Having a Nervous Breakdown

My twins are just over 9 weeks old. I started back to work this week and now when I come home I get them at their fussiest time of the day--which seems to be from 5-9pm (we put them down to sleep at 9pm). There is just no settling them down, they aren't ever content...it is driving DH and I crazy. We ourselves are so tired come that time of the day and barely have any energy left. I look so forward to seeing them, but when will I actually be able to enjoy them as opposed to consoling them for 3-4 hours each night? Any suggestions--I feel like I am going crazy every night before I get them down for the night....HELP!

 

Sorry to hear your evenings are so crazy. At that age we were putting ours down at 8 after bath and bottle. Do you think that you can get them to bed any earlier? You might want to check out Dr. Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. He has great suggestions for fussiness, sleep, etc. Good luck. Our guys started to get better about three months, as long as we get them to bed early. Hang in there.

 

Unfortunately you probably have a few more weeks of the evening fussies. Ours ended around 12-14 weeks. It is exhausting!! :hug99:

ETA....have you tried cluster feeding them during this time? It helped mine. They seemed hungry constantly between about 4 and bedtime.

 

BIG HUGS TO YOU!!!! Our girls started with the fussies at about 5 weeks and it lasted for quite a while. They would start between 4 and 6 p.m. and go until 11 p.m. - 1 a.m. and my husband works second shift so I was alone!! Could it be colic? I know it was for both my girls and there was just no soothing them. They were only slightly content when I would swaddle them tight and bounce them while standing.

I read The Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp at the suggestion of a friend and it helped somewhat. It talks about the 5 s's: swaddling, swinging, side/stomach, shushing and sucking. He makes a lot of sense.

Just know that this is a TOUGH time but you will make it!! I cried along with them back in those early days because I was at my wits' end and am now the very PROUD momma of two 10 month olds (even though today was a little rough).

:hug99: You will make it!!

 

I feel for you so much! 8 weeks was our breaking point. Hang in there. :hug99: You may want to read the surviving twinfants sticky at the top. You may find suggestions on how to help with fussiness.

 

Unfortunately this happens to all moms of twins... babies are fussy at night.

We started putting my kiddos to bed earlier and earlier and it really helped. I also got pretty strict about naps at 3.5 mos and that started to help with nighttime fussiness.. but it's natural.

I'd turn off the stimuli in your house, and play white noise -- that helps. lower lights, minimize interactions, etc. it could help.

Teri D

 

Sounds like our nights when they were that age. It took me a long time to figure out what to do. I finally put them on a schedule for naps. I was letting them sleep too long into the evening and it was a problem. Our babies would get fussy around 5:30 pm and not stop sometimes until 11pm. It was miserable. What I finally did was put them down for a nap at 3:30 for the last time before bed. They weren't allowed to sleep later than 5pm. I would keep them up until 7pm and then they were down for the night. It was hard to keep them awake those two hours, but it made them good and tired for the night.

Even now the babies get fussy every night. We try to go for walks or take them out somewhere. This makes them a lot less fussier. But honestly from about 8 weeks to 4 months was the hardes time for us. We thought we were going to go crazy.

Hang in there, it does get better!

 

I agree with an earlier post to try to get them to bed a little earlier. We fought that fussy time too and realized that we should have been putting them to sleep earlier. Good luck. I know it's hard.

 

Your little ones will be in my prayers, just reading about it reminds me of those awful days and nights we went through, I would NEVER wish that on anyone. I'm just glad we are over it, it all seems like a blur to me, I was so sick of it all and desperate that I tried everything everyone told me, if it didn't work I moved on to the next one, but here are some suggestions, I hope it works!
Don't let them take naps laters than 4 or 5pm depending what time you'll put them to bed.
Give them a warm bath right before you put the to bed every night (I know that's a lot of work, but it does work)
Wrapped them, sometimes that makes them feel more secure
WHITE NOISE, WHITE NOISE, WHITE NOISE- IT DOES WORK, we burned out a vaccumm in the beginning we didn't know what else to do, we hadn't slept for days and the babies didn't either, I had one of those playpen that they both slept in, in my room and turned on the vaccumm, and they fell sound asleep, you'll be suprise that you can sleep through anything at this point.
Maybe they do have colic, try the Mylicon drops or some gripe water, I did!
Good Luck!
Iris

 

I have not read all the posts, but I would try to feed them more often. I discovered after a couple of weeks of fussiness, that they really wanted to eat earlier and go to bed earlier. Work wonders for me. I started putting them to bed at 6:30 pm, which was way to early to my liking but that's what they wanted.

 

Fussiness peaks at 6 weeks (or 6 weeks after the due date) and it usually gets better by 2-3 months. I would suggest an earlier bed time as well. At 2 1/2 months my twins were going to bed at 6 am. They would sleep quite a bit (10-11 hours girl and 6 hours boy) but it made them (and our evenings) so much more enjoyable.

 

Hi,

I've been going through the same thing. My twins are 8 weeks old and I am literally on the verge of tears everyday.

We have done everything and I mean EVERYTHING! I can't tell you how many formulas we've tried. We tried Gripe Water - seemed to work at first, but then it didn't help at all. Mylicon drops - don't know if it helps, but I use it all the time just in case it is.

Recently I've found two things that have made a signifiant change for us. When I say recently I mean like in the last 2 days.LOL First I read the book "The Happiest Baby on the Block". I just tried out his theory of the 5 S's on my screaming little guy and ummmmm.......it worked! He feel asleep in about 2 min. I can't believe it really, but it really did work.

The other thing I tried (only did this once so far) was the Hyland Colic Tablets. It's a homeopathic/ all natural tablet that you can disolve in water (1 tsp) or give under the tongue. It's suppose to help with fussines, gas and symptoms of colic. People swear by it. My husband picked it up at the grocery store (on another "formula change" run) about a week ago. I wasn't going to use it because I felt a little funny about giving it to them. Well, last night was AWFUL. The screaming and crying was at it's worse. I decided to try it. Within 30 to 60 sec's he stoped crying completely. He was pleasent, calm and sat in his swing for about 1/2 hour before going to bed WITHOUT any crying or problems. He stayed that way the whole night - only waking for his normal feedings - then it was right back to sleep. Again, I can't believe it.

Maybe it's all a coincidence(sp?), we'll see how the next couple of days go, but I just wanted to share these two "miracles" with you.

Jody

 

5 was always when mine would get riled up. Things sarted getting much better for us around 4 months, when I could do more with them, such as putting them in walkers, and things like that.