Sleep Training

Kernel14 · November 2013

Hi all

Forgive me if this has been talked about recently. I haven't been on this board since probably the week I found out I was pregnant with the twins and I should have probably stuck around. I'm desperate for help! My guys are 7 months old and still don't sleep through the night. It used to be that they'd wake up, we'd feed them and they'd go right back to sleep. For the most part, I could deal with that.

Lately, they keep waking up and just cry and won't go back to sleep. So we rock them, they fall asleep, wake up when we go to put them down. I'm at my wits end. I read the Ferber book and we plan to start that this weekend. Has anyone else done this with twins? If so, did you do both of them at the same time? Keep them in the same room or seperate them? I hate how there is not a lot of guidance about twins on this topic.

I also heard that Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Twins is a good book. I just googled it and it seems like it might be a similar method. Anyone try that? Any advice that can be offered is SUPER appreciated!!!

Thank you!!!!

pillowass · November 2013

We started with Ferber at 5 months. It wasn't a magical sleep cure-all but it did improve things drastically! We kept them in the same room and they were able to sleep through each other's screaming for the most part.

One thing that we found was that "checking in" would usually make things worse, and we would sometimes wake up the other twin by going in the room. After being reassured from our pediatrician that it was OK, we ended up doing the hard-core extinction method, where you just let them cry until they fall asleep. (This approach is discussed in Healthy Sleep Habits Healthy Twins.) Bedtime is a total breeze now and has been ever since we got through the first week or so of sleep training.

As far as night wakings, we usually set a time limit - in the beginning we wouldn't go in there until after midnight. These days we will go in there and feed them if it's after 3am but only because this tends to get us a little more sleep in the morning. They frequently will sleep through though.

Good luck. It's so so tough but totally worth it!

MissMarnee · November 2013

Arg! It's so tough, isn't it??? Last month my girls started having a really hard time going to sleep at bedtime. It was a real slippery slope situation--it started with some rocking but quickly became a long drawn out affair, like what you're describing, where you rock to exhaustion & then baby wakes up as soon as she's laid down. Who can blame them, I'd rather be held through the night, too! Under the advise of our doc, we created a nighttime ritual & Ferberized it--oh, that first night was horrible for me, but I'm happy to report that in a real short amount of time bedtime is a breeze.

Stick to your guns, be consistent, & no matter what, DON'T pick your baby up once they're in their crib or you'll reinforce that crying yields snuggles. Just remember that by doing this hard work now you're giving them the gift of learning how to sleep effectively, which will benefit them for life.

Also VERY helpful was the chapter on sleep in Bringing Up Bebe.

Good luck to you!!!

Kernel14 · November 2013

Thank you ladies. Last night actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. One slept all night and the other only woke up once. We'll see how it goes tonight but they just went down for nap 1 and both cried for less than 10 minutes!!

Kernel14 · November 2013

When I say it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be...I stressed about it ALL day and dreaded it all day to the point I was almost making myself sick. So I think it "wasn't that hard" bc nothing could be as bad as what I imagined in my head.

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