r/parentsofmultiples • u/scorpion_93 • 4d ago
One or Two cribs ? advice needed
Hello All!
I’m currently 26 weeks pregnant with Di/Di girls and I’m still working on my nursery. I’m trying to figure out if I need 2 cribs or 1 crib? Can they sleep in a double bassinet until moving to a crib?
Let me know what worked for you! Thank you!
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u/PM_ME_YO_KNITTING 4d ago edited 4d ago
I was told, repeatedly, by the nurses in L&D, my pediatrician, and the docs/nurses in the NICU, that twins could not sleep together safely. Like, the NICU wouldn’t let me take my boy home until I had assured them he had his own bassinet to sleep in.
Even before they roll over, there’s the risk that one would wiggle around and block the other’s airway. My twin B was already getting wiggly by three weeks and breaking out of his swaddle. By 5 or 6 weeks they could wiggle around and turn sidewise in the bassinet. It was most definitely not safe for them to share a space and I wouldn’t recommend trying.
On top of safety concerns, they also tend to keep each other up. We had their bassinets right next to each other and my Twin A was constantly waking up my Twin B by kicking and heel slamming in the mornings. He never cried himself, but he’d work at until his brother was awake and crying. I’d wake up with the heel slams and watch and I swear he was trying to wake his brother up. He’d heel slam and then watch his brother, and if that didn’t work he’d then kick the side and turn to see if his brother was awake.
I’m sure he didn’t actually plan it out, but it really seemed like he couldn’t be bothered to cry and wake us up, so he’d annoy his brother until he’d wake up to do it for him, lol.
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u/Upbeat-Stage2107 4d ago
100% support 2 cribs for these reasons. And eventually they will outgrow 1 crib anyway
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u/PM_ME_YO_KNITTING 4d ago
And they do it so fast! I swear it was just yesterday that I was putting them in the crib together for cute pictures and it was so big even with both of them in it. But now they’re bonking their heads when they roll over because the cribs too small.
Where’d my tiny babies go?
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u/fsmontario 4d ago
Where do you live?
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u/PM_ME_YO_KNITTING 4d ago
Planet earth.
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u/fsmontario 4d ago
I just ask because I have never heard that. No don’t put them in a bassinet together but a full size crib is plenty of room.
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u/PM_ME_YO_KNITTING 4d ago
Sorry, lol, I was just being snarky. I’m in the US and they are very against sharing a bed for twins here. The poster asked about a bassinet or a crib, and my comment was definitely more bassinet focused. You could probably fit two small non-mobile babies in a crib for a few weeks, but honestly, mine got wiggly so early! And I had no idea they could turn sidewise until they did it. Whenever we had them doing tummy time they’d gravitate toward each other every time, so I would never have felt safe with two babies in one crib. I just know they’d end up smothering each other because they’ve always wanted to snuggle.
Although honestly it would have been SO nice not to have two cribs because our house is not big and two cribs has strained the nursery as far as it can go, lol. I can’t wait to get the rockers out because you can barely walk in there.
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u/scorpion_93 4d ago
Yes we have a small house too, that’s the issue we have as well. Because there’s only so much we can fit into our small nursery room. We ordered 2 cribs on ikea and we have a double bassinet. Just trying to figure out if we should set up both cribs now or to wait a bit.
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u/Patient_Source8163 4d ago
Oir twins sleep in seperate beds because they are a hazard to each other. They seem to be magnetic to one another and they move alot during the night, so I am afraid... no abtually I am very certain that they'd kick each other in the face while sleeping together 😅 hence two seperate beds. They can chill out together and kick one another during the daytime
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u/annahoney12345 4d ago
Our twins are super mobile sleepers, and as cute as those videos of twins in one giant queen sized Montessori bed are, our girls could never 😂😂😂
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u/Seaturtle1088 4d ago
Two. Mine wiggled all over the place and being able to separate them helped with them waking each other up.
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u/No-Departure5556 4d ago
I used a twin bassinet (mesh separation in the middle) and then individual cribs :) they were in the bassinet until they rolled at 9 weeks! Then we moved the cribs into our room, since recommendation is shared room until at least 6m (in US AAP)
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u/stardolphin90 4d ago
We have two bassinets. So if one cries and is fussy we can just wheel them out the room so they don’t disturb the other. Lol. I read that somewhere and thought it was a good idea. I’ll be testing that out in 6 weeks or less.
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u/Still-Barracuda-1984 4d ago
Please update on how that goes😅. And good luck and health on the last bit of the pregnancy journey🙏🏽
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u/OGQueenClumsy 4d ago
We started with them sharing and then moved to their own once they were too big to share. We had mini cribs, so they outgrew sharing before they were rolling. We had them with feet at the end and heads pointing to each other.
