Sleep with 5 mo old twins

SmallCityLiving

I know sleep training is controversial and I probably won't do anything before. 6 mo but I'm looking for any BTDT advice. My twins are 5 mo (4 adjusted) and EBF. They wake every 2-3 hours all night. I do one up both up but have been back to work for a month and it's killing me. Any advice from others on how you got your twins to sleep longer?. I don't even need them to STTN, at this point I would take just one or two wakeups consistently. Thanks for any advice!

nebrasskagal

We sleep trained our twins at 3 mos one mos adjusted (FF). We got up and rocked them back to sleep. If they had continued crying we would have fed them but they didn't show hunger signs. I believe they were waking out if habit. They have slept through the night since 3 mos of age. Good luck to you!

Millimeter

We did one up both up until about that age. My daughter started sleeping through the night and my son still wakes once most nights.

Maybe just feed on demand and see if that gets any better? We did sleep train them at 9 months to put themselves to sleep so we didn't have to rock them every night. It worked well. I personally wouldn't sleep train for a few more months.

rachelkongsore@hotmail.com

At that age I stopped doing one up both up and if one woke I'd bring them into bed with me and nurse lying down so that I got more rest. My twins were terrible sleepers and did nt sleepnthru the night until after I weaned (they were EBF). I attribute their night wakings to the fact that for the first two months we woke them around the clock to feed them and I think it really messed up their internal sleep schedules. I would try cluster feeding after work until bedtime and establish a bedtime routine. I would always try not doing one up both up now so that they can wake on their own. I am the worst at CIO but that would be the next thing most people would suggest. Good luck, I know how hard it is having babies that don't sleep much at night!!

carrotcake06

Going back to work w babies that don't sleep is brutal.

One twin is a rockstar sleeper - I joke I don't know where he came from since my oldest is a shittastic sleeper (he's 4yo and still wakes up at night calling for us on the regular).

The other one was a more frequent waker and I did OUBU for longer than needed - 6-7mo. Around 9-10mo, I was exhausted from getting up w both my oldest and the twins and something had to give. Not sleeping for than 2 consecutive hours was wearing on me.

I BFed, so first line of defense was to send in H and he would rock him or pat his back. I was okay w crying if someone was there. He was also 10mo old at that point.

After a few nights of that, I'd give him 5-10min when he woke to put himself back to sleep. There was some crying but it wasn't bad.

After a few nights of that, he STTN and so did his twin.

My oldest was the polar opposite. We tried everything and nothing worked. Everyone's got a different breaking point, but multiple hours of crying every night for several weeks was too much for me.

I dreaded sleep issues w the twins and envisioned years of not sleeping again but it wasn't that bad.

CNYBride05

Definitely second the one up, both up. But my girls are 13 mos and still up every 2-3 hrs, so I'm not much help there

pillowass

We started sleep training ours at 5 months, with the blessing of our pediatrician.  I was pretty much in the same boat as you, having gone back to work and struggling to maintain my sanity in the face of all that sleep deprivation. Sleep training is not for everyone, but the science is pretty solid that it is safe and it works!  It was such a game changer in our family. 

We used Ferber, which includes chapter on night weaning, and gradually spaced out the time between night feedings. For instance, we would put them down at 7, and we wouldn't go in there to feed them until after midnight. So there was some CIO when we put them down and if they woke up at their normal 2-3 hour intervals, but they learned quickly (within 1-2 weeks) and gradually started sleeping longer and longer until we were getting a 10-11 hour night. 

Also, FWIW, we never did OUBU - DH and I just took turns with each baby. That way if one was inclined to sleep longer they could. Good luck!

LittleLady77

My kids are just over 5 months are we are gearing up to sleep train in the next few weeks. Good luck.

ballygirl

5 months is about the time I started feeling psychotic from lack of sleep.  My girls were up every 2 hours, not the same 2 hour intervals either, so I was up basically every hour every night.  And they were screamers and really difficult to get back to sleep. They would basically scream their heads off while DH or I held them and walked around with them for about 20-30 minutes and then they would only sleep for 90 minutes or 2 hours. They were inconsolable and they would just cry until they passed out in our arms. It was really really awful.  I was having anxiety attacks about bedtime almost daily.

 

 I hadn't wanted to sleep train and I tried a few "no-cry" methods first and they didn't work for us so we finally did Ferber at 6 months.  It really was not as bad as I thought it would be. In total it took about 5 days and they never cried longer than 8 minutes without us going in and checking on them and never more than 20 minutes total. They continued to wake up for a MOTN bottle after that for another few months, but would go right back to sleep and at 10 months they are fantastic sleepers now. 

 

 If you do decide to go this route, I definitely suggest reading the Ferber book before you do it.  There is a lot of mis-information about this from secondary sources and he has a lot of other good suggestions that helped up that are not about crying it out. 

