waking in the night (twins)

[miri84]

Hi guys! I would need an help 'cause I am very tired....! I have two 3-months years old twins (boys). They were born premature (33 weeks) but they have been recovering pretty good. I am following the 4- hours routine for a week. It is going very well in general, but I have a problem with early awakening in the morning. I'll describe it for you: we feed them at 7 p.m., then they usually fall asleep at 8 pm, we give the dreamfeed at about 10:30 pm. They usually sleep very well untill the 4:30 am..at this time, they start moaning (it seems to me that the cause maybe colics, or breathing problems,...), so I usully give the paci to them and they continue sleeping for another 30/1 hour..they do that until 6:30 when they definitely wake up for eating. So I usually give them the formula and afterwards we continue sleeping till 9:30 am. I am very tired of these kind of nights and I am wondering if I am making some mistakes in the routine or I have just to wait them to get older. Thanks a lot!!!

[ginger428]

Hi Miri and welcome to BW!

Quite honestly, I would've done anything to have that kind of night! Haha. We had multiple night wakes still at that age.  They are basically sleeping from 8-4:30 which is technically sleeping through the night. But no matter what, waking at 4:30 is not pleasant. It does sound completely normal for them to be waking around 4:30 due to hunger pangs, most likely. Many babies require 1-2 night feeds until up to about 7-10 months, depending.  It is also typical to have a early morning feed between 4-5 (4-6am is light sleep and babies tend to wake up for many reasons). 

Colic- do they cry intensely and for long periods of time? The 4:30 wake up sounds like discomfort from hunger or gas more than anything. Are there any known medical conditions they have?

Most likely they will be able to stretch that time in the next couple of months.  You can try doing a feed at 4:30 and see if they'll settle until later in the morning, especially so that you can rest in those early hours, too, since you are handling sweet twins!

[Katet]

Hard as it is for you, you are doing really well.

If you take into account your twins are really only about 6 weeks old, they are still at the age that an unsettled period is  to be expected & sadly they most frequently seem to occur either in the evening or the early hours of the morning 4am or later (I had one of each)

As the PP said if they are sleeping 8-4.30am you are getting 6hours  from the dream feed & 8+ hours of sleep & at 3months (& your twins aren't really that yet) 5-6 hours is considered "sleeping through the night"

I do think there might be one area that you could work with. If they are going to sleep around 8pm & you have a feed at 10.30, then 4.30 & then 6.30 & then start the day at 9.30, that's kind of a 13.5hour night with a DF & 2 night feeds. That's a really long time to expect to get them totally asleep. I read somewhere that to a degree babies tend to go midnight to noon/noon to midnight with their sleep falling 50% in both times of the day. I'm wondering if you got more awake time before noon it might help them being better sleeping in that midnight to noon part of the cycle.

Although realistically  I think it's just a mater of letting them grow older & growing out of the unsettled times - the fact the both do it to me says it's their unsettled time of the day.

[miri84]

@ginger and @katet, thanks very much for your responses!! they really encourage me!! They do not have other medical conditions, and colics are not so terrible actually. So it is like you said, at that time (4:30am)they are in a light sleep so they might awake for any discomfort, very similar to what happens during naps. However, it seems to me that they are not so awake to want to be fed. They do not cry (just moan or complain), and they usually keep their eyes almost closed or they closed them again when I give the pacifier to them...that is way I usually do not feed them. Tonight they wake up at 4:40am again, I went into paci fall down cycle of about 1 hour and they fall asleep again until 7am, when they started to cry fairly because of hunger pangs. In light of that, do you suggest to feed them at that time? It seems to me like stepping back and not moving forward...
Katet, when you talk about "more awake time before noon" you mean in the morning? Like at 10/11am?

thanks very much again!!!! :*

[Lindsay27]

Tonight they wake up at 4:40am again, I went into paci fall down cycle of about 1 hour and they fall asleep again until 7am, when they started to cry fairly because of hunger pangs. In light of that, do you suggest to feed them at that time? It seems to me like stepping back and not moving forward...

I would just feed them at the 4:30am waking - that is absolutely a normal/necessary feed and is in no way going backwards, going from a 10:30pm DF through to 4:30am is 6hrs which is normal (or better than normal actually) for their age.  If it is taking an hour to resettle at that time that's probably a good indication that it's hunger.  If you feed and right back to sleep they'll likely go right until 7am vs trying to resettle until 5:30 and then up again at 7.  I imagine if you just feed at 4:30 you'll get more sleep yourself too!