4 Month Old Twins Waking Up Repeatedly

[BrianC]

Hello,

Our B/G twins are just over four months old.  Since a few days before they were three months they began sleeping the night, from 8PM until 6:00 AM.  It was life changing!

However for about a week now, the wheels came off, and it has been getting progressively worse.  They are on a 3 hour EASY, feedings at 7AM, 10AM, 1PM, 4PM, 7PM.  They are still napping well...napping between 45 and 90 minutes between feedings.  They are BF at 7AM and 7PM and get formula at the other feeds.

They are also going to bed without incident after their last feeding.  We are still swaddling but they will nap sometimes without being swaddled.  However they will NOT go to sleep for the night if they are not swaddled.  We tried a few nights without swaddles after the Dr. said we should stop swaddling and it was a complete bust. 

Our boy is a pacifier addict.  He cannot fall asleep for the night without one and when he's not swaddled, he pulls it out and can't get it back in.  He is really starting to fight the swaddle, too.  Watching him on the video he looks like an asylum patient trying to wriggle out of a straitjacket!

Our boy who is more sensitive than his sister starts waking up about 2 hours after he goes to bed.  We don't rush in but he just screams louder and louder.  He also does not settle easily like he used to.  You have to shh-pat for at least 5 minutes just to get him to relax, then he sometimes can't fall asleep on his own in the crib and the cycle starts up again.

He's waking up 5-6 times per night like this.  Sometimes he won't go back down for 1-2 hours.  His sister, in her own crib in the same room, can usually sleep though it, but two nights ago she's been at it with him, albeit only 2-3 times.  Both will eat when they awaken, but it doesn't seem to stop the waking up.

We can't live like this much longer!  We know the paci is a prop for the boy, but I feel like the swaddle is one, too. 

I've read quite a few threads, and maybe they are just going through a difficult transitionary age...and it will pass in the next week or so, but if not, where do we need to start?

We're exhausted!

Thanks in advance!

Brian

[Erin M]

Hi there!
OK, like you've read, 4 months is a rough age for sleep -- babies go through a sleep regression where they have trouble transitioning between sleep cycles (the 45 minute mark) and there is also a monster growth spurt at that point as well.  Have you tried feeding right away when they first wake and see if it makes a difference?

What does your daytime EASY look like in this format:
E
A
S
-- I'm also wondering with the long settling time at night if you need a touch more A time during the day? 

The paci could most definitely be part of your issue as well, especially if he's settling right after you give it back to him. 
Have you tried swaddling with one arm out, or tried using something like a woombie so they can get used to having a little bit more freedom of motion while not being able to move their arms around completely?  Are they rolling or is there some other reason that the doctor told you to stop swaddling?

[BrianC]

Thank you so much for replying.  We haven't tried feeding in the last week when they wake up, but are going to tonight.

Daytime Easy

E - 7:00-7:30 (BF)
A - 7:30-8:45
S - 8:45-10:00 (This is a reliable nap, sometimes they go down early and sleep 90 minutes)

E - 10:00-10:30 (They eat a full 6-7oz bottle)
A - 10:30-11:30
S - 11:30-1:00 (Usually go for a walk and get a guaranteed 90 minute nap)

E - 1:00-1:30 (Sometimes they aren't very hungry at this feed, 4-5oz instead of 6-7)
A - 1:30-2:30
S - 2:30-4:00 (Usually not swaddled at this nap and they will wake up multiple times but fall back asleep)

E - 4:00-4:30 (Usually eat 5-6oz, Breast Milk from Bottle)
A - 4:30-6:00 (Welcome to the witching hour!  Usually make signs of being tired but don't relax)
S - 6:00-6:30 (This nap is all over the place, can be 0,15,30 or 60 minutes, very fussy)

A - 7:00-7:15 (They get a bath every other day which they enjoy)
E - 7:15 - 7:45 (Almost always eat full 7oz without issue)
A - 7:45-8:00 (Swaddling, A little rocking, Getting them in bed, usually requires one more ounce in the dark and then sleep)

Up until last week they would then sleep from 8PM to 6AM or so without fail.  Somtimes our little girl would shout out a few times but go right back to sleep.  Little boy rarely woke up.

The last five nights the boy starts waking up about 2 hours after bedtime (when we want to go to bed) and he just "fights" sleep.  We will try feeding him a few ounces when this starts up.

We just put them down with a top up and within minutes they are both asleep at 8PM.  I will report back what happened tomorrow!  Wish us luck!

