How should you go about sleep training twins in the same room? As your babies start sleeping longer at night and approach 6 months old, you might be starting to think about sleep training them.
Sleep training twins and getting them on the same schedule is a huge goal for exhausted twin parents. So, how do you go about sleep training twins that are in the same room?
I was able to successfully sleep train my twins while they shared a room as babies. Read on to hear about my experience and get some tips for success in your home.
Reasons For Sleep Training Twins
If you have twins that share a room, sleep training one or both of them using the cry it out method can be a scary thought. If you have one baby sleeping, you DO NOT want them to be woken up by the other’s crying.
This is a bridge my husband and I crossed when our twins were about 10 months old. For whatever reason, one of our twins, S, was a great sleeper from the time she was 6 months old. We never had to do much to get her to sleep well.
On the other hand, S’s twin sister, J, was not the same. She was an okay sleeper. But, at 10 months old, she started a bad habit of waking up one hour after falling asleep at night and crying. So, what did we do?
When J woke up, we would take her out of the bedroom, bring her downstairs and hold her until she fell asleep again. First and foremost, we were worried she would wake up her sister and then we would have 2 crying babies to deal with.
At first, this was a quick 10 minute process. But, over the next few weeks this developed into a 2 hour process. J would fall asleep when we held her, but as soon as we tried to put her back in her crib she would wake up. It became exhausting, and J’s routine got old fast.
How To Sleep Train Twin Babies That Share A Room
I started researching how to deal with the situation we were facing and I came across this wonderful post on sleep training two kids in one room.
In this case there is a toddler and a baby sharing a room, so it is slightly different than our situation. I followed the recommendations from the “Checking In” and “Waking Up in the Middle of the Night” sections of this post very closely.
You will see from reading the link that the “sleep training method” is essentially the cry it out method. I know some parents are hesitant about using cry it out. IT IS HARD, but it was very much worth it.
J has been a wonderful sleeper ever since sleep training and we were able to get through it without negatively impacting the sleep of her twin sister. Here is a list of the steps we took to get J back to sleeping well, without effecting her twin sister’s sleep.
- When J woke up, she would throw her pacifier on the ground. One of us would go upstairs and give her the pacifier. We would not say anything and we would leave the room.
- If J continued crying we would repeat the step above after 5 min. This process would continue repeating with the time increments slowly increasing from 10 min to 15 min and finally to 30 min.
- If S woke up throughout the crying we would make sure she had her pacifier as well. She was pretty much unfazed by the crying and most of the time she just slept through it. If she woke up, she was happy to get her pacifier and fall back asleep.
Results Of Sleep Training Twins In The Same Room
How did sleep training twins in the same room work out for our family?
- The first night J cried for 2 hours and then went back to sleep.
- The second night J only cried about 30 minutes.
- The third night J was back to 2 hours of crying.
- By the fourth night the crying was to a minimum, maybe 10 min at the most.
- Since night 4, J’s sleep has been pretty dependable.
An additional and interesting note is that J had sleep regressions up until 2 and a half years old. Every few months she would wake up in the middle of the night crying.
We found that if we dealt with it the same way described above she would go back to sleeping well after 1-2 nights. On the other hand, if we held her, this led to her waking up again and crying even more the next night.
What If My Twins Wake Each Other Up?
Although sleep training twins in the same room worked well for our family. Everyone has a different situation.
If you try the method above and it’s just not working. I recommend sleep training your twins in separate rooms.
You can do this by keeping one twin in the nursery and setting up a pack n play somewhere else in the house. Hopefully you have a quiet spot somewhere.
You can use the cry it out method described above and once both of your babies are sleeping well, move them back together into the same room. If all goes well, this temporary sleep setup should only last about 4-5 days.
Should You Try Sleep Training Babies That Share A Room?
I definitely recommend the method we used for sleep training twins with a shared bedroom. By using the cry it out method we gave our child the skills necessary to self-soothe, which in turn led to her sleeping well through the night. In the end this created happier, more well rested parents and children, which is always a big plus.
