1 crib vs 2

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theophilac20

New member
We are expecting twins and wondering what others are doing for their nursery set-up. How many of you are choosing to have the babies in 1 crib for the first year instead of having separate cribs?
 
@theophilac20 I asked this same question here when I was pregnant and planning. My twins are 19 weeks and we just moved them to their cribs and I can confirm the advice I got then was right. At first you may be able to share, but very quickly they will be able to move and it won’t be safe for them to share. So definitely not realistic to let them share for a year. My twins will rotate 180° by the time I leave the room! I don’t have room for 2 full size cribs so I opted for 2 mini cribs instead.
 
@theophilac20 I’m in the UK and our midwives were more than happy for our twins to share, in the hospital they bought us a twin crib specifically so they could share. They are comforted by being near each other and they were swaddled a lot so they couldn’t move. Our babies slept in the same next to me for 6 weeks. They outgrew it and started moving more so it didn’t feel safe after that. Now they sleep in 2 cribs either side of the bed. When they move in to their own room they will have floor beds but I plan on having them with us for a while.
 
@peterjames0510 Happy to see another UK parent! These comments have been crazy to read for me, I used to go to a lot of twin groups and honestly don’t know a single twin parent irl who didn’t sleep their twins together for as long as they could. Also crazy that someone could have their child withheld because of sleeping arrangements lol.

They also brought me my girls in just one bed, and since they were dinky it wasn’t even a special twin one. My girls also started sleeping thought the night from 6 weeks and I think a bit part of it was how comforted they were by sleeping next to each other.
 
@katrina2017 Yeah I agree it was a crazy read! I cant imagine not taking them home because they’re going to co bed. Reading situations like that really make me value how open our midwives were to how we wanted to do things. They’d always recommend the safest practices and keep us informed but they’d never stop us from doing what we wanted to do. Our twins started sleeping through from about 10 weeks. We’ve also never had to assist them in falling asleep which I credit to them sharing a crib and having each other for comfort at the start.
 
@peterjames0510 You’re so right. Honestly I read stuff on this sub sometimes and I’m shocked at just how different things are over there. When I talked to my midwife and said something along the lines of “I don’t know if I would be allowed to do that” she (very politely) interrupted and asked what do I mean I wouldn’t be allowed, I’m a grown woman in charge of my own body and birth and that she can only tell me the facts and what is safest and that she’s delivered twins even at home before, it’s just obviously not recommended but they can’t tell people what to do and how to birth and how much risk they can or can’t take.

So whenever people here say stuff like “the hospital doesn’t allow this” or “my doctor wouldn’t let me” it just takes me aback cause like… what does that even mean they “wouldn’t let you”? It’s the same with the ‘withholding’ of newborns, I genuinely just don’t get it. But it does kind of make me understand why they have so many people who end up swinging so much in the other direction and end up dangerous freebirthing super hippies, almost in opposition of being told how they are and are not allowed to birth/sleep/feed etc.
 
@katrina2017 I'm so grateful for the midwives I've had here in the States because they've been more like what you described, but clearly bound by their workplace's policies. So they'd indicate support when they approved of something I did that was against hospital policy. I appreciated it!

Also re: "hospital won't let us"... You're always free to get up and leave, or to refuse procedures, but if you do it'll be recorded as "against medical advice" and you might have issues with insurance coverage later. As for taking babies home though, that might become a kidnapping/CPS issue if you took them home without them being properly discharged 😞 "Hospital won't let us take them home unless XYZ" means they won't clear the babies for discharge.
 
@nikki_virginia Thank you for explaining! Here a parents decision regarding all medical treatment can only be overruled by courts but this happens practically exclusively in life threatening situations - for example child needs an urgent blood transfusion but parents refuse on ‘religious grounds’. It wouldn’t happen for things like sleeping arrangements or car seats. And in fact I gave it a quick google and hospitals here can’t legally keep the child in the hospital if the parents have no car seats, so I imagine this is even more true for sleeping arrangements etc!
 
@art97 When we were in the NICU, the mother of another set of twins was being released and hospital staff asked her a few safety questions about the home. One of the questions was, "does each baby have their own sleeping space?" The mother answered, "No, they will share a crib". They hospital refused to release the babies. She had to get another crib before they could go home.
 
@katrina2017 That's crazy for me to read because the research we had access to said that infants that share a sleeping space were more at risk for SIDS.

Curious what they told you about SIDS over there? Did they say there was less of a chance of them dying if they shared a crib?
 
@subashsingh Yes, the NHS here specifically calls it ‘perfectly safe’ and it was strongly encouraged! The advice is to keep them sleeping together until they learn to roll. Lullaby Trust which is a major safe sleep charity here also says you can sleep them together, and the resources I was given by my midwives said that it’s better to Co bed them. I used to go to twin baby groups when my girls were little and honestly co bedding babies here is firmly the standard, I don’t think I know a single family who didn’t. So it’s very, very different!
 
@subashsingh Yes. They almost did not release babies to us because i did not adjust the water temperature at the house to a lower level. I lies to them saying i did. I use a thermometer to check temp for bathing so its a non issue but i could see other people making mistakes here if they are not careful.
 
@jamey The risk of having your hot water set so high is not only so that you don’t unknowingly place baby into scalding water. I cannot tell you the number of times my now preschoolers will turn on a water tap, not discriminating between hot or cold, when doing activities, be that washing their hands, playing in the bathtub, or getting water for their kitchen games. It’s fairly easy to keep an infant or two year old from accessing the tap, not so much for a child who is big enough to reach the water on their own but not mature enough to understand the risk.
 
@theophilac20 We had a twin bassinet with divider for the first 8 or so weeks and then had two cribs. We converted the cribs to toddler beds when they were about 3 and just sized up to twin beds for their fourth birthday.
 
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