Sleep and EASY support for twins and multiples

[4isstillnighttime]

Lots of hugs Laura. c doesn't really sleep through any more either. Do you want to post your EASY or are you all tweaked out?

Kara, good work on the self settling! At that age I was either BFing to sleep or pushing in the pram. Sounds like you are doing brilliantly!

Kayra - how are things?

Nicky -  lots of hugs. If your baby is poorly you have to be with her. Is it something she will grow out of?

As for us....I have been feeling bad about how I treat C  in my head she is a "big girl" and z is still a baby, and I think I am too tough on her. She has been ill for a few days and has really wanted cuddles and to sleep with me....and I have realised what a snuggly little chubby baby she still is. I think it's hard with twins because you can't help but compare them, and C is so spirited where Z is pretty relaxed. But I just want to make it up to her for being mean mummy. I love them both so much....but sometimes twins is so hard, you know?

[kayra]

Sorry to hear that there's still no joy in that department you must be exhausted! Things do change tho so don't despair

Aww Liz don't be hard on yourself. Though I totally understand what you mean, not just with ds1 but with the twins ds is so sunny and gurgly I love hanging out with him whereas dd is more touchy and fragile so I'm not sure what to do wth her also she's constantly dribbling and spitting up after her feed which drives me batty so I feel that I have less patience for her 
Sleeping in the same room is going well it seems, have I said how happy I am to have my room back
My sister comes tomorrow, only for 3 days but I'm trying to focus on the fact that she is coming rather than not staying long, so anyway I'm excited about that, I enjoy the babies so much more when there's someone else cooing over them too
Hope C feels better soon.
Anyone know how Beth is doing?

[babybarr]

Hi
I don't think it's the routine... BUT I got rid of the nf 3 weeks ago, then they had their injections, got hand foot and mouth and now having the relevant reactions to their injections... We haven't gone back to the bottle at night but they've been having paracetamol due to temperature and pain in the night when they wake.  It's minimum interaction - calpol and back to bed but they're probably still waking twice each.  I'm so tired.  J is cutting bottom molars (nearly through) and that'll mean H is soon to follow.  I'm hoping that when the jabs have settled and the teeth are through it'll help???

[nippo]

Hey everyone, so hard to find enough time to write a decent response but I do read everyone's posts!!

Laura, we had the dreaded 1 year jabs and had the worst time sleep wise and mood wise too. My usually sweet and lovely girls started hitting and got quite aggressive and clingy. It lasted ages and I remember getting really worried that all those stories about long term side effects were true. They also wouldn't nap unless I held them and wouldn't sleep at night unless I stayed with them. It took ages to be able to put them down and leave the room! You're not alone.

Kara - sounds like you've got it sussed, good on you!

Liz and Kayra, the heart condition doesn't really affect her day to day. Her heart speeds up randomly and so we just have to look out for it but for the most part it's not dangerous unless it goes on for hours, then the heart muscle can get tired. The first and only time it was triggered in hospital when she had bronchiolitis and was given asthma meds which sped up her heat. I think for us, when she is ill we feel a little nervous. But she will live a normal life. At 5 she'll have a procedure that will burn away an extra bit of tissue that is effectively short circuiting her heart.

AFM - we're still in the midst of re-sleep training our girls. Last week both were unwell so we held them to sleep. And little twin slept with me one night after being sick and having a high fever. Now morning naps are fraught as they both want me to rock them and scream the place down.

I've had to ask my dad to pop round so I can put one down then the other. And they have been waking up twice a night which came to a head last night and we started the sleep training again. We are just too exhausted now and their wakeups have increased.

They are dropping a nap but they are dropping the afternoon nap instead of morning nap. So I'm slowly pushing the morning nap to 11 which will get them through the rest of the day. All this sleep stuff is exhausting!!

