About to throw in the towel

i am at my wits end and i just dont know what to do...I am up and down all night with both babies and i just feel like i cant do it anymore! My husband is up and down with me so im not completely alone but i am just about to go insane from broken sleep all night!

My girls are up and down every two hours and really wont settle back unless we pick them up and rock them back to sleep....which we have been doing because they were both sick.....but now they are better and it is still going on....i have tried everything--both arms in swaddle, one arm in one arm out, both arms out, paci, crib soother, nothing seems to work....

they are both drinking 4 7 oz bottles a day...getting cereal in the morning, veggies in the afternoon, and cereal again at night.....

I find myself feeding them in the middle of the night because i just cant figure out what is making them wake so often.....but i am almost positive that they are getting enough during the day to make it through the night...

Finally last night i told my husband to not get up and let "one cry it out" well after 10 minutes of screaming she woke her sister up...and my husband is mad at me now that the other has woken up....

I just dont know what to do anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I am so sorry you are going through this! Everything does get better when everyone in the house is getting sleep and my very non-professional advice is to make that your top priority! Do you do a bedtime routine? It does sound like they are getting plenty to eat in terms of making it through the night and I would talk to your pediatrician if you are concerned but at their age it seems like if they are eating through the night it is more of a habit than a need. Right at five months we did CIO with my son, but luckily it only lasted a couple of nights and didn't wake up dd. My only suggestion is that if you don't have a bedtime routine that it is never to late to implement one and that really helps to signify to the babies that it is time for bed and that this is different than naptime. Bath, book, low lights, sound machine, those sorts of things. I have always heard that you should stop swaddling by about 4 months but I know that there are others who do it longer so I can't really comment on that. We moved them into sleep blankets at four months and that was another indicator to them that it was bedtime not just naptime. They could be overtired and an earlier bedtime or more structured nap schedule could do the trick and IMO I would let her CIO and if she wakes her sister up then she can CIO too and get the extra benefit of learning to sleep through her sister! Good luck, I know it is tough but try to hang in there because one thing I have realized is that everything changes pretty quickly and sometimes you can hardly remember what your big struggles were when you get past them!

 

:hug: If it were me in that same situation I would probably have to try CIO. Either that or enlist the help of a close friend or family member so I could get some sleep. How are they napping during the day?

 

:grouphug: 5 months was so hard for me. They weren't napping well and it made nighttime a mess. Mine were not eating enough though so I needed to feed them at night. They ate at 10 and 2. If one baby woke up to eat, I woke and fed the other. Around the end of 6 months I decided to let my bigger baby wake up on his own. That backfired on me as he decided to wake up about 30 mins after I fell asleep from the last feeding with his brother. I just woke them up until 7 months when their dr. confirmed that they were eating enough during the day and I did CIO. It took 3-5 days and sometimes that meant they were both crying. If you do CIO you have to be strong and both you and DH have to be on the same page. My DH is a softy, so I waited until he was out of town for 2 weeks to do it.

 

DH is reading No Cry Sleep Solution while I type because we have also reached a point where we feel we are all ready for a change in our night time routine- to put it mildly. We don't believe the CIO is right for us and our boys so we are taking a longer and gentler approach. I bought the book after so many recommendations from ladies here and on another site. I have actually read all of the books ( I have Healthy Sleep Habits as well) and have been taking different things from each.

There are many books and methods and ideas- you need to determine what is not working and what approach fits best with your own parenting philosophy.
:hug: from another tired mama.

 

Wow! I could have written this post five months in! We went through the exact same thing. Eating issues, sickness and the resulting habits. I really have no advice. Nothing really allowed us to get any sleep except when we brought them into bed wih us. At one point (when they both had ear infection) there were four of us (Me,DH, and twins) in a full size bed. It might not be what you want to hear, and maybe it is just me, but I think you might have to just endure it. Eventually, two mo. later, things just went back to normal. Every night they started out in their cribs. One night they just went back to STTN.

BTW, are they teething? Have you tried the teething tablets that did seem to help some.

 

i agree, you and DH need to both be on the same page though. let it go for at least 15 minutes before going in there to try and soothe them back to sleep. are they eating in the middle of the night or just randomly waking up wanting to be held??

...but also perhaps they are teething?? do you notice rosey cheeks or a rash like redness near their mouths, excessive drool (so much so that they sometimes throw it up?), and constand chewing and biting on things?? teething can interrupt sleep habbits and cause them to wake up a lot...i don't know maybe that's what's going on? if that's the case maybe try some baby orajel at night before bed or some baby tylenol/mortrin (not all the time of course) to see if that helps soothe the pain of teething.

 

Although my boys are older, we actually just went through CIO as well.

Back in October, the boys both got really bad colds/etc. They were waking up a lot overnight, just being sick and unhappy. Hubbie and I would rescue them, comfort them, and eventually they'd go back to sleep. Well, after everyone is healthy again, they still would wake up, every single night. One of the boys then started sleeping through the night again (for the most part). The other one is up and crying at 11, and then again from 1:30-3am. No sleep for 3 months.

This past Saturday, I had had enough. I set up a pack-n-play in our bedroom, and let the all-night sleeper sleep in there. And the cryer would be in his crib, and I was determined to have him cio. The first night, he woke up twice, crying/whining for 10-15 mins each time, and then eventually put himself back to sleep. The second night, he woke up twice but cried/whined for only 10 minutes, and went back to sleep. The rest of the time (the past 3 nights) - everyone has slept through the night.

My CIO experience was kinda easy compared to what it could have been. But my boy had become used to having us come and be with him and knew that at some point we would come get him. After two nights of realizing we wouldn't, he very easily was able to put himself back to sleep.

I didn't know how bad the crying would get, but I've got to say that the little crying there was is WELL worth it, in order for us all to get to sleep again.

Your mileage may vary ;-)