Will my boys ever sleep???

smooga_79

My twin boys will be 11 weeks on monday (adjusted age 8 weeks).  Everyone tells me that they will start sleeping longer and longer.  Seriously....when is this going to happen???  They do so well all day and then night time comes and every 3 hours on the button (sometimes 2.5) they are up & ready to eat.  During the day they eat 5oz, but at night they will only take 4 (sometimes not even the whole bottle).  Some nights they have their bottles but then cry/fuss like they are still hungry.  I make more, but when I go to feed them they spit it out.  I am going back to work (nights) in a month.  My husband is not going to be able to get up 3x's during the night and go to work in the morning.  I try giving them their pacifiers but that never works.  What else can I do? 

festivus

It does get better. The first time my boys STTN was about 11 weeks, and it was completely unexpected. We then had several weeks where they would still get up but on occasion STTN. Now, I believe they just had night 7 or 8 of reall STTN (9-12 hours!).

For my fellas, I think two things really helped. First, I think the total amount they eat during the day (rather than how much at any individual feeding) helped, as the closer they got to 30 ounces during the day, the better they slept at night. Second, we established a bedtime routine and general bedtime. I have not been a scheduler and let them nap as long as they want during the day (unless it starts getting close to 3.5 or 4 hours...then I wake them), so I wasn't sure this would work for them. Regardless of naps during the day, they have gotten used to the routine and always fall asleep around bedtime (typically about 7pm, with routine started about 6:15).

Good luck!

Temp123197812503460

I hate to be the Debbie downer but at four months my LOs still wake typically 2-4 times a night. On a good night they will do a 4-7 hr stretch but some nights its only 3 at the longest. And they really are hungry when they wake up. On the positive side they at least typically fall right back asleep after eating (we BF) so it's short interruptions (we don't change them unless they poop). While there are babies who sleep longer at this point there are also tons who don't. My biggest tip is to go to sleep when they do! It feels silly to go to bed at 8pm but it's the only way we get enough sleep.

stuzyq14

Every baby is different.  Mine didn't start doing longer stretches until about 4 months and then at 6 months we sleep trained them (they still wake up at night, but put themselves back out).  

Up to 4 months they woke every 3 hours like clockwork STARVING - luckily they would fall right back to sleep after a bottle.  DH got up with me to help with feedings and still functioned at work.  It is hard, but it wont last forever. 

MrsLnt

Mine skipped that overnight feeding for the first time at 11w 3d (and they were born at 37w 1d, so about the same as yours). We always fed them at 11 before we went to bed and they got pretty good at going from 11-6 without eating. I know it feels like an eternity but I bet a long stretch is coming your way, soon.

regenab

At 8 weeks adjusted I started using A Baby Sleep Solution by Suzy Giordiano to train my babies to eat more during the day and less and less at night. By 12 weeks adjusted they were no longer getting up at night to eat and were down for 12 hours straight at night. I highly recommend this book. It worked so well for us. She developed her method with her own set of twin boys. She is a Baby Coach in the DC area and has a ton of experience.

jdancer5

My guys didn't STTN until 6mo when we changed a couple things we were doing wrong, based on Dr Ferber's book (we never had to do any CIO but we followed other recommendations in book for scheduling etc). I would highly recommend reading this or another sleep training book to make sure you're doing all you can for them at this age. We were making mistakes & didn't even know it. Sending T&P for a good night's sleep for LOs and M&D.

Polofsky

I worked HARD at getting mine on a schedule and it seemed like it would never happen, and then like magic, at 12 weeks it all fell into place and it was so great. Maybe you're already doing these things but here's my suggestions:

-you said you give them the binkies but are you turning the lights on when you go in, does the door squeak, do you have to search around for the bink? When mine were waking but not really eating, DH or I would have a stash of binkies in our room and one of us would sneak over to each bed and insert the binkie with no light, making as little noise as possible, then sneak back out again.

-Same thing with diaper change, lights off. We would gather our diaper supplies and get everything ready then bring the fussy one to our room to change, rock for 2-3 minutes then put them right back down

-We tried our own version of CIO. When we would wake in the middle of the night we would sneak in to do the binky/diaper check and if that was fine then we would look at the clock and give it 10 minutes. Granted...10 minutes in the middle of the night feels like an hour....but most of the time we never made it to 10 minutes, they were asleep before that.