I have posted on a similar subject to this before, but thought I would post again to see if anyone has anything new to bring to the table…

Parents to 15 week old twins and things are, in general, going very well – one (Evie) has been sleeping through (ie, not waking for a feed) for the last 4 or 5 weeks, the second one (Izzi) has just followed suit in the last few days.

However, Evie has been waking in the middle of the night (anything from 2.30am onwards) and is just very restless. She has a dummy which she sometimes likes (other times she will fall off without it) and it usually starts with her wanting it, however she can then either keep dropping it (the big problem with dummies) or simply suck away on it and grunt/move around loads for ages. If it was just the one, we would try to ignore the best we can, but she usually then wakes up Izzi too so we try our best to settle her quickly. Weirdly, she eventually settles again and when we get up at 7.30am she is hard off again and would probably sleep for another hour.

We try to keep any contact to a minimum during the night and have only got them out of their cot (which they share at the moment) on one or two occasions as we don't want hem to expect to be molly-coddled at the first hint of noise.

We have a very good routine going now (thanks in part to help from some posters on here) starting at 6.30 with a bath then a feed and to bed for around 7.45. They then get another feed at 10.30pm to keep them going.

I know it is early days still, but is there anything else we can do to encourage Evie to sleep more soundly?

Any ideas most welcome.

🙂

Whiskey in the milk.
Lots.
Not the good stuff though, they don't appreciate it at that age.

We found that bathing in Lavendar scented soap helped as did some sort of lavendar scent in the room. Apart from that we just said goodbye to proper sleep.
Best of luck.

Are they old enough to be told about the ravenous hairy monster that lives in the wardrobe and doesn't like being woken up early in the morning? 🙂

we just said goodbye to proper sleep.

Yeah – I know we can't expect too much, but we seem so close to getting good sleep patterns back apart from this little problem.

Are they old enough to be told about the ravenous hairy monster that lives in the wardrobe and doesn't like being woken up early in the morning?

We did tell Evie this morning that she was going in the coal shed if she does it again. It would mean building one first though, so I think she knows we don't mean it. 🙂

I'd thank your luck stars that 50% of the duo is sleeping though the night.

Our 6 month old is still waking in the small hours for a feed, despite being in bed by about 1900 and fed again at 2230 – 2300.

A friends baby was still waking up every two hours for a feed at 12 months!

I know we are very lucky – I was just wondering if anyone had any advice as this particular problem isn't one that we were expecting or one that is covered in any advice we have been given yet and it appears to be one that SHOULD be solvable.

Sounds like you have it sorted TBH. Just remember that as soon as you think you've cracked it, they move onto the next stage.
Someone once said to me that things go in 6 week cycles when they are less than about 18 months. Roll with it.

Or maybe what you actually need is some special mechanical bed that will allow one of them to wake up and be entertained and then put back to sleep so you can carry on hoovering – oh and make sure its not too brightly coloured either 😉

geoffj – father to 2 kids and too many bikes!

Or maybe what you actually need is some special mechanical bed that will allow one of them to wake up and be entertained and then put back to sleep so you can carry on hoovering – oh and make sure its not too brightly coloured either

LOL!

I think that you might just have to accept that it is how it is – babies change in their sleep patterns so just because things had got good (eg they were sleeping through) doesn't mean that they'll continue to do so, unfortunately. Try some of the suggestions above but I'd suggest trying to get your head around the idea that this may well be the norm for some time to come…

If you find an answer, could you email my 6-year-old to let her know? She's got the hang of catch up TV, texting and the internet, but sleeping through every night is still out of her reach. Once she's been told, she could tell her nearly-4-year-old sister about the magic secret too.

basically, don't take kiddy sleep advice from me.

geoffj and clubber have it right from my experience

Babies are developing so fast – just look at what they are now to what they were 15 weeks ago – that just as soon as they start sleeping through, then one or both will enter another development stage, or become more active in the day…. which for example might take more energy than they can consume to get them through the night. Hence they'll wake sooner.

