Is it time?

From the time the twins were born, they were separated. 

In the NICU, they were in seperate bassinets for 3 weeks until they came home for the first time.
At 6 weeks old, Kendall got meningitis and was in the hospital for 2 weeks and Christopher was at home. 
At 9 weeks old, she went back in the hospital with a blood infection (same bacteria as meningitis) for 3 weeks and Christopher was at home.

I always wondered if being seperated from each other affected their bonding and I always felt horrible that they were apart so many times. 

They have always shared a room and I remember telling myself that I wanted to keep them together as long as I could.

We might be close.

For the last 2-3 months, bedtime has been a struggle.  Our routine at night has pretty much stayed the same.

Home from school/work (5:30 pm)
Start dinner (6:00 pm)
Baths (7:00 pm)
Education TV (7:30-8:00)
Bedtime books
Brush teeth
Head up to bed (8:00-8:30)

Once we get upstairs, it's like they get a second wind and they start playing, laughing, running around.   It has been taking an hour to get them down.  At that point, it's 9:00 (or later) which is WAY too late for them.

And, that's not even including the time it takes away from my evening to spend time with my husband, clean up the dinner dishes, relax, etc.  because I'm constantly going back upstairs or into their room to get them settled down and back in bed.

I've tried playing with the time for taking them upstairs.  We've let them stay up until 9:00 before taking them up to bed, thinking they'd be tired and would just fall into bed.

Nope.  Completely backfired.   It didn't take an hour for them to fall to sleep but it was still after 9:30 pm.

I did some on-line research last night and I think I'm going to try it.  After their baths, it said not to bring them back downstairs to the main family area (where the TV and toys are).  Instead, take them right into their room, dim the lights and do the bedtime book in their room.   From there, they get right into bed. 

It also recommended keeping a log of when they fall to sleep.  In my case, it would be somewhere around 9:00 - 9:15.   Start the bedtime routine 45 minutes earlier.  It said the entire bedtime "routine" should last no more than 20 minutes.  After one week, back up the schedule 15 minutes and keep doing that every week until their bedtime is 7:30-8:00.   It also recommended taking away or limiting their afternoon nap.  For us, that's just not an option because the daycare is required to let them nap.  They do take pretty good naps (usually 2 hours).

If none of that works, I think we're at the point of putting them in seperate rooms.  I know we're probably another year or so away from that anyway but I always wanted it to be their decision for when they were ready. 

Is anyone else having this issue?  What worked?   Are your twins or siblings still sharing a room?