Sleeping arrangements for twins?

[Tlove]

Hello to parents and parents to be of twins, I have a question on sleeping arrangements as I have boy/girl twins on the way. So, I was trying to avoid the use of Moses baskets as I had it in my head that they last for such a short time and then you're sort of stuck with them afterwards as no one would really want them second hand. We ordered a travel cot to use downstairs for daytime napping and 2 cot beds for upstairs. But now that we're putting it all together, it seems that the cotbed may be just a bit too big to fit in our bedroom. I just need some help deciding on the options we have for upstairs sleeping:

1. Put the babies in one cotbed together in the nursery and I can sleep in there with them on a single bed. 

2. Rent a co-sleeping cot that will fit onto our double bed in our bedroom. It is provided with a new mattress. I think we'd get 4 months out of it if both are in it. We can return the cotbed once we're finished with it, so no need to find a new home for it.

3. Get 2 Moses baskets that should fit in the bedroom with us if we put one at side of bed and one at foot of bed. I have heard that you might only get a few weeks out of Moses baskets depending on how big the babies are, which is kind of why I was avoiding them. My local Aldi still has a couple in stock.

Options 2&3 mean getting more equipment and another set of sheets 🙄

[Jack81twins]

We have been having the same discussion this end and it was so hard to to decide. Due to space restrictions however we are now having moses baskets as we were going to top and tale in a cot bed to begin with but not enough space. We are now having the moses baskets side by side at my side of the bed. We are also lucky that a couple of friends had finished with their moses baskets so we have them and have just brought new bedding and mattresses for them. Think they should be ok for three months and hopfully by end of that time we will be in a bigger property. Their are alot of people here that ask for them on buy and sell sites and free cycle. I feel a bit mean for separating as I have read a few things about them sleeping in same for to begin with. That and choosing a pram have almost driven us to distraction.

I also think my nesting instinct is kicking in even more so now and I'm really cleaning everything 

[Tlove in reply to Jack81twins]

I can see how Moses baskets are handy as they can be moved around but it's the thought of getting rid of them afterwards, there are so many ads for them that it feels like it could be difficult to get rid of them. I think we're edging towards renting the co-sleeper because we can just hand that back.

We went for the out and about double nipper, it's light and great reviews for it. It doesn't take a car seat, that's the only downside but it has suspension so the husband is happy!

I'm definitely not nesting, wish I was as there's a lot of sorting out of stuff to do!

[Jack81twins in reply to Tlove]

Quite a few charity shops will take them here so we're lucky. It is really a case of doing what fits better with you.  I think, although other people can advise the choice is yours ☺. We have gone with the exact same one. My other half also liked the suspension. We went for purple punch colour with black footmuffs. I don't drive so will only really need carseats at the weekend. I think it will go through most doorways without difficulty. With the tandem ones I didn't like the idea of one being close to the floor as a lot of them are and also if they are side by side they can interact with each other as they grow and start taking an interest in things around them. I'm so excited. They've also been really active today and have felt like I've had a little Mexican wave going on inside ☺

[Tlove in reply to Jack81twins]

We went for the red nipper. If my husband had his way he would have got the lime green! It was at a better price but that just indicates it doesn't sell well because of the colour and I suppose I was thinking of when we go to sell it on. I didn't get foot muffs yet, they're pretty pricey! The tandem prams were also really heavy and when we took a measuring tape to both types, there was very little difference in width anyway. Did you go for carrycots? We didn't bother with them.

So cute when you see the Mexican wave! Mine have been quieter the last 2 days, still some movement but certainly not as active as usual. I think they've flipped around a little anyway.

[Jack81twins in reply to Tlove]

We only got the footmuffs because when we got ours there was an offer where you got one free, so we decided we would get the second. So two for price of one really. They are ridiculous price!

No we didn't bother with the carrycots as for the time they actually in them wasn't worth the added expense. I think it looks more than comfy and supportive without anyway.

Have you bought a changing bag yet? I haven't .

Mine have done that a couple of times too. Maybe yours have turned we are usually pretty tuned in to them. I have one head down and other breach at the moment. I have another scan Friday and see consultant. 

[Hidden]

Hey there, I don't have experience with twins but just wanted to say my first was in his Moses basket until he was nearly 4.5 months!! And he was 80th percentile for length so he wasn't small. My first basket was from a relative with new bedding/mattress but I've just bought the Moses basket from aldi for new baby with look quite roomy and not expensive. As he grew out of the Moses basket before he was 6 months and ready to move to his cot bed in his own room he slept in our room in a travel between 4.5 months and 6 months. Def trickier with 2 though and limited space!! 

[Tlove in reply to Hidden]

Thanks Dublin77. That's much longer in the Moses basket than I expected. I'm thinking we might have tall twins too as husband is over 6 foot! Hmmm. Maybe Moses basket downstairs and travel cot upstairs could also work. It's not easy making these decisions!

[Hidden in reply to Tlove]

2 Moses baskets downstairs and one travel cot to share upstairs could work? The travel costs are much bigger and would easily fit two bubbas I'd say. We used towels rolled in long sausage shapes either side of bubba to make him feel snuggled in to Moses basket/travel cot and it worked a treat!

Or one travel cot up and one down and then they share in the day and the night?!

