crying it out

I've done CIO with all five of my other kids and it has gone fairly smoothly for us in the past but I'm trying to figure out how it works with twins. Right now, the twins are still in my room but they're starting to outgrow the co-sleeper so we're probably going to need to move them to the nursery (where the crib is) pretty soon. At that point I figure we'll probably let them start doing CIO (they'll be about 7 months or so when they move). How did you guys go about doing it with twins?

 

I just did it, which seems to be the answer to most things like "how do you do it with twins?" (lol).

My one rule is when they go down they go down for at least an hour. I don't go get them unless they are really upset. I can tell by their cry. I also made it a point to let them get used to each other crying, that didn't take very long for that to happen. It seems to be working out pretty well. There are the bad days as I am sure you know but overall it works great!

They are still taking 2 naps (almost 10 months old) and they at least give me an hour, one most of the time is usually 1 1/2 hour but their afternoon nap is usually always just an hour.

In the beginning I was nervous about it thinking oh they will never nap but it does get better with time especially if you just let them get used to each other and their noises. They will wake each other up but what can you do about that? I believe they will get use to it and majority of the time not wake each other up.

Hope that helps!

 

We did CIO with both at the same time, in the same room, in the same crib. It's surprising how quickly they adjusted to hearing each other cry & learned to sleep through the other crying.

 

If you plan on them sharing a room, you do it the same way you did with yours. They will learn to sleep through each other's noises.

 

I agree w others, they just get used to each other. I often find even in the morning one will wake up and the other won't. Sometimes they'll wake each other up if they wake up crying in the night.. but not often!

 

Twice this week we've done CIO at bedtime including tonight and even though only baby seemed alert and woundup initially, his cries got his calmer brother worked up and screaming in no time. But that is the nature of the beast I guess and we just decided to let them both cry. We are doing graduated extinction so we would go in after 10 minutes and rub backs, then go back again in 15 minutes, etc. It is pretty rough to hear them carrying on like that but I'm hoping this leads to more peaceful nights in the long run. They have become dependent on us rocking them. Sometimes they are out within 10 minutes of rocking which is great, but sometimes (like tonight) one gets a surge of energy after finishing his bottle and next thing you know we've been rocking for 30 minutes. We gotta nip that constant rocking in the bud before I go insane! But it sure ain't easy or fun

 

Thanks for the replies. I think we're going to move them into the crib in the nursery Thursday night. I'm praying it goes smoothly!