LittleLady77

^ yep. I'm reading Ferber now and I like it a lot.

sarah_beth2005

Our twins are almost 4 months old (almost 3 months adjusted), and started SSTN about a month ago.  (they are formula fed, so I've heard that SSTN is easier....) After we brought them home, we fed them every 3 hours exactly (back-to-back feeds, so we used the one up, both up system).  Our pediatrician recommended starting to stretch out their night feeds to 4-hour stretches at their one-month checkup.  The trick, she said, was to still get in 8 feedings a day, which meant making the daytime feeds closer together (so bumped up daytime feeds to every 2 hours 40 minutes, which sounds weird and required actual tracking on paper, but it worked!).  We were able to get them to go two 4-hour stretches at night between feedings virtually overnight! After a month of that, we realized that we were always waking sound asleep babies for those feedings, so I started letting them sleep as long as they could between feedings at night (still doing OUBU) - this got us a 5-hour stretch (followed by a 4-hour stretch), then gradually a 6-hour stretch (followed by a 4-hour stretch).  Now, our son will go 9-10 hours between night feeds, and our daughter will go 8-9 hours (which actually works well for us - she eats last at bedtime, and first in the morning).  Taking it slow is the key - don't try to force it on the babies - you have to go at their pace, which may be slower than you'd like at times.  And, be sure to increase their daytime feeds (either more bottles, or more quantity in each bottle), so that the longer stretches at night aren't decreasing their intake.  We also found that once they started daycare at 12 weeks, they were much more tired at bedtime!

BeesKnees181

Our girls are 4 months (3 months adjusted).  Doctor said they are both capable of sleeping through the night and suggested putting them to bed drowsy (at their 4 month appointment this week), so they learn they are capable of falling asleep without me or a bottle.  They started doing 6 hour sleep stretches about three weeks ago, and within the last week they have had a handful of 8 hour stretches at night.  When they fuss at night I try giving them the pacifier and wait for them to really be awake and hungry.  I still hold them before bed...their doctor isn't their mom  I know these days of night time snuggles are limited and I enjoy that time with them.  So we still hold them at night before bed.

CaliCarly77

nebrasskagal said:

We sleep trained our twins at 3 mos one mos adjusted (FF). We got up and rocked them back to sleep. If they had continued crying we would have fed them but they didn't show hunger signs. I believe they were waking out if habit. They have slept through the night since 3 mos of age. Good luck to you!

This was our situation too. Both sttn (12 hours) since 3 months. We just comforted and cut back nursing times over 3 - 4 nights. I also stopped doing one up both up because baby b was sleeping longer so I encouraged her to go as long as she wanted. Baby a needed a bit more work. Yes, it took a few long sleepless nights of having to go in and comfort a lot, but worth it. I went back to work (full time and long hours) at 4 months so this was necessary. 

KatieGummow

My boys turned 5 mos on the 9th. Just last week I started to let them CIO for 10 minutes for the first time they wake up. They have slept until 2 am more than a handful of times, so I knew they could make it until then, easily. We had a 4 month regression and when that "passed" I would turn off the monitor when Patrick woke up at 12:30 or 1 and set my alarm for 10 minutes. By the time my alarm went off he would be back asleep. The next time they woke up I would feed them right away, even if it was 20 minutes later... But it wasn't, it was consistently 3:30-4am. This has been going on for about a week and a half now. Glad I waited until they were ready, though. And I think once Patrick cried for over 10 minutes and I was able to rock him back to sleep (with pacifier) immediately. Last night they both were up at 1:30 and cried past 10 min, so I went in and shook their bums until they went back to sleep. I had to do it two more times (I waited 5 min instead of 10) for Patrick. But it is 6:25 and they are still sleeping... Darn having to pump.

SmallCityLiving

I know it's not meant to and I'm trying not to let them but in my sleep deprived state these responses are really depressing me. Our sleep schedule is so unpredictable so I don't know how to train it. One night this week they only woke up at 2 to eat whereas last night I was up 5 times between the two. We even tried some CIO last weekend with DH doing the soothing. After R screamed for 1.5 hrs (with DH soothing at intervals) on the third night of it I just couldn't take it anymore.

At 5.5 months I feel like I've already ruined then as sleepers. Trust me I know much of this is the sleep deprivation talking, I just don't know how to make progress!

KatieGummow

My friends swear by the Magic Merlin Suit. It minimizes them waking up to their movements while sleeping = makes them sleep longer. They are expensive but the handful of moms that use them (singleton) swear by it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00KHZPH74/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1411269907&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40

LittleLady77

Have you read any sleep books like Ferber. Understanding the science behind the sleep really helps you understand what's going on. Good luck.