Author Topic: 7 month old triplets and early wakings  (Read 2654 times)

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Offline embosu

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7 month old triplets and early wakings
« on: January 31, 2014, 19:32:28 pm »
Hello all-
  I just found this site as I was researching, in desperation, what to do with my 7 month old triplets and their sleep problems.  This forum has been massively helpful already! 
  Our problem is that 2 of my guys start the day everyday at 5am, after going to bed at 7pm.  They wake up playful and happy and it is impossible to get them back to sleep.  I'd love to find a way to get them to sleep at least one additional hour to make it 11 hours at night.  My initial response was to begin working on dropping the 3rd nap and we are still working the kinks out on that.  They've been doing the 5am wake up for about a month and we've been working on the 3 to 2 nap transition for about a week. 
  Our schedule is as follows
wake: 5am
      E: 6:15am, Solids:7:15am
      A:
      S: 8am
    Up: 10am
      E: 10:30am, Solids:11:30
      A:
      S: 1:30p (sometimes 1:15)
     Up: 3:00p
       E: 3:00p
       A:
       E: 5:00p, Solids 5:45
Bedtime routine starts at 6:30 with them asleep by 7pm

I've played with moving bedtime up 30 min and back 30 min (if they have a 3rd nap) but those guys still wake up at 5am.  I'd love some suggestions or advice as I am super exhausted!
Thank you!!

Offline amayzie

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #1 on: February 01, 2014, 21:39:04 pm »
Welcome to the boards honey! Triplets wow!! You deserve a medal for getting this far!! the 3-2 transition is a real bear of a transition, we HATED it here!! the 2-1 was much better (and i suggest not moving house in the middle of the 1-0... that's our current little head ache!)

I think you can try firstly moving that first nap a little later in the morning? Sometimes a nap that is too early can perpetuate the early waking issue. I would TRY to ease it up over a couple of weeks so that it is at least at 8.30 and i would aim for closer to 9 for the first nap. Also- have you tried treating that 5am wake up like a night feed? Feeding them right away and then popping them back down? I think my gy would do that sort of thing at times. Ho many feeds are they having in the night?
Katy, Mummy to Hamish!


Offline Erin M

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2014, 02:17:59 am »
Hey, also you said they are 7 months old -- how close to term were they?  If they were on the earlier side, it can make a different with their A times not being what we would usually expect out of a 7 month old if that makes sense. 

Offline embosu

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2014, 19:09:48 pm »
Thank you for the replies! The kiddos were 4 weeks early, so technically they are closer to 6 months old.  Perhaps I need to just have more patience and fortitude with the transition period. We will continue to work on extending the morning awake time, and hope for some later wake up times!

Offline creations

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2014, 22:36:24 pm »
Hi and welcome to BW :)
That last A time is super long. On two naps I'd look to getting them into bed much earlier. Say 6pm. I know the fear is that if they only do a 10hr night you end up with an even earlier wake up but two things: OT can cause EW so early bed time and reducing the last A time can actually help them sleep longer; if they do wake earlier it is easier to treat it as a night wake rather than an early morning wake. Their body clock will be telling them it is still night time so resettling them may be easier than it is at 5am.  It's one of those things where it takes a leap of faith and just try it, I've put mine to bed at 5.30pm before now and I know the fear of EW.

Want to second Katy too - medal for coping with triplets, it's so surprise you're exhausted!


Offline Sarah - Enfys' Mum

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2014, 06:48:59 am »
My first dd was an early waker as well and I second what creations has said about early bedtime. It does help.





Offline embosu

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2014, 19:44:45 pm »
Makes perfect sense, I will definitely give the earlier bedtime a try! Thank you all again for the suggestions and support!

Offline babybarr

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2014, 20:22:53 pm »
Just hat off to you. I'm struggling with my 4mth old twins. I too agree with early bed. We did that with ds1 and still do to conquer ot and ew.
LAURA xx




Offline creations

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2014, 20:51:32 pm »
Let us know how it goes. We may be able to come up with some more suggestions if needed depending how they respond to the earlier BT.

Just being nosey here, out of interest, does the third LO have a different routine and sleep later?


Offline embosu

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #9 on: February 04, 2014, 21:26:29 pm »
We did an earlier bedtime last night and made it to 6am! Yippie! Good question, Creation, she is on the same schedule, just a much better sleeper!

Offline creations

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #10 on: February 04, 2014, 21:49:40 pm »
We did an earlier bedtime last night and made it to 6am! Yippie!
YaY!!  Great news!
I would stick with the earlier BT for now then.  What was it? 11hr night? 12hr night?

How do you feel about a 6am WU?  Just wondering if triplet 3 is waking at that time too so they are all up together or are they all still at different times?  That is if you want/need them to be up at the same time.  Did you put #3 to bed at the earlier time along with the other 2?
Sorry so many questions, just thinking ahead a little to hopefully help you get where you want to be. I've read it's helpful to have multiples on the same routine and if that's your goal we need to take #3 into account too. Are they two boys and a girl?


Offline embosu

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #11 on: February 05, 2014, 19:02:53 pm »
Those are all good questions :)
We've had two 11.5 hour nights in a row!
We have 2 boys and a girl, who share a room.  The girl is the better sleeper, however is awoken pretty easily when the boys start to make noise in the morning. We are very diligent about keeping them within 30 min of each other schedule wise. Which means I'm occasionally waking her up to start the day (if the boys don't do it first). They go to bed (for the night and naps) at the same time.  While I'd prefer them on a 7p-7a schedule, I'm pretty happy with them getting up at 6 for now. 
My next goal is getting one of the boys to drop the midnight waking, the other two typically sleep straight through.
I can't thank you all enough for the help!

Offline creations

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Re: 7 month old triplets and early wakings
« Reply #12 on: February 05, 2014, 19:32:13 pm »
11.5 hrs at night sounds great :)
So, is that a 6.30pm BT then?  Depending how they are during the day and how their naps are you could even try a 6pm BT for a 12 hr night. During nap drop is usually the time LOs will do a longer night even if it shortens a bit after they've grown into it (so to speak).

Ever tried a W2S on the boys when you go to bed? it could kick start a new sleep cycle and inch them past 6am to just slightly later?  It could also help the midnight NW from DS.

Not sure where you are but you might have a clock change coming up to work in your favour on that 6am WU. Worth a thought before you try to move them on, although I know you already said you're happy with 6am for now :)