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Multiples
How long is your bedtime routine? (3 month olds)
It takes me an hour and a half to 2 hours to settle the twins down for the night. Is this unusually long??? I have tried everything that I can think of. White noise, dark room, swings, multiple bottles + rocking and nothing seems to work. They tag team me for 2 hours and I could really use that time to get some chores done, especially in a few weeks when I go back to work. They fall asleep for a few minutes and then fuss and need to be settled back down. Any tips? If this happened to you when did they get better?
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Re: How long is your bedtime routine? (3 month olds)
We were in that boat early on with our twins, one of them in particular. I would have to rock her for an hour sometimes. Once we moved them into their own room (@ 8 weeks old), they started going down much easier. We have a bedtime routine that includes feeding them with the lights off, blinds closed and a lullaby playing. We also change and swaddle them part way through the feed so when they are finished eating, they can go right to bed (and are drowsy).
At 6 weeks old, we started letting them cry a bit (not CIO). We started by letting them cry for 30 seconds before going to soothe them. When they fuss, we do not pick them up. We try to soothe them by putting a pacifier in their mouth, rubbing their heads, 'shushing' them etc. It took some time but now at 12 weeks old, they feed, burp, change, swaddled and go down to bed in 30 minutes.
When mine were that age we gave them a bottle and either put them down drowsy or rocked them to sleep depending on their mood. At that point they were down until their next feeding. What's your schedule? How late are they sleeping in the morning? What time are you trying to put them down for the night?
ETA: We also gave that last bottle in a dark room next door to the nursery.
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Around 7:30 - 8:00 I bring them upstairs. Every other night they get a bath. Then I put them in jammies and feed whoever is hungriest, the other one goes in the swing. Then I feed the other one and put them in their cribs. For the next 1-2 hours I am in and out of their room every 5 min, putting a paci back in, restarting the noise maching, shaking and shooshing whoever is fussy etc. If they seem especially gassy we give them gas medicine but I have my doubts that that does anything.
We wake them at 11 for a dream feed then someone typically wakes up around 3. I tandem nurse them, the bigger one usually isn't too hungry.
They wake up between 6-7 and have a bottle. That is where their schedule/routine ends, after that everyday tends to be different. At that point I am just glad that we have some consistency at night even if bedtime does take forever.
Around this time is when I discovered the true womb swaddle blankets and the fisher price sea horse and our live improved dramatically! I also moved bed time back to about 6:30. Sometimes I would have to start the sea horse three or four times, but it worked like a charm. They still got up once to eat overnight (sometimes 1 a.m. sometimes 3 a.m., it always varied).
I think moving back bedtime helped us. I think they were super overtired. Also I had to drop the dream feed because it was messing up their sleep like crazy!
Swaddling saved us.. we swaddled them until they were 4 months old! We did everything else you mentioned, white noise, dark room, bottles.
Also we moved their bedtime earlier to 6:30pm and they started going to sleep quicker. So for us we'd feed, swaddle, then off to bed.. everything was done in 30 minutes or so.
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Our routine right now is bath, jammies, and bottle. Then we snuggle for a little while, but usually only fifteen minutes or so before they are out. We used to struggle with bedtime until adding in the bath. Now they will doze off so easily and sleep very well.
I have also noticed that they have a harder time falling asleep if the temperature in their room is too hot. Also, do you swaddle and if so, when in the routine do you swaddle?
I might get flamed for this but...
I had read all those baby books about how damaging it is to let a baby CIO. So for the first 3 mos we walked, rocked, read, sang, put them in a sling, in bed with us, etc. Our bed time routine was 4 HOURS LONG...most of it with them screaming their heads off, until they finally collapsed exhausted. At 3 mos old we finally tried CIO. Walked in, put them in the crib, kissed them and walked out. First night they cried 20 minutes, 2nd night they cried 10 and for a few nights after that they would wimper a while and fall asleep. My babies have STTN since they were 4 mos old and are still stellar sleepers. I HATE those baby books, CIO worked for us...it sure as hell was less "damaging" than having them scream for 4 hours....all they were trying to say was "LAY ME DOWN ALREADY!"
I absolutely agree. I've read some of those books as well. Our girls now go down without a whimper, making bedtime a breeze. They are also almost sleeping through the night (until 5-6am). What works for one, may not work for another!
GL!