Different Sleeping Schedules

I am about to return to work and feel like I have no schedule down. It seems like everyone here puts their twins to sleep early 7ish. I feed every 4 hrs and usually play for an hour or so after the 6pm feeding. My girls then go into the swing (where they nap) until the next feeding. They going into separate cribs after 10pm. I let them sleep until one wakes. My smaller twins always wakes to feed between 3 & 4am. I feel guilty for waking the other, because I have a feeling she may actually sleep til morning. I am so afraid of how I am gonna manage if they are on 2 different schedules. Also, it seems as my feeding times change everyday depending on how long they slept the night before. When I start work, I won't be home to after 7pm and I couldn't imagine not spending time with my girls in the evenings. Am I cheating my girls my putting them in the swing for so long because it sure does know how to make me feel guilty!

My girls are 15 weeks old and born 4 weeks early.

 

I don't see a difference in putting them in the swing to nap until their 10pm feeding or putting them in their cribs. Heck, my little guys SLEPT in their swings for a LOOOONG time (9 months, LOL). If, by putting them in their swings, they are still napping and getting enough sleep - I wouldn't worry about it. At your girls' age, my twins were also going to bed for the night between 10 and 11:00 pm, then sleeping til 2:00 or 3:00, so I don't think they are going to bed too late. All babies are different. :hug:

 

The best thing you can do is get them on a consistent feeding schedule during the day. That starts with waking them at the same time every morning. "Night" should be about 12 hours. So if you want them to go to bed at 8, wake up time should be 8 am. Anything between those hours is considered a night time waking. If they are doing well on a four hour schedule and taking a good amount I'd stay there. If not, I'd go back to three hours. The more calories they take in during the day, the less they'll need at night. Using a consistent 3 hr schedule with all of my kids, they all slept at least 11 hours by 12 weeks old. People I know that started the consistent feedings went from babies waking often to sleeping through in just a few weeks.

 

Whatever bedtime works for you and yours is what you should use. None of my kids have ever gone to bed at 7pm, but none of my kids ever had to get up for daycare or anything. Even now my twins go to bed at 9-9:30pm or so, which a lot of people consider late, but they sleep until 9:30-10am, so it works for us.

Mine started sleeping 6-7 hr stretches at about 3 months old, around the same age yours are. I too didn't want them on different schedules, and one night I decided to leave them alone, and sure enough, my ds slept through, my dd woke to eat, and then he woke a couple hours later, and they were off schedule for pretty much the rest of the next day! AWFUL! So I went back to waking them at the same time, and within a couple of weeks they were both sleeping 6-8 hrs at night. I do agree with the more feedings during the day, the better the night sleep. None of mine every did 4 hr stretches, even 3 hrs was pushing it sometimes. If you either increase the amount per feeding, or increase the daytime feedings, your night time might become a little more consistent and closer to sleeping through the night.