Sleeping issues with twins in same room

[Fall1]

I know this is kind of OT, but we are planning a trip too, so it all rolls in....for those of you with young twins or young children sharing a room do you let them cry it out even if that might mean waking the other child.

My son will start the night out in his crib but somewhere along the night wakes up and will not go back quietly. We usually end up moving him to our room in the pack n play, but I'd like him to stay in his crib. My issue is that he'll wake his sister who sleeps through the night!

Any ideas!!

Thanks!!

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, I'd never let a baby cry it out at all, so I would be trying to help the crying baby and figure out what he needs. That doesn't always quiet the baby, of course, b/c sometimes you just can't figure it out, or sometimes I get the feeling babies just need to wail over the state of the universe or some such universal reason, and nothing we do can help them...I still *try* to help, though...no need to make them think the universe doesn't care, right?

With twins, do you ever consider letting them share a sleeping place? Might that help?

If this happens at home, I'd think the sister would be used to her noisy brother anyway...

 

[sharibrat]

I would never cry it out either. We just traveled with our kids almost 5 and almost 2 and the 2 year old would wake at night and need calmed down and I was always worried it would wake my daughter. Also at night, she would be trying to go to sleep and he would still be wide awake playing and keeping her up.

That said, I would opt for a suite if you can! THat way they are in separate rooms. We wish we would have! Good luck!

 

[flipflop]

Our triplets sleep in the same room together at home. Since they were infants, we have allowed them to fuss a little at bed time. We would set a timer on the stove and if after five minutes, if they were still crying we would go in and pat their backs and then leave and reset the timer. It wasn't often they were still crying after 5 minutes and after a while they realized that we weren't going to take them out and play or move them to a location other than their cribs. That said, because they have always shared a room - if one wakes up from a bad dream or can't find his/her lovey in the dark - and thus is crying - usually, the other two don't wake up. Of course this doesn't account for the mornings when Logan will wake up and be lonely and yell "Abby, Luke WAKE UP!" - over and over until they do wake up and talk to him. I haven't found a way to stop that except to consider separating them. But since there is nothing sweeter in the whole world than listening to three, 2 years olds sing jingle bells or another favorite song together when they are alone before they fall asleep, it breaks my heart to think about splitting them up.

Are they in the same room at home? I think that makes a big difference b/c they get used to the noise that comes with sharing a room.

 

[NotUrsula]

I can't give you any advice on how to handle it at home, but as a very frequent with-kids traveler I did want to note that hotels are a different animal. Using the CIO technique is *never* appropriate in a hotel, at least not if you have at least two adults present.

If your child cries at night in a hotel room for longer than about 5 minutes, the proper thing to do is to take him for a buggy ride outdoors, or at least down to the lobby, to avoid unduly disturbing other sleeping guests. If you truly can't get him out of the room then do whatever you have to to get him quiet asap, up to and including bribes.

 

[earthfaries]

Our triplets sleep in the same room together at home. Since they were infants, we have allowed them to fuss a little at bed time. We would set a timer on the stove and if after five minutes, if they were still crying we would go in and pat their backs and then leave and reset the timer. It wasn't often they were still crying after 5 minutes and after a while they realized that we weren't going to take them out and play or move them to a location other than their cribs. That said, because they have always shared a room - if one wakes up from a bad dream or can't find his/her lovey in the dark - and thus is crying - usually, the other two don't wake up. Of course this doesn't account for the mornings when Logan will wake up and be lonely and yell "Abby, Luke WAKE UP!" - over and over until they do wake up and talk to him. I haven't found a way to stop that except to consider separating them. But since there is nothing sweeter in the whole world than listening to three, 2 years olds sing jingle bells or another favorite song together when they are alone before they fall asleep, it breaks my heart to think about splitting them up.

Are they in the same room at home? I think that makes a big difference b/c they get used to the noise that comes with sharing a room.

You sound like us. My twins have always shared a room, and still do and they are 5 now. My son wakes up earlier and wants to wake his sister but he knows to go out quietly when he wakes. It is wonderful them having each other isn't it?

When they were smaller we often thought about seperating them because Zar would wake up his sister early, or cry before going to bed where as she went right to sleep.
It all worked out fine. We wanted to keep them together. I guess they are used to each other so it doesn't bother them.

I wouldn't worry about it on your trip. I don't know how old they are but I'm sure it will be fine. If you usually take him out of the room and you are all going to be in one room on vacation I would just plan on taking him out of his crib and maybe sleeping with him in the hotel or trying to comfort and quiet him. It might not be a good idea though because usually that kind of stuff done for awhile on vacation can cause more problems when you return home.
I don't see what you can really do besides get condo or something with two rooms.
I would just let him do what he does and hopefully he won't wake everyone up. I would definately start now though by leaving him in his crib at night or else it will probably be worse on vacation if you don't move him anywhere like you usually do.

 

[Ashley Kees]

All three of my kids, ages 4, 3, and 10 months share a room. The baby moved out of our room and into the kids room once he could sleep through the night, (6 months old) and we rarely have problems now. If one starts crying in the night, usually the others sleep through it, although my oldest will sometimes wake up briefly, then go right back to sleep. The first month was rough, but once they got in the groove, it was easy. I guess it's like sleeping through your spouse's alarm clock.

It has gotten to the point now where if they AREN'T sharing a room, they cry and can't sleep. They are never lonely, and if they have a bad dream, when they wake up, there are already other comforting and familiar people there. They also almost never get into bed with us (The older 2, the baby stays in the crib), the girls just crawl into the other sister's bed. It is really wonderful for us to see our kids get along so well.

 

[Fall1]

OP here...I wanted to let you all know that I would never cry it out in a hotel, I was only talking about home for that one. Thanks!!