HELP! Twin melt down

My girls are 7 months 1 week old adjusted age 5 months 1 week old. They still wake up every three hours at night to nurse and I'm okay with that it's just....recently they have been having all out melt downs when I am home alone. My husband is a firefighter so I'm home alone for 24 hours. We finally got them on a schedule. They get 1 bottle at night around 7 depending on when they nursed last then I put them to bed usually Sofia falls a sleep right away. Abby fusses and whines and tries to hold my hand I put her pacy in about 5 times and she usually falls a sleep by 8 so here the problem on occasion such as tonight Abby will start crying i mean REALLY Crying!!!! like it is the end of the world CRYING!!! I try to soothe her talk, sing turn on the mobile then Sofia will wake up and CRY both of them get hysterical to the point where they are gagging and choking on their snot screaming at the top of their longs. What do I do??? Tonight I carried one and patted the other it didn't work so I took them both out of the crib sat on the bed and carried one while trying to soothe the other after about 5 min Sofia was turning purple she was crying so hard so I put them back in the crib and did the best I could to soothe both of them they eventually wore themselves out and fell a sleep but now keep waking up every 20 min because they fell asleep so upset. PLEASE give me some advise I really think they get used to my husband being home on his 4 days off ( he gets 4 days off every 4th shift I know I'm a lucky women!) when he is home we never would have let them get so upset but I really am at a loss when I am home alone oyyy and what does my mother say DID YOU PICK THEM UP!!! Hello I have two of them I'm doing the best I can Sorry so long you guys are the only ones that understand a twin melt down please help before I have a mommy melt down lol

 

:hug: I am so sorry you are going through this. Mine are doing the same as we speak, well mostly one of them. I just don't know what to do either. I think mine is an overtired/noise/distraction/sleep cycle/paci neediness/reflux issue...ugh I wish they could talk! Sorry I have no great advice but I think that the meltdowns are worse when mine is overtired so if you can try to make sure they get down before that point when hubby is gone that might help. Good luck!

 

Thank you Chellebelle I agree it is def worse when they are over tired. It makes me feel better just knowing someone out there really understands :acute:

 

hugs, momma! remember that no baby ever died from crying. deal with what you can and then move on to the next one. i know it's hard... those days are such a blur to me. soon they will be for you too.

 

With my kids I found when they were that overstimulated and freaking out, it made it worse if I tried to hold them or talk to them. I would swaddle them, turn on the white noise, turn off the lights and leave them (in the crib if it was bed/nap time) for at least five minutes. Usually that short period of time with no stimulation helped them settle down. Then if they were calming down but still awake I'd pick them up to rock or cuddle for a few minutes before putting them to bed for the night. I didn't want them falling asleep so upset, but sometimes they did and it was really what they needed. It's tough when they both freak out on you at the same time! :grouphug:

 

When you hear them cry do you go in right away? If you do, the next time I would wait at least 5 minutes before going in their room. They have to learn to self soothe and fall asleep on their own.

I remember when mine were around 10-11 months and my one son would wake up an hour after I put them to bed. I would run in there pick him up and he would stop crying. I'd lay him down and he would fall back to sleep. An hour later it would happen again.

One night this went on well past 1:00 and I finally had enough and let him cio and then he slept the rest of the night. The next night it happened again and I did not go in their room and he was able to fall back to sleep on his own.

Around this age they begin to learn that if they cry mommy/daddy will come back. You need to decide if you want to run in there every time they cry or let them cio for a bit.

For me, I need my sleep so cio is the way I go.

 

I agree with PP that CIO would be what I would do (and did). Mine just got so much more upset if I picked one (or attempted both) up and settling down became virtually impossible. Once I just let them sit in their cribs and figure out how to put themselves to sleep and deal with me not coming in they didn't get nearly as hysterical and learned that they might as well sleep! Good luck, I know it is hard and sleep training is hard too but it was the best thing we have ever done for the kids, for us, and just for their disposition!

 

That's around the age that we started letting them try to self-soothe more. We finally found a lovey (taggie) blanket that they loved and both mine took pacis. I always had to clock-watch to make sure I let them have a chance to work it out on their own. It was so HARD to listen to them fuss and cry, but I made myself wait. I started with 5 minutes, then went to 10 and never went any higher (until they were older). We were still using a bouncy seat for the times we were alone and DS would happily be put in a bouncy to be bounced/rocked if they were both having a really hard time. I would rock DD and bounce DS with my foot. Also, if I knew they didn't take enough ounces throughout the day, I might have done a dreamfeed around 10 to circumvent the waking.

Sleep patterns really started to improve for us around 9 or 10 mo.

 

OMG!!! That happened to me last night, i fed one and tried calming the other down in her bouncer chair with my foot. It really only lasted 15 minutes but it felt like an eternity!

 

I would also do CIO. I would definitely not go back all the time and soothe them. Once mine became 17 pounds and 5 months we did CIO. If they cry, I only go back in once, WITHOUT picking up and check if they pooped or something, then pat their tummy, give soother and leave. It usually makes them cry even worse but i still do it just because sometimes I found that they pooped and that's why cries, so that's why I still go. Otherwise, I let them CIO.

It used to be nightmare for us, just like you describe. My son would self induce vomiting after 15 min of crying. After CIO, he stopped and so did my daughter.

Good luck and take good care of yourself as it's a tough period of time.

 

When my boys got like that I had to separate them. For a long while I had a PNP set up in my bedroom and I put one boy in there with a few toys and music and rocked/soothed the other until he was calm enough to put himself back to sleep.

I would just make sure no one is sick - around 7 months when I introduced veggies they got REALLY gassy and that gave them a lot of trouble as their GI systems learned to process it.

 

I hadn't thought of that we are still working our way through veggies so maybe it was the greebeans it was the first time they had eaten them.

 

Thank you everyone for all the great advise. We slowly over the past 2-3 days moved the girls bed time to 7:30 it has helped a lot I really think they were getting overtired. We have also started letting them cry a bit when they are trying to fall a sleep and only go back and give them their paci if they are really CRYING. I'm hoping we don't have to do a full blown CIO session It hurts my stomach just to think about it but things have def gotten better now that I am not running in to check on them as soon as they make any kind of noise. They seem to stay a lot calmer too. Well I am on my own tonight so I will let you all know how it goes Thanks Again!!