Author Topic: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night  (Read 5788 times)

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Offline becj86

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #45 on: April 02, 2013, 11:22:29 am »
Possibly not - a lot of refluxers have either the day or the night which is bad. I could be wrong and its something else, but it really does seem like pain to me.

Offline my3girlsjde

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #46 on: April 03, 2013, 04:54:08 am »
Possibly not - a lot of refluxers have either the day or the night which is bad. I could be wrong and its something else, but it really does seem like pain to me.
ITA with this. My gut is discomfort. As they grow their meds will need to be adjusted for weight. I would start keeping a food journal to see how things line up and perhaps see if there is a connection there as well.
Vicki - nursing student and proud mother to three refluxers in two years





Remembering my sleeping angels: 17 Jan 06, 30 Jul 09

Offline momma.bear

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #47 on: April 03, 2013, 11:35:39 am »
Your twins sound a lot like my son. He can't seem to go more than 2 hours without waking, and last night was every hour. I don't know how you do it but hang in there. Just following along.


Offline BareFootMomma

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #48 on: April 03, 2013, 18:06:25 pm »
So, to throw everything off, last night they were up once at 1am. They went to bed at 7:30, woke and ate at 1 and 1:30, and then slept until 7:15!! NOTHING has changed in their meds, schedule, or teething so I don't know what happened to make them sleep. It was a much needed relief for me not to be up 10-12 times during the night. I am hoping it wasn't a fluke, but my guess is that they will be back to their normal horrible sleeping pattern tonight.

I upped B's reflux meds a little (this morning) so we will see in a few days if that helps. I am really pretty sure that A doesn't have a problem with reflux. She wakes a lot at night, but usually goes back to sleep after she is attended to (paci, patting, feeding). She doesn't tend to do the every 10-15 min wakeup that B does.

Something that I have been noticing is that they are becoming less and less interested in food during the day. Their diapers are being pee'd through every single night, and then they go through several diapers during the first half of the day. During the second half of the day they can be in a diaper for 2-3 hrs without it needing to be changed because they just aren't peeing at all. They really don't eat much for most of the day and then right before bed they start getting hungry and taking in a lot of food. Then they eat ALL NIGHT LONG! I am starting to get a gut feeling that this has something to do with all the waking. It's like their eating habits are swapped day for night.
Brittany, Kaylee 7/22/09, ^Cadence^ 8/3/11 (stillborn with T21 at 34.5 weeks), Alexis & Courtney 8/28/12 - Read about our little family at http://therixmix.blogspot.com



Offline j.and.e

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #49 on: April 04, 2013, 21:13:11 pm »
Can dh settle them? Xx

Offline BareFootMomma

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #50 on: April 05, 2013, 21:53:29 pm »
Yes, DH takes over during the first half of the night so I can get a couple hours of solid sleep. B does the same thing for him as she does for me. He does his best to settle her, but if she is having a bad night, nothing works.

Night before last was rough again for the first half of the night. B was wide awake for 1.5 hrs around 1:30. Then she woke up again at 4:30 to eat. A was up at 10:30 and 3:00 to eat.

Last night was another awesome one! They slept through until 2:30, woke to eat, then slept until 7. Maybe they are getting settled into the 3 hr A time schedule finally? Whatever the reason, I am hoping this starts happening more and more.
Brittany, Kaylee 7/22/09, ^Cadence^ 8/3/11 (stillborn with T21 at 34.5 weeks), Alexis & Courtney 8/28/12 - Read about our little family at http://therixmix.blogspot.com



Offline Erin M

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #51 on: April 05, 2013, 23:56:31 pm »
Yay for a good night, you deserved that!  Sometimes it takes them awhile to settle into a new schedule, hope that was just it.

Offline BareFootMomma

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #52 on: April 17, 2013, 03:00:43 am »
Well the past 10 days have been a trial. For a few days they were sleeping well at night (one wake up each) about every other night and the "bad" nights were usually 2-3 wake up each. Then it started falling apart again. Now we are to a point where it seems like the first half of the night (from bedtime until anywhere from 10 to 1) is spent trying to get them to stay asleep for longer than 15 minutes at a time. Then they sleep for 2-3 hrs and wake to eat. Then the rest of the night/early morning is spent fighting to get them back to sleep before starting the day as early as 6am some days.

Another thing that is starting to get bad is their separation anxiety. A is to the point some days that she doesn't want my older daughter to look at her while in the car because she starts freaking out like she would if a stranger were holding her. I have to keep her covered up while in stores because she panics if other customers look at her. At home, if I put her down and walk to the other side of the room she gets so upset that she starts shaking and can't even scoot across the floor after me. My house is a disaster because I can't do anything other than sit on the floor right next to them and keep a hand on A so she doesn't panic. I can't read their cues lately because it seems like they are crying and upset all day long.

Their days look roughly like this:

Wake - 7:00 (on a good day/night)
Sleep - 10:00 - we are still barely making it to the 3 hrs of A time before I have just had enough of the screaming and put them down early. But, if I put them down more than 10 minutes early they take crap naps so I just force them to stay up for the whole 3 hrs.
Wake - 12:00
Sleep - 3:00 - (some days A doesn't make it the full 3 hrs before she is completely miserable, and she usually takes a broken nap, waking every 30 min)
Wake - 4:00 - 4:30
Sleep - 7:00 - 7:30 - They usually both wake up at 30 or 45 minutes needing either just a paci re-plug, to be patted, Pu/pd a couple times, or they are wide awake and we spend the next 2-3 hrs fighting to get them back to sleep. Every single night for over a week now one of them (at least) has woken and needed to be put back to sleep every 15-30 minutes until close to midnight. Sometimes feeding helps get them to stay asleep, but usually nothing works and they finally stay asleep when they feel good and ready to. For the last 2-3 night B has actually had really good nights, staying asleep after going to bed, waking around 11:30 to eat and then sleeping until morning. A has been a complete nightmare! When she finally decides to stay asleep she can be up again (like, wide awake up) after as little at 1.5 hrs. Last night she was crying every 15ish minutes until 11:30 and then woke up again at 12:45 and was up for 3 hours (me patting, bouncing, and just generally APOP to try to get her back to sleep).

