Trying to change our EASY - advice please?

[Sarah O]

Hey guys,

I've been Babywhispering my butt off for 6 months or so with my twins, now 10 months old.     We're (usually) on a pretty solid routine but I'm making some changes right now due to switching to a solids-first regimen and thought hey, if I'm making changes to that maybe I can shake things up a bit in the sleep department too...for the last month or so my guys have been getting up at an UNGODLY hour to start the day (usually sometime between 5am and 6am), so I try to put them to bed as early as I can so they don't get overtired.  I don't know why they started the early waking...I hadn't changed anything at that point and was hoping it was just a phase but it's a helluva long phase at this point, LOL!!  When I think about it, the early wakings started right around the beginning of daylight savings.  Anyway, I'm so envious of so many of you whose LO's go to bed at 7:30 or 8 and wake up at 8am.  Do you have any suggestions for how I can 'encourage' mine to get onto this same kind of schedule??

So here's the history of our routine(s) up to present day:

Original routine up until early waking started a month ago:

7am wake, bottle
8am solids
830 or 9 nap (always 40 mins... )
11am bottle
Noon solids
naptime varied here...again, usually 40 mins, sometimes 90
3pm bottle
5pm solids
6pm bath
6:30 bottle
7 sleep

Their routine for past month because of early wakings:

5am/sometimes 6am wake
Try to hold off with bottle until 7am/sometimes a bit early
rest of routine same as previous, except:
5:30 bath
6pm bottle
Try to get them to sleep by 6:30 but often CRAZILY hyper...won't settle some days until 8!

So is this overtiredness (what I think!) or is there a chance that they're just not tired yet?  Maybe with their age comes reduced need for sleep?

And as if this post isn't long enough, here's our new routine as of yesterday, putting solids first and dropping a bottle:

5am/sometimes 6am wake
Feed solids right away
Hold off with bottle ideally until 7am
8:30 nap (yesterday was 1.5 hours for both, first time ever!)
10 snack, water
11 Lunch
Noon bottle
1pm nap (40 mins - 1.5 hours)
3 snack, water
4:30 dinner
5:30 bath
6 bottle
6:30 try to get them to sleep, but hyper as mentioned above

Anyway, I know this is a lot of info but if anyone can help me, you guys can!!

Thanks!

Sarah

[HeatherC]

Sarah, I'm sorry your post has gone unanswered.  If you still need a suggestion, I'll go ahead and offer one.  Have you tried a "pd" approach to the 5 am waking?  I read another mother using this, along with a "tuck in" and "nighty-nighty" and it worked for early wakings.  I think that while some babies do need less sleep than others, at 10 months old a total of 14-15 hours would be idea.  Your twins are on the short end of sleep and probably just overtired.  I know I probably go against what someone else might tell you, but I'd put them down earlier for their first nap if you are unable to get them back to sleep at 5 am since technically they are missing out on night sleep.  This might put you at 3 naps a day, which seems to be going backwards, but it might end the cycle of overtiredness, bring them to a decent wake time, and sort your routine back out.  It will probably take as long to fix as it's been going on, so don't give up.
Anyway, those are my thoughts if you still need them.  Let us know how you are doing.