Tough one to answer.
Roxy was 6 months and TJ was 4 months when we got them. At first they slept in 1 crate, zipped up, on the floor next to me in bed. Didn't last very long. They would bark and cry at various hours...NO SLEEP FOR ME
Then I moved the crate into the spare room that they were contained to during the day with a baby gate. I left the crate open and they could sleep in the crate or out on their beds, they could go potty, etc. Ok, this worked for a little while, but then they started to stand at the gate and bark for me...which meant NO SLEEP FOR ME...
Then I resorted to putting them both inside the crate, in their room and zipped it up. I let them bark for me, but ignored them until the morning (which was anywhere from 5-6 am). I had to deal with sometimes pee and poop in the crate, but soon, they learned to sleep through the night and hold their potty till morning. GREAT!!! I had about 2-3 month of
VERY NICE SLEEP FOR ME!!!
Until, we went away on our honeymoon for 2 weeks. My stepfather babysat and they slept with him in his bed. Plus, we missed them so much when we got home, that what started out as a treat to sleep with us in our bed has turned into the norm now...
Roxy is 20 months old and TJ is 18 months old. They are good in bed with us (NOW), they settle down and sleep, TJ will let me know when he has to go potty (which is good, b/c there were quite a few times that he would have to go so bad and he just couldn't hold it and he would pee on my husbands feet
). So, I get right up and take them to the spare room where the wee wee pads are and they go and then they look at me like: "ok, mom, we are sooooooooo tired can we go back to bed now?"
It is a growing and learning process. Best of luck to you!