My cousin, Jean, is letting us borrow her fancy swinging teak cradle. As you can see in the photograph, we won’t be able to use it much longer because the girls are already kind of wedged in. We had to retire the Pack ‘n Play because the bassinet part has a maximum weight allowance of fifteen pounds, and although the girls are not yet seven-and-a-half pounds each, we figure with clothes and blankets, it’s probably getting close.
We have one of our cribs, but it’s still in the box because we’re trying to decide where to assemble it. It will barely fit, only with much difficulty, in our bedroom. We can set it up in the nursery but we’re not sure we want the girls to sleep in a separate bedroom yet. Basically, Bernard and I are soliciting comments regarding when you parents out there put your kids in their own bedroom–two months? six months? I realize that there are also co-sleepers out there–don’t worry, you won’t get a pediatrician lecture from me about not co-sleeping. I’m sure those of you who are doing it have made arrangements so that your bed is not a smothering death trap for your infant. Anyway, our girls are only three weeks old, but I don’t know when I’ll be okay with banishing them to the nursery at night. It will be interesting to hear what others have done.
Based on some questions we’ve been getting, I thought I’d add a comment. Our best guess is that the girls will run out of room in the cradle in another month — right around the 7 or 8 week mark. We like having them in our room so we can respond to them more quickly, but given how tight a squeeze it would be to build the crib in our bedroom, we’re not sure we have that option. We want to hear what those of you out there have done. When did your kids move out to their own room?
Hi Agnes & Bernard,
I really enjoy the blog and following how your beautiful girls (and you guys!) are doing. We actually had Abigail sleeping in her own room (first in a bassinet, then in her crib) from day one. I was always paranoid that we would wake her up if she was in the room with us and someone got up, snored, etc. So, we just used the baby monitor at night. It worked out great, and Abigail does not seem to have been scarred in any way by the experience! In fact, she started sleeping through the night at 2 months, which might have been related in part to learning to fall asleep in her room. Personally, though I think it was more luck and her temperament than anything we did. Also, a quick reply to your breastfeeding update. Breastfeeding twice a day and pumping every three hours IS still breastfeeding in my opinion! Don’t sell yourself short! Glad you are getting a little more sleep–definitely makes a huge difference!
Jenny
Jenny again–a quick addition to my message above. The one drawback to having Abigail sleep in her own room was occasionally (OK, more than occasionally at first) we would freak out because she was sleeping so soundly and have to get out of bed to check on her to make sure everything was OK. But, once our paranoia died down, we were glad she was comfy in her own room!
We moved our boys into their own room when each was about 2 months old. Amazingly, WE slept better when they were out of our room; babies are noisy sleepers and we used to respond to every little belch and squeak, afraid that it would escalate into a full cry and wake the other spouse. We realized that our boys would sometimes wake briefly, but not REALLY be awake, and would fall back asleep.
Also, what saved my sanity with Mathew was (send out the SIDS police) that we put him to sleep on his tummy, starting at around 4 weeks old. Prior to that, he never slept more than 2 hours at a stretch. The first time he slept on his tummy, he slept 5 hours!! We figured it was sort of like the breastfeeding vs. formula issue, i.e. WE all slept on our tummies and we turned out ok.
i think bassinet/cradles are great. if you can borrow another one, that would be best. i think lucas stayed in there about 3 mo until he started wanting out of there. even tho i had him in the bassinet (until the last feeding in the night, then he slept next to me b/c i was too tired to take him back), i had him sleep in his own room anyway. yes, babies are very noisy and i can’t sleep in the same room as he. after the bassinet, he’s been sleeping in his own room/crib since. i had a baby monitor but it was too sensitive. it picks up every single little sound so i had to stuff it in the drawer in his room. in the beginning, sometimes he cries a little. but i’ve learned that you can’t rush in to pick him up everytime b/c he’s learned to expect that until i sleep trained him and weaned him off the 2am cry for holding. it was harder to wean him off than just to give in and hold him. he’s always slept in his own room and now he goes to sleep by himself after i kiss him good night. he even looks for his own crib.
you know what you can do with the pack and play is that you can take out the bassinet netting and put them at the bottom of the playpen. i think it has a higher maximum weight. it means that you have to lean down further but they would both fit in there.
i also vote for their own room/crib in that i had a symphony in motion mobile on the crib and later he learned to turn it on himself in the morning after he woke up and entertained himself for a while until he started screaming for mommy. he loved that mobile. trust me, every precious minute in the morning counts.
We have always had the crib in a separate room because it is a huge pain to disassemble and reassemble the crib. Sarah moved to her room at 7 months because my mom was staying with us and we had a 2 bdrm apartment at the time. Maya moved to her room at 2 months. Neither had problems with the crib and we definitely slept better with them in the next room. Babies are noisy sleepers and I used to wake up to every whimper/snort/snuffle and then lay awake, tensing and awaiting the cry that means they are hungry! With them in the next room, I would turn the monitor low or even just leave the bedroom doors open.
Also, at 6-8 weeks, which is when they outgrow the cradle, they will hopefully be sleeping longer at night, so you don’t have to get up and go to their room that many times a night. And I think the twins may be comforted by the presence of her sibling in the same room.
I do miss sleeping with baby, though. I miss hearing the sound of her breathing and rustling at night. So sometimes if she has trouble falling back asleep after a feeding, or I am just too tired to bring her back to her room, I do let Maya sleep in my bed.
We put the boys in their own room right away. What I would do though is sleep in our bedroom, get up for the first feeding, go back to sleep in our bedroom, but then for the second feeding I would take Theo into our spare bedroom and feed/sleep with him in the bed there. That way when he woke up again I could just roll over and nurse him, and get some more sleep for myself that way.
Oh I forgot this in my above comment. For the first two months I swaddled Theo in a blanket, put him in his car seat and buckled him into the car seat, and put the whole thing into the crib. The buckle on the car seat seemed to keep him buckled in the blanket longer! Hey, whatever it takes!
My Eleanor was in our room until she was about a year old (but then, our room was big). She was in our bed for a few months and then in her own crib in our room. I had read a BMJ study saying that of the various sleeping combinations, sleeping in the same room as the parent conferred a lower risk of the SIDS than the other ones, which I would have probably ignored except that I liked having her close by and our bedrooms were on different levels. The worst possible combination was sleeping on a sofa with the child, especially if alcohol was involved I think. Owen stayed in our room and in our bed until about six months old, at which time he went downstairs in his own bedroom — I think he was kicking us too much or something like that. The baby monitor was so sensitive — good because I liked to hear the actual breathing, but bad because when the baby did cry it was really grating! Choose whatever works for you. I had always thought I would put the baby in their own crib right away, but then I turned out to love cosleeping.