Hi Babywhisperers,
I have been happily following Tracy's advice since my first baby was born five years ago. I since had a second child and now almost six months ago, twins (25/09/14).
Recently I have slipped into the '2am/5am feeding back to sleep' trap with the babies. It started with their growth spurt when they turned 4 months.
With my other two I would have gently extended the times or just make them go to sleep again with shush patting. With twins, it is all a bit more tricky when there is a problem. When one cries the other is often woken up and I can't console two crying babies at the same time.
I can't ask DH for help as he is looking after the night wakes of the my elder two (nightmares for the five year old, overtiredness for three year old occasional napper...) and his job is quite demanding.
Does anybody know of a good trick how I can get the twins back to sleep on my own? Without feeding or rocking them.
They are on a four hour EASY routine. Tweaked and diverted here and there due to the nature of a large family and its activities (moderate ones, I'm not into lots of extra curricular stuff).
On an ordinary day it looks like this:
7am breast feed (often they have been awake a bit earlier)
9am back asleep (wind down starts from 8.15 and they settle by themselves between 8.30am and 9am)
11am breast feed (one might have been awake for a while, today since 10am, but usually they hit the mark with 15 minutes either side)
12.30 onwards wind down/settling, back to sleep by 1pm
3pm breast feed
next nap is always tricky to catch, today they didn't settle until 6pm or I put them down at 4pm because they would have been up for a very long time. Result they are usually overtired when they go to bed at 7pm.
9.30pm overtired wake which had become my early dream feed, but tonight I didn't respond and they settled by themselves.
Usually dream feed between 10 and 11.15pm (I feed them individually so sometimes I go over 11pm).
In the night I have started to feed on demand (not in tandem) as I wanted to see if one was going to sleep through. But I ended up feeding every hour to two hours alternating babies. I have started to shush them when they wake after 2am and once in a while that has worked. But when they both cry I resort to feeding.
I have also moved them into separate cots (next to each other) and this is cutting out waking by whacking.
I don't think they need solids yet, although they take a proper feed each time they wake at night, they don't seem to be terribly hungry (they surely aren't at 7am!). It seems that they can't put themselves back to sleep at night without being fed.
Any suggestions how I can get them to sleep through by myself?
Another question on 'crying it out':
As circumstances have it (big family with lots of needs), they tend to be left to cry more often and longer than I would have my other two allowed to do. When I get to watch them through a gap in the door, I find they often seem to be very tired while crying with eyes shut or trying to suck on their hand and get upset when they poke their face. I usually leave them while I'm peeping and only go in when the cry sounds desperate. Does that count as 'letting them cry it out'? I hope not... I have been looking into the Dunstan theory of listening to cries
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyL0q-u-9Ts . Identifying the 'ow' cry as the one that indicates tiredness has let me to leave them to settle by themselves when I hear it.
When do you think is the moment we should actually enter the room?
I am sorry but I am very tired and I hope this is not too wordy or confusing... Off to do that dream feed now!
Thanks for any suggestion,
Bel