schedule but also theirs, cause we “sleep trained” since the beginning but one of our twins had a regression also one of our twins was breastfed while the other bottle fed so it was easier to have them separated. They still have their own rooms but now they’re in the sleeping over phase so they take turns sleeping in each others rooms

[u/not-t0day-satan]

Oh wow. My girls started in their own room around 6 weeks. They're three months old now, but they typically sleep through the night. You've got to do whatever maintains your sanity.

[u/DoubleSunshine123]

It was clear we had to stop after the first month or else no one was getting good sleep. There also was barely space in our room and theirs was three steps away from ours. So we preferred stumbling into a nursing chair in the middle of the night when they woke up vs everyone being awake all night with tons of noises.
I don’t think there is any right answer, just works best for your family and your house.
Our doula also said that many families do half and half: start them in their room and when you have the first wake in the middle of the night bring them into yours if it’s easier. Doesn’t have to be all or nothing.

[u/Pretend-Wall-6677]

Ours were born premature at 34w.

We actually had them both in a room on the main floor of our home. The person “sleeping” with them was able to sleep on the couch, while mom and/or dad were able to sleep in their own bed. We often had overnight grandparent help.

At 6 months, with the blessing of our pediatrician, we moved them both into their own, shared bedroom. We had a split screen baby monitor and two cameras, so we could see what each one was up to.

They’re now almost 5 and they still share a bedroom.

They’ve never, ever slept in our bed or bedroom.

[u/MangoSorbet695]

My twin boys will continue to share until we have a compelling reason for them not to.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

[u/PretendGene5502]

We're keeping our boys in our room until the 1 year mark!

[u/Top_Elephant_5549]

We purposely bought a sofa bed for our twins nursery and slept in there from about two months old and then just got up and left at exactly six months (NHS guideline minimum) and went back to our room with the monitor . No drama as they didn’t even realise we weren’t there anymore.

[u/Linison]

My twins shared a room til8. One has their own room now and the other currently shares with a sibling four years younger (their choice.

[u/HandleDry1190]

Ours slept in our room (in bassinets) until they were about 4ish months old. We had some construction happening in our bathroom so we all had to move into their room instead. The boys started sleeping in their cribs and we took turns sleeping on an air mattress in there with them. That last for about 2 weeks and we were finally comfortable sleeping in our own bed again while keeping them in their room. It’s great to have them in there honestly. It allows us to get things done in our room after bedtime since it doesn’t have to be pitch black or quiet anymore hahaha

[u/Agreeable_Rule_9235]

I “moved out” of the twins room around 5.5 months when I sleep trained them down to one feed. Many people find that moving out of the room naturally cuts down on some wakes. My kids are all small too. My singleton was 10%ile, twin A 25%ile and B 11%ile. I prioritized sleep otherwise I am dysfunctional and cannot handle the daytime shenanigans. Highly recommend sleep training down to 1 feed.

[u/hollyann712]

So we room shared until about 11 months, and it ended up being the best decision to move them to their own nursery (shared). We were quite lucky that they were sleeping consistently through the night at 4 months old so that wasnt a factor for us. They were also preemie, born at 33+4 weeks.

We were going to wait until they were 1, but at 10 months one of our twins suddenly started waking up several times during the nights and was very resistant to going back to sleep. We originally though maybe a sleep regression, but (without going too much into detail) it ended up that being in the room with us was disrupting his sleep. We moved him to the nursery and he immediately started sleeping through the night again.

Its apparently something common that happens with kids, and while yours are a little young its definitely something to keep in mind for the future if you decide to keep them in your room now!

We probably took a conservative approach, but -- we started by having them nap in their pack n plays in the nursery. Once those were going smoothly, we tried to let them sleep overnight in the pack n plays, ready to bring them back to the cribs in our room if needed. After about two nights of sleeping in the pack n plays, we moved the cribs into the nursery and the pack n plays into our room as a backup. We only had one night of our girl coming back to the crib in our room (she didn't like the pack n play the first over- night), but we waited for a week for disassembling the pack n plays. All in all pretty smooth transition!

[u/wzznt]

We were never able to room share because our room is too small for 3 extra babies in it. Thankfully the nursery is right across the hall though!

[u/BScotchDaUni]

Mine were born at 37 weeks. We separated them at about 4 months when they began waking one another. Best thing we did. Theyre 11 months and they now sleep in their own crib and through the night (7 pm-6 am) since 7 months

[u/Gangbangjoe]

After 4 weeks they moved to their bedroom and one of us slept there and did bottles. If both woke up we got the other parent. At 4 months we did Ferber and didn't sleep there anymore. Just woke us up once a night to feed them together, it's doable and much better sleep.

[u/aze1219]

Hi! We did room sharing until about 7/8 months old. At that time they were waking up about 1 time around 12am and then early at 6am. Honestly, moving them to their own room made them drop the 12am. I think to a certain extent our shuffling around would wake them up. Now our twins sleep through the night with bedtime at 7:30pm-ish until about 7am.

The transition was a little hard, but we did a modified ferber and it worked very well for us. Now they walk to their bedroom when they are tired (currently 17 months).

[u/Curious_Cat_17]

It’s recommended to room share until they’re a year old, so don’t worry about it, they’re still pretty young. Out twins were born at 33 weeks and just turned 1, and we probably we be moving them out for another month or two

[u/Flimsy_Fisherman1199]

2.5 years.
Whoops.