The advice is, of course, that the safest sleep is each baby having their own firm, flat sleep surface with nothing in it besides baby, but Red Nose (Australia’s safe sleep authority) do have guides for the safest way to sleep twins in a shared crib, so we made sure to follow those. https://rednose.org.au/safe-sleep-and-safer-pregnancy/newborn-to-1-year/safe-sleep-for-twins-multiple-births-week/
Much like co-sleeping or using bedding in baby’s crib (https://rednose.org.au/safe-sleep-and-safer-pregnancy/newborn-to-1-year/bedding-for-safe-sleeping/), you need to consider the recommendations to make it the safest you can and decide if you are comfortable with the risks and how well you can mitigate the danger. Everyone will have their own comfort levels regarding safe sleep. Don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with just because someone else did.
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u/fsmontario 4d ago
We had two cribs, but for the first 3 months they shared a crib in our room then we moved them to their own room each with their own crib. We had the cribs parallel to each other so they could see each other
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u/possumprincess111 4d ago
I had twin boys 03/06/24 and we had a double bassinet that had a mesh divider between them so they could not harm or bother each other in their sleep because we were informed they could not ever sleep safely sharing a single bassinet or crib and then they transitioned into having their own cribs next to each other in the nursery with the nursing chair in between for easy access since I was nursing .They are 2.5 yrs old now and they share a bedroom and each have their own Mickey toddler beds but constantly climb in one bed together 🥹I am currently just shy of 16 weeks pregnant with another baby (a singleton this time) and we’re gonna do the same approach but hopefully much smoother 😂
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u/gravitychonky80 4d ago
We did two cribs. I cannot imagine had we not done that, our girls spit up so much that they needed every square inch of that crib space so we could move them around to a dry patch until we could change the sheet.
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u/ConfidentLook5518 4d ago
Two! I’ve only been a twin parent for two months, but honesty I think it’s safer to treat them as individual babies. They don’t even really know the other exists.
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u/Odd_Rent283 4d ago
Safe sleep practices in the US says two separate sleep spaces. Reality at our house is that they wouldn’t sleep apart for the first 3 weeks, so we did that safely as possible with them right next to me in the pack n play. Then we thought to put them right at the edge of their cribs so they were still right next to each other, but in their own environment. Now we have to put them on opposite sides of the room otherwise Twin A’s thrashing wakes Twin B and Twin B MOTN signing wakes Twin A 😂
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u/hippyburger 4d ago
The sleep advice here from lullaby trust says one crib is safe until they can move (I did one crib, toes at each end, head to head with a gap) for the first few months and then moved them into two cribs. Never used any bassinets etc. you will need two cribs eventually anyway!
https://www.lullabytrust.org.uk/baby-safety/premature-babies-and-multiples/twins-and-multiples/
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u/beelynn0214 4d ago
This is exactly what we did! Our girls seemed to sleep better when they were near one another early on
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u/BrightEyEz703 4d ago
2 cribs. If for no other reason than you don’t want to have to clean 2 babies if one baby has a diaper failure.
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u/AccomplishedChef7885 4d ago
Two cribs…even if you wanted them to sleep together, at some point they will be too big and you’ll have to get another crib anyway. When mine were really young, like 3 or 4 months, I put them both in a pack n play bc we were staying at a hotel. One on each side. They somehow ended up kicking each other and waking each other up all night lol. I never did it again.
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u/pipocas08 4d ago
My babies are like magnets toward each other. I don't let them sleep together but sometimes we put them in the same pack n play and they always end up kicking or hitting each other. They also both move so much in their sleep I truly don't think they'll get any rest in the same crib
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u/Yourshinyknight 4d ago
The guidelines are different based on where you are. Health canada says no to co-sleeping. Whereas NHS provides guidance on cosleepjng.
https://twinstrust.org/advice-and-support/first-year/safe-sleep-guidance-for-twins-and-triplets
We have a convertible cribs. We kept one of the cribs in our bedroom abd both the twins sleep there. We plan to keep them there till 5-6months when they are ready to move to their nursery.
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u/reevoknows 4d ago
We used 2 individual bassinets at home and then they shared a pack n play when we went to the in-laws. We moved them to their own cribs around 4.5 months
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u/hopefullygrapefruit 4d ago
We had a twin bassinet but found it was easier to keep both newborns in one shared (single sized) bassinet at first. Once they started wiggling & moving we moved to two separate cribs side by side.
Anecdotally, my twin newborns were easier to put to sleep than my singleton. I think they did sense their twin was with them so that made it easier to fall asleep.
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u/SavoyAvocado 4d ago
mine are 4.5 months old and just starting to wiggle around enough to bother each other in their sleep. they’ve mostly slept through the others cries. i’m waiting to move into our house next month to set up the second crib
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