[Tlove in reply to Hidden]

That's the problem - possibilities are endless it seems! 😊

[Tlove in reply to Tlove]

I'll be writing a list tonight of pros and cons for each option I think 

[Jack81twins in reply to Tlove]

It sure isn't!! My next decision is breastfeed or formula 

[Btrouble]

Hi tlove, 

My boy girl twins are now 7 weeks old and I had exactly the same thoughts regarding moses baskets. We had a cotbed in the bedroom and one downstairs for the daytime as we planned to put them together in them. However on taking the twins home and having a painful couple of weeks trying to get them both to sleep we gave up and bought a couple of cheap moses baskets on rocking stands. We found that although we could get them sleeping in the day downstairs together at night my little girl just couldn't settle, we think that with it being so big in the darkened room she felt alone (even though her brother was tucked up right next to her and I was on the bed the other side of the bars), The only way I could get her to sleep at night was whilst I held her. In the moses it took a while to get her use to it but now she's sleeping in it for about 6 hours at a time. Her brother on the other hand had no problem sleeping in the cotbed from the start and happily had it to himself all night. 

We never had a option to rent a co-sleeper so only had the choice of perverse with trying to get LG to sleep at night in cotbed or get her a moses but within a couple of weeks of getting only a couple of hours myself I was too tired and ready to give anything a try. It really is up to you and if I had the option I would of tried renting the cosleeper before buying the moses baskets once I'd given up on trying the cotbed. It's totally up to you. My route was try the cotbed and hope it's fine, for my LG it wasn't so tried the next cheapest safe sleeping option.  If you do end up getting a moses argos do cheap bedding for it.

Just another point, you might want to think about the travel cot because if you have a c section it's unlikely you'll be able to safely move the twins in and out of it unless it has a high setting for the mattress like the cotbed has. I only started doing the laundry 3 weeks after mine and the bending/lifting caused the wound to reopen and become infected and I wasn't lifting anything near the babies weights or bending as far as a standard travel cot mattress and certainly wasn't the frequency that you'll need for the twins. 

Anyway hope this is useful, at the end of the day it's all your choices about how to sleep your babies when they arrive and there's no harm in trying lots of different options if you have them. 

Good luck 🍀 

[Tlove in reply to Btrouble]

Hi Btrouble, congratulations on the birth of your twins! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me, when I know you must be up the walls with your little ones. I think that's great advice to try out the co-sleeper to see how we get on. The one I'm looking at can be converted to a cot so would possibly help transition eventually to cotbed as well. I also think that it will be easy to hand back the co-sleeper at the end of rental and therefore not have any excess equipment - twins come with enough as it is! They told me I would get maybe 4 months out of it with twins. 

The travel cot we chose has the higher setting alright and also has a nappy changer on it, so it seemed ideal for daytime. 

Thanks for the warning on the c-section. I'm kind of hoping I can have a natural delivery because of the recovery afterwards but I am aware that twin pregnancies end up in c-section (planned or emergency) about 66% of the time. Either way I suppose there will be stitches of some kind 😬

[mmc224]

My niece is 6.5 months and only just moved from moses basket,  8.5 lbs when born and 50th centile.  She's in a travel cot now as that fitted well in bedroom.  Seems to be easy to buy and sell second hand travel cots, can get the ones with high insert and you might end up needing two travel cots downstairs for naps when they are too big to share anyway?  

[Tlove in reply to mmc224]

Thanks for coming back to me. Your niece got a long time out of the Moses basket! 

We did get a travel cot with bassinet level for when they are small and a friend will give us a second one to use but without bassinet level. I'm thinking now after reading your reply that by the time they grow out of sharing the one travel cot, we will be able to use the 2 at the lower level for them. Otherwise, day time naps will be upstairs by then as they will be napping less. 

[mmc224 in reply to Tlove]

Sounds like a plan.  She was in 3-6 clothes at 6 months, but only just.  Think it depends on lots of things how quick they grow out of moses basket.  

[Steffi_27]

I've no experience with twins but plenty with Moses baskets 😂 The longest I've had from a Moses basket is 8 weeks and that was with my first (who was also the smallest. My second was in his Moses basket for only 3 weeks (he was 11lb 3oz born and straight into 3-6month clothing) my third was in his Moses basket for around 6-7 weeks before it started disturbing his sleep so we moved him into a snuzpod till he was rolling over. With number 4 we are going straight for a crib as a cot won't fit in our room and it will last longer than a Moses basket. There isn't much difference in cost between cribs and Moses baskets so for us it seems the most sensible option. 

There's really no right or wrong, best thing you can do is to go with your instincts

Xx

[Tlove in reply to Steffi_27]

Hi Steffi_27, wow you really didn't get much time out of the Moses baskets!! This is kind of why I'm a bit resistant to getting them. I'm going to go with the co-sleeper as it can also be converted to a cot which is smaller than cotbed. I'm thinking it may help with the transition to nursery as well. And if they wake in the night I can roll over and feed/comfort them easily when it's used as a co-sleeper. Renting also means getting rid of it quickly without having too much stuff around!

[Hopeful15]

Hiya, my friend who had twins used the cots that came with her travel system and just placed them inside the larger cotbed at night until they became too big - she found walking them around the block together in the pram made them fall asleep at the same time and then they just lifted them out and popped the whole thing in the cotbed so that they were more at her level to see them. Once they were too big for the cots, they just got a divider and put both boys in the same cot bed, toe to toe.