Advice needed, Please

nancyjane5150

We have been feeding the boys every three hours during the day even if that means waking them up. We have recently started letting them sleep at night and when one wakes up we will wake the other to feed then as well, so we can keep them on the same schedule. Neither have weight issues. Bryce weighed 4lbs 12oz at birth and now weighs 13lbs. Charlie weighed 4lbs 10oz at birth and now weighs 14lbs 7oz. My concern is this: If we have to wake up Bryce to feed because Charlie is awake and hungry he isn't always hungry and will Often times jyst nibble. Should I just let Bryce continue sleeping? We wanted to keep them on the same schedule to have some sort of sanity, and to not be always feeding a baby. They are both formula fed... If that matters. Sorry so long, and thank you in advance for your help.

angelfire02

You might get a lot of different answers to this, but I would think that your babies are good size for their age (my babies are almost 8 months and are almost 15 lbs now).  If Charlie doesn't seem to be starving when he wakes at night, could you try some sleep training to see if he could stretch longer?  He might be waking more out of habit than hunger.  I have also heard that it is easier to get/keep twins on the same sleep schedule if they are mono/di, I have no idea if that is true or if that's what your boys are, but ours are mono/di and haven't had a problem staying on pretty much the same sleep schedule.  We were waking one for a few days (weeks maybe? it all runs together) but eventually the second one started sleeping through and we didn't have to wake either.  I think it's great that you are keeping them at 3 hours during the day, we did that and it worked great for us.  It sounds to me like you are on the edge of sttn and not needing to eat.  But sleep training in any form is controversial and not for everyone.  Sorry that got long and drawn out but I hope it makes a little sense.

 

HisGirlCridey

Yep, I'd let Bryce keep sleeping Our Natalie was (and is) bigger than Meredith and Natalie slept through the night before Meredith. We FF as well.

nancyjane5150

angelfire02:

You might get a lot of different answers to this, but I would think that your babies are good size for their age my babies are almost 8 months and are almost 15 lbs now. nbsp;If Charlie doesn't seem to be starving when he wakes at night, could you try some sleep training to see if he could stretch longer? nbsp;He might be waking more out of habit than hunger. nbsp;I have also heard that it is easier to get/keep twins on the same sleep schedule if they are mono/di, I have no idea if that is true or if that's what your boys are, but ours are mono/di and haven't had a problem staying on pretty much the same sleep schedule. nbsp;We were waking one for a few days weeks maybe? it all runs together but eventually the second one started sleeping through and we didn't have to wake either. nbsp;I think it's great that you are keeping them at 3 hours during the day, we did that and it worked great for us. nbsp;It sounds to me like you are on the edge of sttn and not needing to eat. nbsp;But sleep training in any form is controversial and not for everyone. nbsp;Sorry that got long and drawn out but I hope it makes a little sense. :nbsp;

Thank you and you made perfect sense. I haven't tried giving Charlie a paci and rocking him. I'd bet he'd fall back to sleep.

myheromyworld89

One of the things our DR. told us is that at a certain point a baby needs to learn that just because they wake up doesn't mean they need a bottle. They need to learn to go back to sleep. So I'd say that it should be a good time to start letting the one that wakes up sooth them self back to sleep, maybe a paci if they take one. Definitely ok to let the sleeping baby continue sleeping. The other thing she told us is that's it's ok to make a baby wait a little bit for food. Our daughter use to always wake up before our son and we always made her wait for food unless she was just completely inconsolable. Normally she didn't mind but that allowed us to get them back on the same schedule. It just depends on whether or not you think they are at a stage where you're comfortable doing that. Good luck!

macchiatto

If you're always having to wake the same baby every night, I would try letting him keep sleeping and see how long he goes. He might be ready to STTN! But if you find that he wakes up just a bit later anyway, then I would keep waking him when his brother gets up so you're not up and down multiple times at night.

AmyJoy728

macchiatto:

If you're always having to wake the same baby every night, I would try letting him keep sleeping and see how long he goes. He might be ready to STTN! But if you find that he wakes up just a bit later anyway, then I would keep waking him when his brother gets up so you're not up and down multiple times at night.

This. Also remember that they are twins, but are in fact two separate babies and may not need to eat or sleep the same. That was a really hard thing for me to understand.

ShopperKristi

AmyJoy728:

macchiatto:

If you're always having to wake the same baby every night, I would try letting him keep sleeping and see how long he goes. He might be ready to STTN! But if you find that he wakes up just a bit later anyway, then I would keep waking him when his brother gets up so you're not up and down multiple times at night.

This. Also remember that they are twins, but are in fact two separate babies and may not need to eat or sleep the same. That was a really hard thing for me to understand.

This is exactly what we did too!  If it was always the same baby that was waking up you can try letting the other sleep but if they are trading off waking up I would still keep doing the one up both up thing.  We kept doing it until neither one woke up at night and now they are SSTN (for now).  I have also heard that it can be easier to keep identical twins on the same schedule probably because they are more likely to be closer in weight, size, etc. (not necessarily mono/di - but those would be identical so maybe that's why?)  Ours are di/di identical twins and we've had really good luck keeping them on the same schedule by doing one up both up.

nancyjane5150

Thank you ladies! Last night when Bryce woke up at 3:30 I soothed him by rocking and giving him his paci. He woke again at 5:30 and ate. I let Charlie continue sleeping instead of waking him. Charlie ended up sleeping from 117:30!!

amy1007

We stopped waking the other by 8 weeks.