Calling Goldie and others..

bellasmom27

whose twins STTN! I was wondering what you did or what you would do in this situation. Landon sleeps a lot longer at night then Sean does and because they sleep in the room with me when one wakes up to eat the other gets woken up also. Now, when DH has a day off the next day we split the babies so it is easier on each of us, we are only in charge of one baby each AND give the opportunity for each baby to sleep well. That is just it, when Landon sleeps alone he sleeps through the night! Im talking about 6 hours! While Sean still wakes up every 3 hrs to eat. I HAVE to keep them together on the weekdays because I'm in charge of both since DH ha to work the next morning. Because Sean disrupts Landon's sleep, will he be able to eventually sleep through the night? How about both? Did that ever happen to you? If so, what did you do? Im afraid because it seems like he is starting to STTN, the pattern wont stay b/c his brother keeps waking him up..:-/

amanda31H

We followed Babywise and my girls slept 7 hour stretches at 9 weeks (they were 36 weekers).  I ALWAYS had them together so I would never have noticed if one was able to sleep longer. 

When we started letting them wake naturally for their middle of night feed (I was on a strict NICU schedule early on b/c they lost a lot of weight in the hospital  b/c they couldn't hold their temps), I never noticed that it was one baby waking before the other, etc.

It's so early for you that I would wait it out and still feed them both at the same time- but that's just me.  If one baby can sleep for 6 hours, I don't think waking him b/c the other is up will "ruin" it for him.  I'd go a couple more weeks and see if brother catches up.

Your other option is to try and offer the one who is waking early a paci, or some comfort and see if he'll go back to sleep without a bottle.

babya2010

Not gonna lie, but it was a complete crapshoot until they were about 4+ months. I know I'm probably in the minority here but even if one would sleep longer than the other, I'd still get them both up when someone woke because I wasn't about to be feeding one only to have the other wake an hour later. Once they hit 6 months I decided they probably didn't need an overnight bottle anymore. DD would consistently wake up between 3 and 5am and subsequently wake DS as well, regardless of how quick we were to tend to her, (give her a paci, turn her seahorse on, etc). At that point it was impossible to get them both back down without feeding them. We put them in separate rooms at 7 months and sleep trained DD. DS STTN that first night a full 12 hours. After one night of sleep training, DD has been STTN a full 12 hours ever since.  DS probably could have gone 12 hours straight for a month before I separated them (but they were both being fed after 9hrs or so then back down for 3 hours). Again, I'm not an expert by any means but that was what worked for us.

ETA: Yeah, ditto what Amanda said. At that age I would definitely keep feeding them both at the same time. Before too long they'll both be stretching out their overnight feedings. I think it was around 12 weeks we were consistently getting 8 or 9 hour chunks. GL!

bellasmom27

Thanks guys! Where do I look into this babywise? Is it a book?

amanda31H

yes - Goldie used it too FWIW

babya2010

bellasmom27:

Thanks guys! Where do I look into this babywise? Is it a book?

Yes, it's a book. We followed it too, although just for the scheduling (eat, awake, sleep). Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child is another good book.