Advice on baby monitor for twins needed please!!

[CluelessWithTwins]

Hello!

DH and I are expecting twins next month, but I'm not sure what baby monitor to buy. The main worry I have is that I'm not sure if a regular baby monitor (or two??) will pick up if there is only an issue with one baby. For example if one baby stops moving, the monitor may not alert if the other baby is still moving- i.e. it thinks because it detects some movement that there isn't a problem.

My other issue is that we're planning on having both babies sleep in our bedroom in a cotbed (at different ends), which won't leave a lot of extra space in the bedroom, and a lot of the monitors say they need to be 3 feet away, so not sure if there are any we can use anyway!! Our cotbed is positioned a foot and a half away from our bed and there isn't any space to put a monitor elsewhere.

Also, do people use baby monitors at night when they're sleeping in the same room or do you only use them when you're not in the room? Not planning on leaving the babies unattended in the early days anyway, but want a monitor for extra reassurance or for when me or they are sleeping. As first time parents we are both quite paranoid, so was hoping a baby monitor would help to ease our worries about anything happening to them!!

Apologies if this is quite a jumbled message, but any advice any parents of twins/multiples have about which baby monitor they use would be very useful!!

Thanks in advance! xxx

[mellysam]

Can't help with the movement style monitors because we bought a sound only one, but it's very good it's a BT digital one from Boots.
To be honest for the first couple of months they ended up sleeping on us for most of the time during the day or we'd put them down in the room with us. We'd bring them up to bed with us when we went (about 10pm) and at night they were waking so much for feeds (every couple of hours) we knew they were fine.
They are still sharing a cot in our room, now four months old, and for a couple of months now we have managed to get in the swing of a bedtime routine where they go down at 7pm and we switch on the monitor because we are downstairs. We switch it off when we are in there.
Wishing you all the best with your new babies!

[Twinnypops]

I can't comment on the movement ones, but if you get a video one make sure you can remotely rotate the camera for when they're in separate cots.
Could the 3 feet be vertical? We have the camera mounted above the cots (but not over their heads in case it dops off!).

[CluelessWithTwins]

Thanks for the replies, it's useful to know what others have done. It seems like both of you only used the monitors when you weren't in the room. I was thinking we'd use one during the night too (I am paranoid about something happening to them when I'm asleep- want to watch them constantly!!) but sounds like this isn't what they're intended for.

[feesh]

You won't need a monitor until you're not sleeping in the same room as them, so 6+ months, so I wouldn't worry about it for now. Mine slept during the day either on their playmat or in bouncy chairs downstairs (I know bouncy chairs not recommended, but with twins you do WHATEVER works! Feed one, put in bouncy chair, bounce with your foot whilst feeding other twin - first twin is asleep by the time the feed is done). And at night they were in a room with us, so no need for a monitor.

We were awake most of the night anyway - we fed them on a three-hourly schedule and by the time we had fed and burped two babies, got them off to sleep and dealt with the bottles/got the next feed ready, we would honestly be setting our alarm for 20 minutes time for the next feed. Those first few weeks aren't pretty!

[CatsCantFlyFast]

The movement monitor I have says it can't be used for multiple children in one cot/bed. I've got a Motorola wifi monitor that can have as many cameras as you want - maybe an idea to have two cameras so if they do happen to sleep in different beds you've got a camera for each of them?

[Notsleepingeveragain]

I think the movement sensor ones are good in theory but friends who have them told me they had greater anxiety as sometimes alarms would be triggered by them moving off the sensor etc. Causing unnecessary panic!

I have the motorola mbp36s and the camera is positioned on the wall. Its great because I can move it around the room so you can switch between the 2 to check on them.

[CluelessWithTwins]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Sounds like they don't make monitors designed specifically for twins- surely a gap in the market!! Finding baby prep so much harder as having to question how every single product will work for two!! Grr...

[Notsure1234]

Only have ds but yes we use our movement monitor at night even though he is in the same room as us. Wouldn't sleep otherwise!

[CluelessWithTwins]

Thanks Notsure- think I will feel the same!!

[OMGtwins]

try this one, it fixes onto the babies nappy so you can have one for each of them. www.amazon.co.uk/d/Baby-Monitors/Snuza-HALO-Baby-Movement-Monitor/B001IC5XDI?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[OMGtwins]

try this one, it fixes onto the babies nappy so you can have one for each of them. www.amazon.co.uk/d/Baby-Monitors/Snuza-HALO-Baby-Movement-Monitor/B001IC5XDI?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[OMGtwins]

PS we were you 4 years ago, our twins are now 3 and half, so feel free to PM me with any questions :)

[CluelessWithTwins]

Thank you so much OMG!! I will definitely be in touch, not sure what you have let yourself in for though, I have a ton of questions!! Good to hear from others who've been there x