My apologies for the late posting. Our lives have been crazy over the last couple of weeks – we’ve just moved. I wrote most of this post just before we moved. I was busy with other things, so I didn’t get a chance to read everyone else posts. I see that Sarah wrote about managing sleep with newborns. Hopefully this doesn’t overlap too much.
Sleep and related topics have been on my mind quite a bit recently. We’ve just moved to a new house with more bedrooms, lots more bedrooms. Thought it wasn’t the only reason, one of our reasons for looking for a new house was to have enough room for the girls to each have their own bedrooms, at some point, if they want them, or a very large room to share. There will also be enough bedrooms for office space for Mom and Dad, and still there will be rooms to spare.
In the new house, the girls will share a bedroom. For the first time they will be in separate cribs in the same room. Now this isn’t the first time they’ll be sleeping apart, nor the first time they will be in cribs, just the first time they will be in separate cribs in the same room.
Since we brought the girls home in January, we’ve tried a wide range of sleeping arrangements.
When they first came home from the hospital…
- two babies sharing cradle in our bedroom
- two babies sharing bassinette in the playpen in the living room
- one baby in the bassinette in the basement TV room for quick naps when we were watching TV. Usually the other baby was eating.
But they soon outgrew the bassinette, and we needed to find new solutions…
- two babies sharing crib in our bedroom
- two babies sharing playpen in dining room
After just a couple of days of lifting two babies in and out of the playpen, we needed a different solution…
- two babies sharing crib in our bedroom
- two babies sharing a new (second) crib in dining room
Then we decided they were ready to sleep in their own room …
- two babies sharing crib in my office their bedroom (or “babies’ office” as my son called it)
- two babies sharing crib in the dining room
But, they didn’t always share the same sleep schedule…
- one baby in the crib in their bedroom and one in the bassinette in the playpen in our room at night
- two babies sharing crib in the dining room during the day
Then we decided to put our house up for sale so we had to remove the crib from the dining room and the playpen from our bedroom…
- two babies sharing the crib in their bedroom
Then I took the children to stay with my mom while the house was for sale
- two babies in two playpens except when they took turns sleep with me
Then we came back home…
- two babies sharing the crib in their bedroom
Until the fan in our son’s room broke, and for a short time…
- two babies sharing the crib in their bedroom and one toddler in the playpen in their bedroom
About in mid-October, the girls seemed to be waking up more than usual, so we decided to separate them…
- one baby in the crib in their bedroom
- one baby in the playpen in their bedroom
Which has meant more sleep for me since one of the girls is usually sleep through the night, and her sister is usually only up once.
Now that we are settled in our new house, the girls are sleeping in two cribs in their new bedroom. One of our girls still wakes up more than her sister, so her crib is closer to the door.
We certainly didn’t plan to try all these different sleeping arrangement, but as their needs and our needs changed, we adapted. And, I’m certain their be more arrangements to try out as they grow in our new house.
