what about twins born 5 weeks early?

[marijke]

Hi, my twins are now almost 4 months old but were born 5 weeks early. I was wondering if they should go to 4 hour easy  already, now it's a 3 hour easy. I don't know if they can wait 4 hours between 2 feeds.
They do ok but in the afternoon they don't like to sleep anymore so I put them to bed for the night quite early, around 6 - 6.30. Our day never looks the same, mostly I let them sleep in the morning and then try to put them to bed if they're tired. I would like to get more structure in our day though, so I can get some catching up sleep during the day... because they still have at least one night feed. I hope when we start solids at the end of this month they will sleep through the night.

[huntersmummyinoz]

rather than jumping straight to a 4hr EASY, lets look at getting them on an EASY that suits them. many LOs are on a 3hr15, 3hr30 etc EASY until they can stay awake long enuf for a 4hr EASY (they need to handle 2hrs A time if they nap for 2hrs, or 2.5hrs A time if they are 1.5hr nappers)
 
please post your routine and we'll take a look
E when and how long or how much
A how long (from eyes open to next nap)
S when and how long (include notes such as took a long time to settle or needed resettling)

kirry

[marijke]

Our routine is never the same, because I let them sleep in the morning and 1 is awake early, the other sleeps in 
This morning they were both awake at 5.45  , eat at 6 and 6.15, sleep 7.15-8.15
I think it's ok to put them on a 3.5 hour easy, longer is too long between feeds. Sleep is another issue, during the day it's ok but in the afternoon (starting from about 3) they just DON'T want to sleep!!! So we always end up putting them to bed early (around 6 -7) and they wake up early...

[huntersmummyinoz]

if you like, keep a log of their routines for a few days (even if it is different everyday ) and post it. i'm wondering if they are OT by the time you are trying to get them to nap in the afternoon and that is why they wont go to sleep (or could also be UT, but in the process of fighting sleep they get OT) but i'd need to see what your day looks like to work that out.

if their nap was only 1hr long this morning, then they prob need an extra 15mins A time to try and make that nap a little longer. try that for a few days and if no luck, try another 15mins.

[marijke]

I think you're right and they need more a-time, cause when I put them to bed too early they have short naps. I'll try this now and we'll see! We're lucky they are easy going babies, and when they're OT it's not that bad. One of them sleeps long at night to catch up for lost sleep during the day and that's fine by me!

[huntersmummyinoz]

good luck