TWINS - anyone with BW experience with twins?

[Deuce2]

I think i'm beginning to lose it and while i don't want to give up on the EASY routine, i'm seriously struggling with sleep.  i know it's a common problem but having two babies and only one me seems to make it more difficult.

i have twin girls, 16 weeks old (born at 38 weeks) and we have been following the 3-hour EASY.  Night sleeping was going quite well with both babies up only once to eat (I am exclusively breastfeeding).  Daytime naps have been inconsistently good....but more often than not the naps are on the shorter side.  For virtually every nap one of the two wakes early - once one wakes we try to quickly remove that baby to try to keep from disturbing the second baby.  Most often the "offender" :-) goes into the swing where she will usually fall back to sleep.  I don't like using the swing, but i have tried shh-pat and have not had any success.  The girls seem agitated by it.  I've tried to resettle by holding and rocking until drowsy but once i set them back in the crib they are not able to stay drowsy and jolt awake.  The only success we've had is putting one in the swing and allowing the other to continue to sleep.

In the past 3 weeks or so - things have started to spiral.  Naps for both are now almost never more than 45 minutes and they are waking more at night....sometimes we are up as many as 10 times to resettle.  I only feed them up to twice at night knowing they aren't likely hungry during the other wakings.  I started yesterday with a transition to 4-hour EASY thinking they are ready for that.  We are planning to transition slowing moving 15 minutes every 4 days.  The girls are struggling to stay awake for the extra 15 minutes so far.  Yesterday (Day 1) was pretty good, today (Day 2) has been very bad and it's only noon (all three of us crying after the first very short nap).

This morning's nap Twin A slept about 35 minutes.  I was afraid she would wake so i was standing near her crib around this time waiting to see her transition and she woke with a scream.  I spent 40 minutes trying to resettle her - shhing, rocked her to where she was drowsy again several times but she woke as soon as i laid her down....in the middle of all of this Twin B woke and then resettling one is impossible while the other is crying.  I took Twin B to the swing and went back to focus on Twin A and all the settling and soothing in the world didn't seem to help.  She crashed sound asleep about 15 minutes before the next feeding in my arms.  I let her sleep for about 30-40 minutes and fed Twin B.  Then woke her eat. 

i'm sure twin A will end the day overtired....and twin b will likely be as well.  i don't know how to get them to extend naps.  I think they are likely struggling with the transition between sleep cycles....from all i've read it seems likely at this stage of nearly 4 months.  I don't know if they have a short nap if i should put them down after a short A time if they seem drowsy and let them get several shorter naps during the day while still trying to maintain some kind of EAS pattern...?  maybe EASASEASASE or if that just will encourage and prolong the short naps.....  And if the naps are always catnaps can they ever get out of the cycle of being overtired?  (By the way - they fall asleep very easily for a nap at first, they just don't stay asleep and i am unable to resettle them....except sometimes in the swing.) 

i'm struggling with my expectations and struggling with figuring out how to manage two.  I'm hoping to get some practical experienced advice from other twin moms.  Sorry - i know this is long i'm just a bit frustrated and overwhelmed. 

thank you for any help
Gina

[babybarr]

Mine are only just under 8wks but I feel your pain. I'm trying to run with it for now but def want to get more on a routine in the next few wks. There are a couple of experienced twin mums here. I'd run with short naps and make sure both are up to be able to start thenext nap together. So wake the one who's asleep. Get them up and start again. At least that way you can *try* to get them sleeping at the same time even if it's only for 45mins.

[Ima shel Alon]

Hugs, hun.

Most often the "offender" :-) goes into the swing where she will usually fall back to sleep.  I don't like using the swing, but i have tried shh-pat and have not had any success.

I wouldn't feel bad about this at all. at this point I would use AP that works to get more sleep into them. I struggled so much with ST just one baby, so I can only imagine doing Shush-pat with 2... I did find with mine that as he grew older it was easier and easier to do ST and he responded well to it when he was around 5-6m. Before that I would let him sleep in the buggy, 'cause that's where I knew he will have a good full nap.

We are planning to transition slowing moving 15 minutes every 4 days.  The girls are struggling to stay awake for the extra 15 minutes so far.  Yesterday (Day 1) was pretty good, today (Day 2) has been very bad and it's only noon (all three of us crying after the first very short nap).

It sounds to me like the 45min naps are because they *are* ready for the transition, which basically mean they are ready for more A time. It sounds like you are already working on that, but I'd be a bit cautious with increasing the A times. Some babies find the 15min jumps too much and need smaller jumps, like 10 or even 5min.
If you do only 5 or 10min jumps you have a better chance of preventing them from getting OT because you give them more time to go through the transition.
Until they are with higher A times and will start to nap longer (which might take a while) I would do like Laura suggested, I'd offer more short naps during the day so they don't finish it OT.