8.5 month twins, night waking and early morning waking,

[4isstillnighttime]

I didn't mean to sound blamey Laura, they don't need any help to be grumpy and TBH it probably would work, lots of people have told me to do it in the past! I just don't have the will power to go through with it! I think if I can get them sleeping a bit better at night then I will work on the early mornings - maybe when I'm back at work then the childminder can cope with their grumpiness!!

[4isstillnighttime]

I'm worried I've upset you   

It was more about the BFing anyway - I think they were starting to reverse cycle (had not heard of that, sounds terrifying!!) and I am much happier now we are back as we were. I just feel like everyone is telling me to stop and if they would take bottles I wouldn't mind as it would still be a nice cuddle, but the only way they'll drink formula is sitting in their high chairs. You know what it's like with twins, it's hard enough to get a cuddle at the best of times!

Sad, sad, sad 

[babybarr]

I'm worried I've upset you   

It'd take more than that to upset me!!  I completely get where you're coming from I didn't think you were blaming me, I was just sad for you it didn't work.

I just can't believe you are still bf.  That really is amazing and tbh you must be exhausted.

Go with the long am nap and whatever you get in the afternoon, I would just perhaps limit it depending on the time they go down to ensure you have enough A time till bed.

[4isstillnighttime]

Yes yes, I think more A before bed is key. They had 4h this evening after dreadful naps (not planned but daddy came home during bath time then they were too excited to settle!!) and tbh it wasn't as messy as I had feared!! I have rammed them with breastmilk today hoping they'll be so fed up of boob they won't wake up at all!!

BFing was exhausting to start with but I found it much less anxiety-inducing than bottles - I used to get really paranoid about germs, would run the steriliser loads of times in a row, couldn't let anyone else wash the bottles or do the steriliser.....it was tough times mixed feeding and I felt much better when I didn't have to do any of that! Also I was too paranoid to use powdered formula so we were using only the cartons and it was so expensive!! BFing was the lazy option for me as my babies were good at it, I don't deserve any praise for it!!

[Buttonbobs]

I used to worry about germs and bottles too, when I first gave E a bottle I worried about it for a long time before I felt ok to give it to her. The thing to remember is now they are older they're getting food which is not sterile and other things in their mouths (things they pick up from the floor etc) so it's not quite so vital that everything is super clean. You still need to sterilize obviously, but it's not quite so dangerous for an older LO to have exposure to a few germs.

I think your plan sounds like a good one, and well done for getting your mummy-mojo back! this job is a hard one and we can be our own worst critics. You guys with twins are super amazing!!!

Keep us posted xxx

[Uglybethy]

Dear lilyrose
Congratulations on surviving 8.5 months with twins!
Laura asked me to to take a look at your post to see if I could add anything. I also have fraternal twin girls. And I did mixed breast feeding and formula feeding from the beginning but weaned completely on to
formula at six months when I started blw. Also had one refluxer who was on ranitidine briefly.
It's tough isn't it, with two.... Tougher than you could ever explain to people!
My girls are 11 months now but I remember this 8-9 month mayhem really well. There was a short period of time when they would nap 2x1.5 hours consistently but then it started getting choppy, just like you're describing. As a result of this mayhem there were two transitions necessary... Dropping a bottle feed and shifting the naps to one short (45 mins) and one longer (2 hours) nap. And yes, dropping the night feeds too (although I wasn't breast feeding at this stage so please get clarification of this for breast fed babies from the appropriate boards). I would offer water at night if they couldn't settle with their dummy. Oh and I filled both cribs with 20 dummies and before long they were able to find one themselves and replug themselves!!!!!!! Worked a treat as I didn't want to wean them as I think they so valuable for synchronizing twins.
It looks as if you have found your own way forward with this by offering a snack on waking from the first nap (we did the same) and capping the second nap to allow a four hour awake period before bed time. It's so painful (for us) to wake sleeping babies at nap times but it works really well to preserve appropriate bed times so that chronic over tired does not set in.
How have the night times been since you put the new plan in place?
Let us know if anything else needs tweaking.
Sorry I'm a little late in on this I've been travelling with the girls for a month so have been missing from the boards lately.
With all best wishes
Beth

[4isstillnighttime]

Well, we had our best night for ages last night - c awake briefly at 10:30 but settled v easily and didn't feed til 2! Then c awake again 4:00 but down again 4:30-5 and 5:20-5:45. Z fed at 2:15 then up for the day at 5 but that's much better than we have been. Z only managed 30 mins this morning (grrr) and because she's taking so long to settle c had an hour then, so I'll just go with the flow now but get them up in plenty of time for a long A before bed. And they had some raisins (bribe!) and formula at 10:30....not much, but it's a start!!!

Thanks again mummies!!

[Buttonbobs]

well done you - fab work xx

[Uglybethy]

Yes brilliant news... Well done you and well done girls!
Expect a few good nights then another bad one or two then even more good nights etc until eventually they are pretty much all good..... It does happen so hang in there!

[4isstillnighttime]

Oh god....c vomited herself awake from her second nap and has been puking ever since....and z has diarrhoea!! Hopefully though we will be able to get ourselves back on track when they are better. Our first tummy bug....I've been dreading it!!!

Still, at least I had a good night last night to strengthen myself and I've got a plan in place for when they are better!!

Thanks again!!

[babybarr]

Oh no.  Vibes they get well quickly - make sure you wash your hands loads!

[Buttonbobs]

Oh no, hugs honey and vibes they get well quickly xxx

[Bababoo]

LilyRose22..I only have one DD (10 months) and am miserable dealing with EW but just wanted to say how impressive you seem...my DD is FF aswell so not even feeding as often as BF, and again, there's only one baba to deal with. Am so impressed that you manage to do so much outdoors activity on such little sleep...some days I can only manage a little stroll outdoors as I just want to lie down on the ground and sleep.

I've just started trying to train her out of the EW...others here have said that a short A time after EW reinforces the early start as her body clock is tuned now to getting a nap within 2 hours of being up...so the thing to do is go for a 3-4 hour A time after getting up so if she wakes early she knows she won't get back to sleep for a good while, and will sleep on for a bit...like you I want a long AM nap and a short PM one..it seems to suit her better.

I've just started extending that first A this week so know it will take a while to see results....I'm mostly posting just to say how impressed I am that you are doing so well after such an exhausting 8 months!

[4isstillnighttime]

You're really sweet!! I am lucky with my babies - they don't sleep much and Cs reflux was quite trying....but in general they are quite easy to look after and I certainly feel like I don't deserve all the praise I'm getting here!! I like it though!!

This bug has wiped them out - they were up at 5:30 but fell asleep feeding at half 8 for 15 mins....and still went down at 9:30 and are still asleep now! Poor little things!

[Buttonbobs]

This bug has wiped them out - they were up at 5:30 but fell asleep feeding at half 8 for 15 mins....and still went down at 9:30 and are still asleep now! Poor little things!

When LOs are poorly just let them sleep when they need to and go with the flow a bit (I always found this quite hard - but it does help them get well) so you're doing just the right thing. You can start with ST and routine tweaking again once they're properly well.

More (((hugs)))