[kayra]

Hello ladies, how is everyone?
We are 6.5 months can you believe it?! we've started solids, ds loves it whereas we're going a bit more slowly with dd. She is doing a lot better with her sitting, ds has a harder time, both have amazing shoulder/arm strength from tummy time and they both 'swim' on the floor, manage to move backwards and end up half under he sofa, but no proper crawling yet. I kind of wish they'd sit properly at least as I think they'd be a lot happier if they had that independence. Naps are absolutely ridiculous these days, they're playing nap relay so I've had hardly any baby-free time these days! Makes it tempting to sync them but it's such a big deal when one has a decent nap that I couldn't possibly wake the sleeping one. Hopefully once were done with the ww things will settle down a bit.
How did you guys go about preparing solids? I need to get more organized about making batches and freezing them, it kind of complicates things when they're not quite at the same stage.
Also, you know how once upon a time I said I didn't mind the nappy changing, scratch that! Seriously I have been changing pooey nappies allllllll day, my hands are worn from being washed! At least they're relatively less leaky due to all the solids

[nippo]

Hey Kayra, sounds like things are going really well. With feeding, I had an easy twin and a difficult twin and one point blank refused solids for weeks before accepting and then was on puree up until about a month ago!
 Steamed lots of different veg and pureed and froze into pots. That way I could mix up different foods and create a meal. As time went on I pureed for less time so it was still a bit lumpy and would just mixed different pots together.

[babybarr]

Struggling! It's just never-ending isn't it with two. You think it'll get easier as they get older but they're into EVERYTHING. Plus their sleep is still shocking.

Kayra with the solids we would basically cook everything in the same pan and blend. A bit like soup and freeze in pots which had enough to feed two. Not much variety but then they can't have much anyway.

[nippo]

Tell me about shocking sleep. Now 1.42 am and I am wide awake listening to little twin get up for the 4th time in 2 hours. DH is fast asleep exhausted from the first two wakeups. So this time it's my turn. Only she doesn't let me go back to bed like daddy, she wants me to stay until she falls asleep. I've managed to sneak out after 45mins but can still hear her rolling around in there...

[babybarr]

I'm so with you hun. And then the other wakes who then wakes the first one. Then my 6yr old wakes. Rinse repeat. Shattered. Plus they wake at 5am ish so dh gets up with them. I have a sleep thread in toddler sleep if anyone fancies helping me. I'm sinking.

[Katejk]

Where have my blissful sleeping babies gone.??!!

Rose and Jude turned 7 months on Saturday. I feel like they are completely different babies. They are very good at settle themselves to sleep but at the moment Jude is ok at sleeping (ish) but rose fights each nap especially her last one. We've been working on dropping the 3rd nap but this has been proving difficult this weekend. Our schedule at the moment is:-

5am -6pm wake up.
7am milk
7.45 food
8.30 8.45 Nap  approx 30-1hr long
11am milk
11.45 food
12.30 nap 30 - 2hrs used to be a blissful 2hrs!
3pm milk
3.30 or 4.15 nap depending on what time they woke from Lin
4.30 ish food
6 milk and bed

I would love your advice on how I'm going wrong and what I can tweak. I think they are both teething which I know isn't helping but I don't know how to get back to putting them down later for their morning nap. It used to be 9am onwards but now dos they wake so early I'm having to put them down early. Vicious circle!

Many thanks

[kayra]

Hugs Kate, no advice really, we're in 3-2 territory too, so naps are an absolute mess :and ds is ew'ing have you tried feeding them when they wake up to see if they'll sleep a bit more? Or maybe you just ned to soldier ion to push that first nap.. Ds has been refusing a 3rd nap even if he's just had 2 silly naps which is frustrating, not sure what to do myself.

Laura, sorry things are so rough, I had a peek at your thread but honestly couldn't think of anything helpful or different than what others have suggested. Have you been able to try any of the suggestions?

On a positive note, I do love to see them giggling at eachother

[Katejk]

Yeah I have tried feeding them a few times but it's not worked. Grr it's so frustrating but yes you are right it's so lovely to see them giggle together x

[babybarr]

Two set naps and push through the ot. The only thing which vaguely helped! Plus calpol!

[Katejk]

What time should the set naps be?  9 am for the first one?  haha yes we use calpol! x

[babybarr]

What is their approx. A time?