Sleep and EASY support for twins and multiples

[Katejk]

Roughly 2hrs 30

[kayra]

They might be able to cope with more, try 2:40, ds has increased his a time recently and it's making 2 naps more possible. I'm still trying to figure dd out

[Katejk]

Yeah I've been thinking today that they might be able to cope with more awake time

[*Kara*]

Roughly 2hrs 30

I would bump that up to 2 hrs 45mins for a few days and see how they do

It seems mine are fixing to be just like big sister... silly A times and early nap dropping.  Ugh.  They are 4.5 months (3.5 adjusted) and are already between 1hr45 and 2 hrs.  And they fight their catnap like it is the devil some days!  Thankfully, they do take it though!  Bedtime has been a bit trying the last couple of weeks as well... they are really hard to get settled for a couple of hours!  It's not like an OT issue, just hard to get into a good sleep.  I do wonder how much of the issue is that we are quick to intervene for fear they wake each other (if one has gone to sleep already) or worse yet, wake DD1 who is just down the hall!  With her,  I let her settle herself a bit more, I think.

[babybarr]

I do wonder how much of the issue is that we are quick to intervene for fear they wake each other (if one has gone to sleep already) or worse yet, wake DD1 who is just down the hall! 

THIS!!!  This is the hardest part that people with singletons don't understand!  Especially if you are on your own with twins and another one.

I would try the longer A times too, but personally I am a massive fan of set naps. So you could try for 9am and 1pm especially as they're 7mths.

[kayra]

Yes the waking paranoya is frustrating! Though
I must admit that there have been many times when the sleeping baby has jut slept thrubthe
Crying of the other baby. I try to just be near by so i can get
A feel for whether the sleepig one might be disturbed
And try not to intervene unless it looks risky. Amazingly ds1 has never woken up b/c of them, doesnt stop me being paranoid though

[DorothyGale]

Hi! I'm new to all of this, my twins are four months old today (born 3 weeks early though) and I'm a first time mom. I read a little bit of the baby whisperer book and I love the idea of a routine, but I'm a bit lost at how to get there.

Twin A seems to have developed a bad habit of only taking 2 to 3 ounces of formula at a time. For a while he was taking larger feedings at night, so I wasn't too worried about it, but now he's doing it at night too, which means waking up every 2 to 2.5 hours. Do I just have to let him scream to get him on a longer feeding interval?

Twin B I think would be on a better schedule by now, except that he is waking for a second night feeding at around 5 or 5:30 am, and that throws the whole day off. And then I keep trying to get their routines to match up at least somewhat, so that we can leave the house etc.

[kayra]

Hi Dorothy! You'll enable to get a lot more help if you start a thread on the Easy board.  Is A eating that frequently during the day as well? Is it possible to settle him without a feed at night so that he's hungrier next time he wakes?  Like I said posting on the main boards would be the best really..

I still haven't attempted to match the routine of my 2, for now we're just still rolling with it those early feeds are annoying, does he settle for a smaller feed? Mine will settle for a sma,, feed but won't take more when they ale 1-1,5 hr later so I've started to make that a full feed and just go with it as best I can...

[DorothyGale]

Thanks Kayra. I've been reading the main board, there's a ton of info to get through already.

We're doing pretty well I think, I just started getting strict with the routine two days ago and napping and feeding are falling into place (I think.) I am putting them both down for naps and bedtime together, even though that means one twin is often keeping the other awake for awhile. I figure that this is our goal so I'll start there. We only have one bedroom for them, so they're going to have to learn to go to sleep together. They are in the same playpen for naps and the same crib at night.

I do feel like I need to treat EASY more like a schedule than a routine though, because with two babies I can't really follow their lead or we'll just end up in chaos again. We're doing the three hour program. Twin B seems like he'd rather eat on a four hour schedule, but he isn't ready to stay awake longer, so I'm not sure what to do about that. Should I reduce the amount I give him in a bottle? Right now he often isn't hungry yet at the 3 hour mark.

I'm also not doing PU/PD because it just makes them furious. I'm doing a cross between Ferberizing and shush-pat, where I go in every few minutes and try to shush them down again. Twin B is already good at going to sleep on his own, just because that is his preference - he cries when he's tired and just wants to be put to bed. Twin A prefers to be rocked to sleep, so this is all new to him and he's angry about it.

[jessmum46]

Just popping in to welcome you Dorothy . But just to be clear that we do not support any form of controlled crying/CIO/Ferberizing on this forum, Tracy Hogg (the author of the BW books) was very much against leaving LOs to cry alone as she believed that it could damage the bond of trust between LO and caregiver.  If it is a mantra cry that is a different thing and fine to leave LO alone, but if he is really crying for you then please do go to him.  If you have any questions about this then please do post on the main boards

[kayra]

My dd liked to be rocked to sleep too, and ut was right around 4 months when she started to respond to shh-pat, so hang in there! She still needs to be rocked if she's really unsettled at night..

[DorothyGale]

Just popping in to welcome you Dorothy . But just to be clear that we do not support any form of controlled crying/CIO/Ferberizing on this forum, Tracy Hogg (the author of the BW books) was very much against leaving LOs to cry alone

Ah, ok, got it. Sorry. I stayed in the room yesterday and both boys are settling down much faster for naps. Twin B will cry himself to sleep, but it's only a few minutes, and I think it's the mantra cry because it doesn't escalate, it winds down. Twin A needs a bit more help but I'm still very happy with how much progress we are making with naptimes. It's only happened once, but I did hear one of them wake briefly and resettle themselves yesterday. They woke up again 15 minutes later, but still, that is amazing since they never did it before.

Unfortunately night time sleep seems to have gotten worse for twin A. We aren't doing dream feeds because we go to bed ourselves at 9 so that we can get enough sleep. Twin B wakes up once around 1 or 2 am for a feeding, then sleeps until around 6 am, but Twin A is waking up every 3 hours and only taking 2 to 3 ounces of formula. I hope this will pass once they get used to the routine. I feel like our day is so much more relaxed when I have a plan for what happens when. I think I'm going to switch to the 4 hour schedule in January when they hit 4 months adjusted.

Both boys sleep in one crib right now and I feel like they like to be together, but they are getting more mobile and rolling into each other. We have them in our bedroom, and if we switch to separate cribs they'll need to be in their own room instead and I don't feel ready for that either. At what age did you go to separate cribs?

[kayra]

We did separate cribs quite early on, can't imagine them being in the same bed now they were in separate rooms till 2 months ago!

[babybarr]

Moved ours to separate cots at 8wks. But they'd been sharing in their own room from about 3wks. We only had room for a Moses basket in our room which they shared for a while-so tiny-so cute!

[*Kara*]

Mine are almost 5 months now and still share a crib in our room   They have a second crib in their bedroom that they share during the day for naps as well.  They are close to being too tall to fit in the crib together though and I can't put them end to end since we have them elevated because of reflux.  So, they may have to move rooms soon and be in their own cribs!  I'm not ready to move them though   Oddly enough, DD1 was in her own room alone at 13 weeks!