Can you sleep train twins in the same room, and even in your bedroom?
The answer is- Yes, you can sleep train your baby or twins while room-sharing with them! This is a common question we often get as sleep consultants. Parents will come to us absolutely exhausted and looking for solutions. They really want to sleep train their baby or twins, but due to one reason or another they are room-sharing. Often, they assume this task is impossible given all the variables at play. However, we are here to tell you that it is 100% possible to teach your baby or twins how to sleep through the night while still sharing a room with them. Keep reading to find out how.
1) Set up a Separate “Sleep Area” for your Baby or Twins within your Room
Even though your baby or twins are room-sharing with you, you want to make it feel like they are in their own space. If you have a large bedroom, we recommend placing the cribs as far away from your own bed as possible. You may want to even use a room divider or piece of furniture to safely split up spaces. If your room is on the smaller side, this might look like moving the crib to the foot of your bed, instead of right beside your bed. Lastly, you could consider using a Slumberpod to really darken their space entirely. You can use code babysleepconsultancy to receive a discount off one or two slumber pods! Shop now at https://www.slumberpod.com/
2) Use Double White Noise & Black Out Curtains
Using white noise can help mask background sounds like your own movements, a dog barking or outside traffic. While room-sharing, we suggest having two sound machines or a sound machine and a boxed fan to drown out even more sound. When there are a lot of factors at play that could wake the child, it is nice to be able to have some control over things like drowning out background noise. This is especially important when room-sharing with twins due to that extra baby factor. Similarly, you’ll want to make sure the room is completely blacked out in order to control any early morning light coming through the windows.
3) Prepare your Things in Advance
Be sure to have everything you need for your own bedtime routine prepared prior to putting the baby or twins to bed. This will help minimize disruption as much as possible. Similarly, if you plan to wake up earlier than them, have your clothes, toothbrush and other items outside of the room in advance so you can limit disturbances in the early morning as well.
4) Use a Baby Monitor
We still recommend the use of a baby monitor while room-sharing. If your child wakes in the middle of the night while you room share, you will have the ability to check the camera instead of having to get up and look inside the crib, which could stimulate them more. While you room-share, we recommend keeping the camera on mute so that you only have to look at the screen to see what is going on. Your child could just be adjusting positions or letting out some normal baby sleep sounds (they can be very noisy sleepers!)
5) Consider Moving Out of the Room (Temporarily!)
If you don’t mind sleeping away from your baby or twins during sleep training, then consider sleeping in a different room for a bit. This can sometimes be helpful when sleep training babies that are a little older (9-12 months), toddlers, as well as babies who are used to nursing (babies can totally smell the milk!). You can consider sleeping on the couch or inflating an air mattress for a bit if you are comfortable with that. Once the child has developed those amazing independent sleep skills, we advise you move back into your room.
6) Have a Plan
Once you are ready to sleep train, you will want to have a plan of action and follow it with consistency. You will pick a method and execute it as if your baby or twins had their own room. It can be tricky to sleep train and room-share, but it is not impossible! If you don’t know where to start, or need some extra support, we are here to help you with that! Hiring us as your sleep coaches means you have an experienced sleep consultant and mom to twins writing you out a personalized plan, checking in on you daily, answering any questions and much more!
It's important to remember that when sleep training, you are changing the way you respond to your baby when putting them to sleep. Being in the room with them does not change that. In fact, most sleep training occurs when you’re awake. So, room sharing really doesn’t have any bearing on that. It can be more difficult just based off the fact that there are more variables at play, but it’s totally doable.
Setting up a separate sleep zone within your room, using double white noise, preparing your things in advance, using a baby monitor and following a plan with consistency will make it easier to be successful in the long run.
Stellina Ferri is the author of this article. She is a Boston area sleep consultant who helps families worldwide.
As a sleep consultant with Tweet Dreamzz, Stellina is here to help you navigate your baby’s sleep and show you how a sleep consultant can truly be worth every penny!
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