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Before your twins are delivered you will be thinking ahead to plans on where they will be sleeping. Two babies certainly take up twice the space of one. But having two separate sleeping areas isn't necessary unless that is what you want.
While pregnant with your twins, your babies are sharing tight quarters with one another and are developing a close bond already. Once they are born, staying close together can continue to strengthen that bond as they grow into little children.
Two babies can easily share a small sleeping space, particularly when they are within their first three months after birth. Depending on their size, snuggling together in a bassinet might be appropriate. For bigger babies, over eight pounds, a regular-sized crib might be a better bet. And with the crib there is still room to separate them if they need to be.
Some parents want to separate their twins as soon as possible because they see the babies fidgeting by each other and sometimes causing each other to wake up. While this may be true, separating twins while they are too young could prove to be a difficult transition to make.
Research has consistently proven that twins who share sleep while they are babies, especially in NICU, do much better. Just like kangaroo care with premature babies, the closeness of another person can prove vital to the life of a baby.
You could choose to have your twins always share sleep together or only for naps or only for nighttime depending on your arrangements. If you share a family bed in the evening and the twins will be with their mother, and near one another, then you could separate them for naps during the daytime if you felt they slept better that way.
As twins grow into their sixth month after birth, they do become more active and will tend to wake their sibling. If this proves to be distressing to you, having two cribs side-by-side might be a consideration. That way they are very near one another but not close enough to create waking problems.
Some people will go so far as to separate their twins in separate cribs in separate rooms just for the sake of sleep. While this certainly is an option, I would urge parents to think about the bond that twins develop and what other options might work as well without interfering with the twin bond. There is plenty of time as they grow older to separate them.
If you are concerned about the twins crying and waking one another at night, perhaps letting that happen and feeding them at the same time would work better for everyone. It often gives more sleep to weary parents of twins, to have them on the same feeding schedule.
While it is a very personal decision, where and how your twins sleep, consider what is most important to your family and consider all your options.
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