[Erin M]

Were they full term?  I ask because there's a pretty good chance you need to start stretching their A times -- around 4 months is when babies start making the move to a 4 hour (or 3.5 hour) EASY.  The way to get there is to stretch their A times nice and slowly.  There's some details on it here -- 3-4hr EASY Transition – In 5 Minute Increments -- if you think they need a slower transition -- other babies are able to stretch their A times by bigger amounts -- 10-15 minutes every few days.  The goal of that is to get them to have roughly 2 hour A times, and 2x2 hour(ish) naps with a cat nap later in the day.  If you can get there, you'll have less trouble with the late afternoons as well (which were never a good time in our house either the first few months). If they were early they may need to wait a few weeks to make the transition (my ds was 2.5 weeks early and made the transition closer to 5 months).  If your naps are suffering, it is probably a good time to start trying to stretch A times anyway. 

Your issues could just  be the 4 months growth spurt -- truly, I remember spending a week with dd1 trying to figure out what was going on, and finally realized when she was out the other side of it a week later! 

Good luck, I hope you had a good night!

[BrianC]

Thank you for the reply!

Our twins were 37 weeks...5  lbs 2 oz and 5 lbs 5 oz.  We were so happy they came home with us.  Our daughter is getting a helmet on Friday for her plagiocephaly caused initially by her brother sitting on her head in utero, then from her favoring one side as she slept.  I'm sure that's going to offer all kinds of sleep challenges in the upcoming weeks.

Our boy has caught up in height and head circumference, but is still around 10 percentile for weight.  Our girl is a little behind him, but developmentally they are on track.  I suspect you are correct on the longer A times...they really don't nap much at all during the evening nap.  In order for them to get enough to eat we feel they have to eat 5x a day.  It looks like to go to a 4hr EASY requires a dream feed...is this correct?

However they seem to eat more, more consistently in just the past few weeks so they might be ready.  Our Dr. is not a fan of "dream feeds" and "night feeds".  She really didn't give us an explanation other than "you don't want to start these habits if you can prevent it."

Napping in general has really changed in the past few weeks as well.  Our little girl is not ready to go down as quickly as her brother...she is definitely ready for additional A time and wakes from naps too early otherwise.  We'll have to see how our boy reacts to a longer A time as he naps really good and rarely wakes early.  He tends to play a little rougher and more intensely than she does.  He definitely cries more intensely!  Both of them are monsters from 4:30-7 .

Your well wishing for our night seemed to work.  We gave them 3 oz as a snack at 6:30 PM before baths which cut down on a lot of the drama.  Our son made it from 8PM-3AM, where I spent about 10 minutes shh-patting him back to sleep which kept him down until 6.  Unfortunately our girl woke up about 4AM and had no interest in going back to sleep so my wife BF her and then she went down until 6:30 AM.  I'm hoping we're "on the other side of it" and things are even better tonight.  Regardless we'll talk about the 3.5 hour EASY transition.

The other issue in our face is the swaddling.  Our boy can get out of everything, regular flannel swaddle, kidapotamus, etc, and it looks like our girl is about to flip over any day.  Is there a real difference between a Woombie and using a Velcro swaddle?  Is it good for transitioning?

Thanks for your help!  I'll report back tomorrow.

Brian

[Erin M]

Glad you got a good night! 
Regarding the number of feeds -- most babies of that age do end up with 5-6 feeds (one or two of them generally at night depending on the baby) -- though some of them do ok with 4.  I would think you might try some sort of cluster feed -- maybe feeding midway between the last two feeds and see if they take anything.  That being said, you can tweak all sorts of things to get some more daytime feeds in there if necessary -- what most people find is that sleeping and eating needs change really frequently in the first 6 months or so -- what is true one week, isn't true at all the next.  And add that into the natural variation in babies -- there have been some on here who have done fine without the dream feed at 4 months -- if they can do it, you might just look for places in the day where you can add another feed (an hour after a normal feed works well as a "top up" sometimes -- it's close enough to the primary feed to keep them from getting into a snacking habit). 

The Woombie is different than a traditional swaddle in that it's more  like a big sack that zips up to their necks -- so they can move their arms around in the sack, but can't generally get them out to flail around.  My ds used to hold on to the top collar so his little fingers would be sticking out (which was super cute) but the hands still couldn't get out and hit him in the face. 

I think the witching hour was completely gone by about 5 months for my kids, maybe not too long after 4,it's hard to remember!

I hope you get another great night!