Hi,
I'm looking for some advice with twins. I have non-identical 5 month old boys who couldn't be more different both in looks and temperament. Both are still waking in the night though, although one is more needy than the other. Alex, the older twin is pretty reliable and I'm sure he would have been sleeping through the night before now if it wasn't for his more agitated brother, James.
Their daytime routine is approximately as follows:
E - 6:00 - 7 wake and feed (rarely take a full feed - Alex usually has to be woken, James might wake anywhere between 6 and 7)
S - 8:30 - nap (45 mins)
E - 10:00 - feed (3 - 5 oz)
S - 11 - 11:30 - nap (1 - 2 hours)
E - 1 - 1:30 - feed (3 - 5 oz)
S - 3 - nap (30 - 45 mins time depends on length of previous nap)
E - 4 - 4:30 - feed (2 - 5 oz)
E - 6:30 - feed (3 - 5 oz) and bed
E - 10pm - dream feed (3 - 4 oz - James often wakes before this)
E - 2 - 3am (both will wake at some point here for more food and if I'm really unlucky, again at 5 ish. Sometimes, Alex will go through to 4 or 5 before waking)
I've tried dummies and while it might hold James off for 30 mins to an hour, he invariably wakes again and refuses to settle until he's been fed. He's quite happy to take 3- 5 oz in the middle of the night. I did try to cut it down to 3, but it just took him longer to settle afterwards and he woke again at 5ish looking for more.
As you can see, it looks a bit all over the place and the fact that there are two of them, just complicates things! They seem to be eating far to many times for their age, but overall don't take a lot on board. I'm so surprised that Alex is in the 98th percentile (he weighs about 19.5lbs) as he generally only has about 24 oz per day. They were born by CS at 38 weeks and were both really good weights. As they are now. The only fly in the ointment is that James needed an operation at 4 months for sagittal synostosis (fused plates in his head) and will need another smaller op in February. While we knew that the general anaesthetic would throw things a bit, but he's never been a great sleeper anyway and always needed to be held more than Alex.
I also have a 3-year old (who's a great sleeper, although wasn't until she weaned at 6 months), so any CIO suggestions aren't really workable. These boys have REALLY loud cries and would wake the household!
I feel that they should be on that 4 hourly cycle by now, but they don't seem to be eating enough to see them through to the next feed. And as my daughter needs to be collected from nursery at 3pm it complicates the schedule anyway. So I'm a bit stuck. One day, they're on a 3 hour, the next I try to extend it to 3.5, but then the night waking throws things off kilter again and the length of their daytime naps are not that predictable either. I'm intending to wean in two weeks or so, but wonder if starting earlier might help.