Is there a 10(ish) Month Wakeful Period?

kbeach82 · March 2014

So, I will say it - DS1 totally spoiled us and hardly ever missed sleep when he was teething, or during a sleep regression phase. I do remember that for a few days around 4 months, he woke up once or twice and I soothed him back to sleep. That was his big 4 month wakeful deal. Woopee. I really only mention this to illustrate my ignorance when it comes to these kinds of things.

The twins, on the other hand, are not into spoiling mommy and daddy. I am actually quite convinced that they are in the process of trying to kill us. Have any of you experienced a 10(ish) month wakeful period? If so, how long did it last? Did you do anything to try and soothe your LO back to sleep without developing any long lasting "bad" habits? For the past few nights, DH and I have had to trade off between rocking them in their room, and bringing either S or B into bed with us pretty much all. night. long.

I know I must sound whiny, but please tell me this will end. SOON. I am in the office 4 days this week (instead of my usual 3) and I have to get up at 5AM to get to the office at 6:30. I am working 10 hour days on hardly any sleep and I am desperate. Help please :-(

TJ1979 · March 2014

9 months is when we got desperate with E's sleep, and 10 months is when we finally sleep trained. We did CIO. She cried 45 minutes one night, and less the 2nd night, and that was it.
I also recommend looking into Merlin's magic sleep suit. It's amazing.
ETA: I'm so sorry. I know how hard sleep issues are with one, I can't imagine with 2. Big hugs!

mcgeeva · March 2014

I have no advice. I feel like the whole first year is wakeful periods. Just have to stick to whatever you do. Good luck

Ruthie04 · March 2014

One of my boys went through an awful spell at 10 months. He cut his top four teeth and was working on pulling up. His nighttime sleep was on and off, but he's never been the great napper he was before that. I ended up holding both boys for the second half of their nap for months until they could sleep through the 45 min wake up/ eachother's cries. I know that isn't a workable plan for the vast majority of families but it was the only way for us and I did end up reading about 10 novels on my kindle app!

Big hugs, mama. Sleep regressions are rough and sleep regressions x2 are an extra special brand of nightmare. I'm so sorry. FX things get better soon!

kbeach82 · March 2014

Thank you for your replies and support, ladies.

I ordered the twin edition of HSHHC to be overnighted from Amazon yesterday. I used the singleton version for DS1, and it helped me to figure out how much sleep he needed, how long he should be awake, basic things that FTM don't necessarily know instinctively.

I also spent some time online and came across a twin mommy's blog entry describing her success with the 3, 5, 7, 10 method (like a modified CIO thing). I tried that last night when I put the babies down, and they made it to the very last 9 minutes of the process before passing out :-) B woke up a few times during the night, but he only fussed for a few minutes each time before going back to sleep. Hallelujah!

I'm not exactly confident that one night permanently fixed our problem, but having one night of pretty decent sleep is doing wonders for my attitude and my sanity. I look forward to reading the book I ordered to get some more tips, and hopefully tackle B's naptime insanity next!

amd1982 · March 2014

Sorry I've been meaning to respond to your post for days! We experienced a wakeful period with our twins around 13 months due to a couple back to back illnesses and teeth cutting. After all of that sickness and teeth cutting had passed, they seemed to continue with needing DH and I to soothe them back to sleep at night due to us rocking them and bringing them in our bed. Honestly we drove ourselves crazy until we just did CIO. I have a really tough time hearing them cry but I just kept repeating what my mother told me. If they're clean and not sick, they can sleep through the night. Also with us having another baby on the way it really forced us to stop having crutches for them to fall asleep and stay asleep. Mainly rocking. I'm not sure who cares for your twins during the day, but our biggest thing was keeping consistency with care takers. We decided to tell everyone no rocking allowed, and let them cry. Things have turned around over the past month and they (for the most part) are sttn and also go down fully awake at night with no rocking. I know wakeful periods are rough to get through. The good news is if you stay consistent and throw a teeny bit of tough lovin in there, I think you'll make it through and they'll get better. Good luck! I know it's hard with two....

Want a personalized experience?

Is there a 10(ish) Month Wakeful Period?

Re: Is there a 10(ish) Month Wakeful Period?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards