Breastfeeding mamas: When did your babies STTN?

Shannon&Joe · March 2010

Hi,

I'm a twin mom but I don't usually get to post because it seems as though I am always holding a child or running off to help someone.

I am currently pretty frustrated. I am breastfeeding both boys who are now 4 months old. Around 3 mos, they were getting pretty good at sleeping - each one would have at least a 6 hr stretch. They both were sick almost all of Feb and lost the ability to sleep for more than 3 hrs at a time. Now they are both healthy and have been for about a week and I keep expecting them to start sleeping longer stretches but it just isn't happening. The larger one (18lbs) is now breaking out of the miracle blanket, rolling over and waking himself up screaming.

My girls were not sleeping completely through the night (only 8 hr stretches)at this point, but I could deal with it because there was only one at a time. Now that there are 2, I am really struggling - seems like all I do at night is nurse.

When did yours sleep through the night? Any tips or suggestions? Do I need to put them in separate cribs? I welcome any ideas!

sfshawna · March 2010

Hi there! It's always great to see another mom of 2 + twins I also breastfed my babies exclusively (and still am) and know the feeling of just nursing all night long. I felt like I would just go from one baby to the next. I would nurse lying down and try to sleep while one ate, and before I knew it, the other would be hungry so I'd roll over to my other side. It's defintiely not very restful!!

I didn't start sleep training mine until they were 7 months, but I wish I'd done it a little sooner. In the end, it just took a couple of nights of dreamfeeding to stretch out their asleep time at night. So, since both of my babies were prone to waking up around 11 every night (one was more of the instigator though), I went in and fed them around 10:30 without really waking them up (dreamfeeding is a Baby Whisperer term - great book!). This worked and they slept until 5 the next morning. I did this at about 10:30 for another 2 nights and then slowly moved that feeding back by 30 minutes every few days. By the end of the week, they were sleeping 7-6, and still are for the most part. I do let them cry in the middle of the night if they wake up (10 minutes max), since I don't want to start any bad habits at this point

I hope that helps! Hang in there! Oh, and starting mone on solid foods seemed to help a lot with longer stretches of sleep, too. I would also think about separting them to individual cribs too, and see if it helps. Good luck!!

AliciaMomof4 · March 2010

Each of my singleton girls didn't STTN until about 7-8 mo. and I EBF'd. We will see with the twins soon enough...they probably just need a little more time to readjust since being sick to get back to what they were sleeping before. I think when they sleep 6-8 hrs. that is through the night so you are lucky if you've already gotten them to do that:)

Rinnie · March 2010

My boys started STTN at 13 & 14 weeks.

My bigger twin did it first followed by the smaller one a week later.

An by STTN I mean they went down at 745 and slept to 730.

Prior to that they were waking up around 3-5 for a feeding and then going back down.

Do you tandem bf if not it might be something you want to try. I did and felt like they ate faster and got more milk then with each of them nursing individually. From start to finish my nightime nurses only took about 35-40 minutes. This included getting them set up and changing diapers etc...

Are they both waking up at the same time or at different times? If they are waking up at different times when one baby wakes up to nurse wake the other up and tandem feed them.

I will admit I was very strict and still am about them sleeping, mostly because my almost 3 year old DD still doesn't STTN.

I did a bedtime routine and stuck to it and at 14 almost 15 months we still do the same routine and they know how to put themselves back to sleep.

Also - I believe that there is a thing about a 4 month wakeful period. They become more aware and distracted during day nursing and so aren't getting as much milk during the day and therefore waking up at night. I made sure that they always nursed even if it meant going into a quiet room or putting them on the breast more during the day.

GL!

sfitz0711 · March 2010

Last night was the first night ever! I am so ecstatic! However I think that is due to having started rice cereal and it finally filling them up. I separated them at 4 months and found that doing that helped them sleep sounder. They weren't being disturbed by each others movements i think. I know it's rough. I'm really hoping last night wasn't a fluke and that I can say I officially have babies that STTN!! Good luck.

LoveTravel · March 2010

I'm EBF the boys and they started rice cereal on Monday, they started STTN at around 2.5 months we would put them to bed around 10 pm and they would wake up in between 6 to 7 am to nurse, then back in their crib until around 9-10 am and then we're up for the day.

We swaddled the boys up until 5 months I think it was and IMO that helped them STTN at the beginning (they were also in sleep positioner) when they started to get out of their swaddle is when I noticed a problem of them waking up frequently at night so I decided to stop using the sleep positioner and stop swaddling as I did not want them to be dependent on being swaddled to STTN I think the first two nights were rough not doing that anymore and now they're "back on schedule"

I haven't nursed in the middle of the night since around 2.5 months.

volgirl123 · March 2010

My singelton STTN at 2 months on the dot. After she did it once the dr. said that she had proven she could do it so I should let her CIO. I didn't really do CIO hard core, but by 3 months she was able to do it consistantly. I EBF and I was so glad to be able to have a real nights sleep. I will say though that she was full term & 7.lb 9 oz when she came so for my twins I am sure it will take longer.

macchiatto · March 2010

I just posted about this in another thread, but one thing you could try to help with the swaddle-breaking is to double-swaddle. When our boys were 2.5 or 3 months old, they started breaking out of their MIracle Blankets sometimes, and then they would cry until we came and reswaddled them! So at 3.5m, we started double-swaddling them: We would put a larger SwaddleMe over the Miracle Blanket! (And of course, adjust the room temp so they don't overheat.) It worked really well! We kept swaddling them for nighttime and naps until they were 6m old, when they were ready.

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