I have upped B's reflux meds and started giving them to A as well when her nights started getting really bad. It hasn't seemed to help her at all. Their gums don't look swollen like they are getting teeth, but I know that doesn't mean they aren't in pain. I have an otoscope and have checked their ears several times but they are clear and clean! Motrin hasn't seemed to help them sleep any better, so if it's discomfort it's something Motrin isn't helping. I am at my wits end!! I need to sleep!!
Brittany, Kaylee 7/22/09, ^Cadence^ 8/3/11 (stillborn with T21 at 34.5 weeks), Alexis & Courtney 8/28/12 - Read about our little family at http://therixmix.blogspot.com



Offline BareFootMomma

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #53 on: April 17, 2013, 17:27:58 pm »
Then they throw crap like last night and randomly sleep for most of the night. A last night was up once at 2 and then slept until morning. B slept all the way from 7:40pm-6:55am! Nothing was different in their schedule/meds yesterday other than they took 3 short naps (no longer than an hour) rather than their two longer ones. But, they have had days like that before and had horrific nights as a result.
Brittany, Kaylee 7/22/09, ^Cadence^ 8/3/11 (stillborn with T21 at 34.5 weeks), Alexis & Courtney 8/28/12 - Read about our little family at http://therixmix.blogspot.com



Offline Erin M

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #54 on: April 18, 2013, 17:56:19 pm »
Thank goodness for at least one good night in there -- I left this after I read it last night to see if anything would come to me and I can't honestly think of a thing that would be causing all those wakings -- wakings that frequent are usually discomfort or prop related and it sounds to me like that's not the case with your girls.  It doesn't sound like the paci is a prop -- am I right with that?

Offline amayzie

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #55 on: April 18, 2013, 23:15:05 pm »
Hi hon- Just offering a hug.. Could it be that that the reflux is causing an issue and that they need their meds changed to something else? The other option is that it could be a food intolerance like milk or soy protein intolerance rather than reflux as such? Looks like pain as the schedule seems ok. The only tweak i'd consider is to try pushing that first A time up- but you seem to be suggesting that that's all they can handle at this point.
Katy, Mummy to Hamish!


Offline Erin M

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #56 on: April 20, 2013, 02:24:32 am »
How are you doing with independent sleep?  I read back through the thread and noticed earlier on that they were getting rocked/paci/etc to go to sleep earlier. 

Offline BareFootMomma

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #57 on: April 22, 2013, 02:52:42 am »
Over the last few days we moved them into separate bedrooms. It seems to have helped a bit and they are much easier to get back to sleep when they wake at night. They have had 1 rough night out of 3 since being separated. I hate having them away from each other, but if it helps we will stick to it.

I took B in to the Dr and got her a different reflux medicine to see if it makes a difference. A is having a really hard time all day long. I don't know if it is pain of some sort or just separation anxiety, but she is hysterical if she is not being held 100% of the time....no easy task with 2 babies.

They have no independent sleep skills. They have been held/rocked/bounced with a paci (I don't feel it is a prop though) because any noise from either while going to sleep would wake the other. Now that they are in separate rooms we are starting to put them down more and more awake and patting or pu/pd so they go to sleep on their own. When they wake at night we try to leave them in their cribs if at all possible. If they get upset we pu, but immediately pd when they settle. Luckily, since separating them they haven't both woken at the same time during the night, so even if it is just me I am able to do pu/pd.

One encouraging thing I have noticed since moving them is that they can put themselves back to sleep sometimes when they wake. Before, with them in the same room, we would go in as soon as they made the slightest noise, but now we can wait for a few minutes and see what happens. We will have to go in and help them go back to sleep most of the time, but they are starting to do it themselves!

Is 3 hrs A time about where they should be at almost 8 months?
Brittany, Kaylee 7/22/09, ^Cadence^ 8/3/11 (stillborn with T21 at 34.5 weeks), Alexis & Courtney 8/28/12 - Read about our little family at http://therixmix.blogspot.com



Offline Erin M

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #58 on: April 22, 2013, 12:08:55 pm »
3 hours is pretty perfect for 8 months: Average A times and "Is my baby ready to increase A time?"
The 8-10 month range is 3-4 hours, so you're right there. 

Glad you're getting some better nights with them separated -- the independent sleep skills will really help, as you well know. 
Just throwing something out there -- I asked around after your last post for some more ideas and I had someone suggest obstructive sleep apnea as a possible cause of wakings.  TBH, I don't know a lot about it, but it might be something you could rule out quickly (or a possible idea). 

Offline BareFootMomma

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Re: 6 month twins wont sleep longer than 4 hrs at night
« Reply #59 on: April 25, 2013, 00:54:08 am »
I am almost afraid to post this, but things have been pretty good since I last posted. They are usually up twice each during the night, but have been going back to sleep easily. B is not liking the independent sleep training and now start freaking out as soon as we turn off the lights for bed time wind down and doesn't stop until she will asleep. She will even moan and whine in her sleep for a little while right after she gets to sleep. I'm hoping that she will adjust soon and go back to snuggling before going to sleep rather than screaming and struggling :(
Brittany, Kaylee 7/22/09, ^Cadence^ 8/3/11 (stillborn with T21 at 34.5 weeks), Alexis & Courtney 8/28/12 - Read about our little family at http://therixmix.blogspot.com