I think TBH, if I can recall my 2 they didn't really sleep through consistently until they were starting weaning and getting their calories in a more concentrated form.

This point is hard to get your head around – but enjoy it. Following a recentish op, my wife and I know we will not have another baby now and in an odd way knowing we'll never get those midnight cuddles with a baby again is sad. Although maybe not every night, thanks.

Just when you think its solved it starts again, believe me. They are just being babies, ours wake us and each other up all the time. You need to MTFU and face the fact that you won't get a full nights sleep fr the next 5 years

How on earth do you get them to go to sleep so early? Our 12 week old wants to stay up later than me or my GF.

fr the next 5 years

5 years? I refer my fellow dad to the post I made some moments ago.

🙂

Are they sleeping together?

We fostered twins for a while & one of them used to wake up a lot
We put them both in the same cot & it solved it

We didn't know what their routine was before they came to us though

EDIT: just re-read ignore that

As above go with the flow, eventually they'll settle down…maybe!?! For about a week, perhaps! If your lucky!!
We are going into the dreaded cold season, so that'll make them grumpy, coughing all night and errr then they'll start teething, that angers the little darlings……. oh and when you get them in beds they'll come wake you up at all hours, Bogeyman on the loose again! Oh what fun 🙂

Soooooooo don't expect much proper sleep till about 2015!!!

How on earth do you get them to go to sleep so early?

No idea – they seemed to accept it quite quickly and they *generally* go down very quickly too.

Perhaps I should just count my lucky stars and zip it.

🙂

some people seem luckier than others… Don't think there are any magic fixes unfortunately.

We're somewhere in the middle.
A biking mate & his good lady are getting never get more than 5 hours sleep and it's driving them crazy!

My eldest (almost 5 yrs) chose to get up last night & go downstairs to kip on the sofa. Odd boy.

Our little man is usually wrecked by 7pm so there or shortly after is his bed time. Sleeps to sometime between 6:45 and 8:30 most days but usually wakes once or twice briefly during the night (though we do have about a third of nights with no waking).

They're all different…

TBH I don't mind her staying up until 10pm as it means I actually get to spend some time with her. If she went to bed early I would only see her for an hour in the evening.

It is certainly a learning curve isn't it?

TBH I don't mind her staying up until 10pm as it means I actually get to spend some time with her. If she went to bed early I would only see her for an hour in the evening.

Yeah – I get home from work at 5.45 (being strict about this at the moment) and have 30 minutes play time then bath/feed/bed. I particularly like the morning though – the smiles I get when I get one up to feed her just melts my heart 🙂

It is certainly a learning curve isn't it?

Just a bit – fortunately my wife has it dialled – she seems to be able to figure out almost any issue (apart from this one) before it becomes a problem so I just follow her lead and do the donkey work 🙂

I slept through from 7 weeks, because my parents used a darning needle to widen the hole in a bottle teat, so that the half a rusk they dissolved into the 11oz of milk would get through. I don't think that this is recommened, however.

For the good sleepers: bottle or breast?

Ours is purely breast fed at the moment so I don't get any of that just yet. And I have also resigned myself to the fact I am here to serve mother and daughter, their wishes are my commands. Wouldn't change it though 🙂

Our 9 and a half week old is on pretty much the same evening routine – start feed at 5pm, bath at 6pm bit more food then bed at 7pm, up at 10pm for the nighttime top-up, bed at 11pm, wake at 7am.

Last week there were a few nights when she woke between 2am and 3am, general grizzling. First night I ran into her, she settled down almost instantly and that was that. We decided if it happened again we'd try the baby monitor music first – it has worked for us since (dealing with two more nights last week and a 5:30am waking this morning)!

Basically, the baby monitor can play tunes… if she wakes up in the night and starts to grizzle, I push a button on the listening bit of the monitor and it makes the thing in her room play a plinky plonky nursery rhyme tune – she goes quiet (pretty much instantly) and then falls asleep again and then I turn off the music – it means I get to stay in bed and is much more condusive to feeling I've had a good nights sleep than getting up and going into her room.

