Help! NO ONE is sleeping during the night!

EveTyer24

Our girls are only 2 weeks old (born at 36.4 wks). The first few nights they did so well with us waking them every 3 hours to feed. That meant my husband and I were getting two solid hours of sleep after each feeding. Now, its either one or the other that won't go to sleep, leaving us (either my husband or I or both of us) awake getting very little sleep. 

 I know they are SO young, but ...

1. Any suggestions for us to get them back to sleep during the night after feedings? And make it through until their pedi gives us the okay to not have to feed every 3 hrs, which could be a few months?

2.  How did you handle it when it was only one adult throughout the night? (My husband goes back to work next week and I'll be on my own during the evening feeds and I"M TERRIFIED I'm going to crash.)

Any advice is much appreciated! 

kelliwill

I am so so sorry.  I don't have much advice.  It was so hard for us the first 3 months.  Even after DH went back to work he still had to get up and help me feed at night.  My girls were too small to feed them by myself and I needed the help.  Hopefully until you get a system down he can help you.  When the girls got bigger I put them in bouncy seats to feed & that worked great for me to do it by myself.  Otherwise I'd have two boppys on the couch and I'd sit in the middle.  I'd have a baby in each boppy and I'd pick them up and feed them in the EZ2 nurse twins pillow.  I used it even while bottle feeding when they were really little cuz it's big enough for two babies!  As far as getting them back to sleep we'd just change, feed, burp, and re-swaddle.  Our girls had reflux and so that made it hard but the medicine helped.  Are they gassy?  Having reflux issues?  That would make them not sleep.  GL to you and hope you all get some sleep soon.  Also, when DH went back to work my mom started coming over and staying 3 nights a week so DH could sleep and I would get up with her.  Do you have anyone who can come help?  

E&RMommy

EveTyer24:

Our girls are only 2 weeks old (born at 36.4 wks). The first few nights they did so well with us waking them every 3 hours to feed. That meant my husband and I were getting two solid hours of sleep after each feeding. Now, its either one or the other that won't go to sleep, leaving us (either my husband or I or both of us) awake getting very little sleep. 

 I know they are SO young, but ...

1. Any suggestions for us to get them back to sleep during the night after feedings? And make it through until their pedi gives us the okay to not have to feed every 3 hrs, which could be a few months?

2.  How did you handle it when it was only one adult throughout the night? (My husband goes back to work next week and I'll be on my own during the evening feeds and I"M TERRIFIED I'm going to crash.)

Any advice is much appreciated! 

Why so black & white?  Just because one spouse works outside the house doesn't mean they should necessarily get a freebie at night.  Staying home 24-7 with newborn twins is hard work.  DH and I split the nights up. 

Temp123197812503460

I remember how hard it was when they "woke up" from the sleepy newborn stage. Remember that it will get better! One thing we found was sometimes they would have a hard time settling because they were still hungry. And my dh still gets up at night after 4 months, his job isn't any harder than mine during the day!

ColleenS629

E&RMommy:

EveTyer24:

Our girls are only 2 weeks old (born at 36.4 wks). The first few nights they did so well with us waking them every 3 hours to feed. That meant my husband and I were getting two solid hours of sleep after each feeding. Now, its either one or the other that won't go to sleep, leaving us (either my husband or I or both of us) awake getting very little sleep. 

 I know they are SO young, but ...

1. Any suggestions for us to get them back to sleep during the night after feedings? And make it through until their pedi gives us the okay to not have to feed every 3 hrs, which could be a few months?

2.  How did you handle it when it was only one adult throughout the night? (My husband goes back to work next week and I'll be on my own during the evening feeds and I"M TERRIFIED I'm going to crash.)

Any advice is much appreciated! 

Why so black & white?  Just because one spouse works outside the house doesn't mean they should necessarily get a freebie at night.  Staying home 24-7 with newborn twins is hard work.  DH and I split the nights up. 

This. My DH works 6 days a week and he gets up with us at every feeding. My twins don't sleep at the same time during the day so it is impossible for me to nap. It's exhausting taking care of them 24/7 and I get no breaks. DH changes the babies and brings them to me to feed, then he re-swaddles them and puts them back down when they are done eating. He goes back to sleep in between while I am feeding them. If I had to do all that in addition to feeding them, I would be up for another 30-45 minutes at each feeding. I sometimes feel like a bad wife for this because a lot of MoMs here do it on their own at night but I just can't. I'm exhausted as it is so I don't know how I could function on even less sleep.

kafunder

E&RMommy:

EveTyer24:

Our girls are only 2 weeks old (born at 36.4 wks). The first few nights they did so well with us waking them every 3 hours to feed. That meant my husband and I were getting two solid hours of sleep after each feeding. Now, its either one or the other that won't go to sleep, leaving us (either my husband or I or both of us) awake getting very little sleep. 

 I know they are SO young, but ...

1. Any suggestions for us to get them back to sleep during the night after feedings? And make it through until their pedi gives us the okay to not have to feed every 3 hrs, which could be a few months?

2.  How did you handle it when it was only one adult throughout the night? (My husband goes back to work next week and I'll be on my own during the evening feeds and I"M TERRIFIED I'm going to crash.)

Any advice is much appreciated! 

Why so black & white?  Just because one spouse works outside the house doesn't mean they should necessarily get a freebie at night.  Staying home 24-7 with newborn twins is hard work.  DH and I split the nights up. 

I agree. DH and I got up together for every feeding, even though he had a stressful 12-hour per day job at the time. Despite how hard he was working, he knew that staying home with two babies was even more difficult so we got up together. You could also split nights like pp said. 

susanb1102

I know its can get expensive, but we got a night nanny three nights a week for $15/hr. My own mom to this day tells me she wishes she had taken out a loan to get help from a night nurse/babysitter that first year she was a SAHM. Anyway my nanny is saving our life- we sleep like logs for 9-10 hours three nites a week. And it can be someone who's there only when you are- you're not leaving them with a stranger, you're home. Just sleeping, hopefully.

 Even if you can try to pay for a few months of help I truly think its worth it. If you can ask parents for a loan. I pumped/formula fed the first two months and now just formula, so I know its harder when you're BF'ing (if u are.) I know a lot of people feel guilty, etc about asking or paying for outside help but if it keeps you sane and keeps your marriage intact you have to really think about it (all my opinion of course.) I just know I can enjoy my kids more and be a better mom when I've had some rest. Its so important. And my relationship w/ my husband is much better when we are (somewhat) rested.

 My boys just hit the 2 month mark so I'm sure others can give more experienced advice but that's my 2 cents!

 BTW on "non-nanny" days we tend to split the nights in half and do shifts. I start work again though in two weeks so that will be another challenge...  

EveTyer24

Thanks everyone! I think my husband and I will have to figure out what works for us once he's back to work. Looks like he'll most likely be waking up with us. Also, my mom offered to stay a couple nights, but I feel so bad thinking about her having to wake up throughout the night. 

Also, we realized that the girls spend so much time in their bouncy seats during the day, that they aren't used to laying flat during the night. So starting today, all naps are in the pack and play or their crib and making sure all burps get out before laying down. Seems to help us last night- they slept great and so did we!

 Thanks for all your advice! It's definitely not easy!