Twin Sleeping Arrangements

32 Weeks
187 Pounds. Measuring 38cm (weeks).

Some parents ask if they need to get 2 cribs. The surprising answer is ‘no’. There are several alternative possibilities. One is that you could use Pack N Plays as cribs instead. In fact, it has several advantages. They are smaller and hence fit more easily into a small room. Also, they are portable! Making it easy to move one crib to a separate room, which is very good if they wake each other up at night. If you travel pack and plays fold up nicely and many even have a carrying handle making it easy to throw in your trunk or back seat or even check on the airline.
Another option for some parents is co-sleeping. I once heard a mom comment that when she had her twins (a surprise pregnancy after several other children) that she wasn’t even going to buy cribs because they would sleep in her bed like her other children did. If that’s your thing, I say go for it. But as a mom who co-slept with my second set of twins whenever they needed it, I have just a few words of experience. First, sleeping with one baby is nice. You know right where she is (which in our case was between me and the mesh bed rail). When she wakes to nurse, you are right there for her and can snooze a little yourself. And she doesn’t take up much space even in a smaller bed.
The whole game changes a little when you are sleeping with 2 babies. You have to decide where the 2 will sleep…both between mom and the bed rail, or one between mom and dad. When they wake up, you can nurse one, and when the other one wakes too, you can sit up and make a pillow fort to tandem nurse them, but you certainly can’t snooze while nursing 2 babies at once in bed (if you can, please explain it to me in the comments because I’ve been trying to figure this out for 5 years and 2 sets of twins!) Also, they take up space, and when both my babies were in bed with me, I had trouble finding the space to roll over to nurse when the other awoke, much less had space to sleep comfortably as the babies’ tendency is to squirm closer and closer to you throughout the night! Those were the mornings that my back ached from sleeping on my back or on the same side all night.
That said, if you are a sleep-with-your-baby all the time mom, you might consider at least getting a pack and play or co-sleeper to keep in your room. As a side note, there is a weight limit on most pack and plays, but note that the weight limit for them using the bassinet inserts is much less than the weight limit using them as cribs. I separated both my twins during nap time and the oldest slept in a pack and play at naptime until she was almost 3 years old, and I’m guessing about 40 pounds, which I think is probably above the official weight limit.