Maybe this is just masking the problem? Anyhow, good luck!

Edited to say ours is fed on a mixture of breast, breast milk from bottle and formula. Formula seems to keep baby going for longer, but if she could I think my wife would prefer all feeds at the moment to be breast or breast from bottle instead of formula.

For the good sleepers: bottle or breast?

Evie – late bottle is formula (she is the restless one later in the night)
Izzi – late bottle of express as she is quicker with it and was waking at around 3am for a breastfeed top-up. We have just switched to formula and she is sleeping through solidly now.

My lad is big and was growing very fast when little (1 lb per week!) – he was on breast until 17 weeks but was getting one or two formula bottles (usually at the 11pm feed) from about 3 weeks as he was just so hungry. Despite all the 'Breast is best' propaganda, don't be afraid to supplement with formula if necessary.

don't be afraid to supplement with formula if necessary.

Great advice. Made all the difference to both my wife and to our baby when Mrs Markie felt able to introduce formula into the feeding plan!

They get about 30breast and express/70formula now – it just proved almost impossible to breastfeed two of them and have a life (and I like to feed them as well).

Boy oh boy, (sorry girl oh girl) twins! All the very best, sounds like you are doing really well to me. We are still being woken up by our two boys, 4 and 18 months, so as people have said its just being a parent I think. I know what you mean about the dummy noises, our youngest wakes up around 4am and starts singing away to himself with his dummy in really loudly, can go on for hours like that half asleep. Ditto with the don't be afraid of formula thing as well, it can be a lifesaver and was for us. Just wait until they start riding bikes! Its ace! 🙂

Gaffer tape the dummy in place?… 😉

I'm a social worker, that's qualified advice, that is. I'll send you my invoice.

Gaffer tape the dummy in place?

She can be as noisy with the thing in, just substitute whining noises for sucking wildly noises!

Keeps me awake through chuckling to myself at it.

But none of it is as funny as when they fart loudly 🙂

EDIT – and my wife has just texted me to say she has picked up her dummy and put it back in herself. At 15 weeks!!!

My little lady finds farting highly amusing especially if I am changing her nappy at the time.

My little lady finds farting highly amusing especially if I am changing her nappy at the time.

I like it when they fart/burp so loud they startle themselves 🙂

Ours is 10 weeks on Thursday, we have a similar routine to yours, bath about 19:00 final feed and then down to sleep before 20:30, for the 3 weeks up to last week she was sleeping till 3:30-4:00, taking a quick feed/burp (about 30 min’s) and then back to bed till 7:30, which was obviously too good to last…

Then we foolishly took her off the Infacol, thinking it’s work was done, that cost us 4 days worth of sleep, while she screamed with wind pains, 2 more days of rest after that and now she’s got her first cold, snuffly nose and raspy breathing, so yet more reduced sleep nights, the Doc’ has apparently prescribed some “nasal drops” this afternoon (I presume we have to hold her upside down or something to administer these)…

Basically look for the signs, of some sort of illness, or trapped wind, or maybe you have one twin more, hungry than the other (In which case just feed them)…

Ultimately we’ve gotten our head around it now though, it’s a case of “roll with the punches” if necessary we go to a 4hour on 4Hour off shift pattern to ensure each of us at least gets some sleep, but if your’s are still on the knockers than this may not be possible, but if they’re on expressed or formula feeds, you can be a bit more flexible, and try to plan some sleep in for both of you….

You'll have to learn to live with it, they'll finally both sleep all through the night, then they'll start teething 🙂

Besides, I seem to recall someone posting a year or two back anguished tales of fertility treatment and so on?

Actually that's jogged my memory, teething! I remember the missus telling me teething can start at around 15 weeks (the old week by weekguide is quite good), inspect the gums!

I can understand why Madonna buys larger ones. It all does sound like a rather tiresome business 🙂

inspect the gums!

Or look at the gallons of spit coming out of her mouth already – yeah, I don't think she is far off teething.