Hello all,
I'm looking for some advice cause im at a complete loss what to do.
I have 1 year old twins who follow a great routine. They are amazing all day and self sooth and will sleep anywhere with no problems ie cot or pushchair. I don't rock them and they don't use anything g other than dummies to sleep. They were breast fed till 4 months but then have been bottle fed since. They have cows milk in the morning, a small cup of milk after lunch then a 50/50 cows milk/formula bottle at 6.45 before bed.
Bedtime is 7pm they are perfect at going to sleep by themselves, they are fully awake when I leave the room and pretty much go straight to sleep. They were sleeping through till 6.30/7 with no milk until morning.
However, over the past month between 3am and 7 am have been awful! I feel I've tried everything but nothing works. It usually starts with one crying then the other one gets woken up. Luckily my 5 year old sleeps through all the noise in the room next door!
We've tried increasing daytime food, reducing sleep time during the days, me going in putting my hand on their chests (this works but the second I take hand off they go nuts again), we've given bottles which sometimes gets them back to sleep but they don't need milk at night at this age and I realise this is a bad habit to get into.
I can't help but wonder if they have got into a habit of having the milk as often they'll scream for the 3 hours then it is actually milk time so they get their milk. Makes me think that in their heads that I 'gave in' to the cries and therefore crying = milk.
They are exhausted and often then fall asleep again when they should be getting up for me to take big sister to school. So its not that they've had enough sleep.
I've tried letting them cry, standing with hand in their chests for 45 mins, giving milk, not giving milk, picking them up, not picking them up, we don't bring them in our bed , they are always in their cots.
It's hard as they share a room they set each other off and even if one doses off again they are often woken up again by their twin... any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Me & my husband are exhausted!
Thank you
