how soon can I start sleep training my twins?

 

I have two 5 week old fraternal twin boys. Each one feeds about 2-2.5 oz at a time(breast milk pumped and fed in a bottle) and they wake up every 2 - 2.5 hours ( one of them a little sooner and is a light sleeper than the other) . 
When should I start sleep training them (how soon ?) and what is the best way to do it?
 
should we let them cry and then wait for a few minutes before picking them up or should we just wait for three hours and then pick them up and feed them?
 
we have them in a twin bassinet for now ( they are both separated with a divider in between ) and have them sleep in the same room as us for now.
 
any help / advice / techniques  will be very much appreciated.
Both parents work full time, so its getting very difficult and we dont want to wait too long to get them trained?

 

 

Hi,

Cobgratulations for your twins and welcome to Twinstuff - I hope you like it.

If you work full time - did you already go back to work? I work full time but I stayed home for 10 weeks. We kept our twins in our room in a pack and play for the first 3 weeks and I can honestly say I didn't sleep longer than 2 hours uninterrupted during those 3 weeks - which made me EXTREMELY tired, even depressive.

We moved them in their own room after 3 weeks and I think the quality of my sleep got better. There's parents that keep their kids with them even in the same bed and I am not saying that's wrong, if they make it work, but my experience was that it seemed easier after they were in their own room - I wasn't waking with every little noise one of them made in their sleep.

We did sleep training around 6 months - so I think your boys are very young and I wouldn't recommend to start sleep training. I think it's OK if they cry for a minute but I wouldn't do cry it out at 5 weeks. Were your boys premature at all or not? That matters also - because if they were premature you have to consider that estimated age by the due date at this stage. If they were born after 37 weeks - I think you can consider them full term.

I hate to say it - but at this stage it is kind of normal for them to wake up so often - I think mine started to sleep better once they were each in their own crib - sleeping in the same pack and play made them wake each other - even if they didn't touch each other. Some twins tolerate each other and sleep through each other's crying but mine didn't do that. It helped us to have a sound machine in the room - we had this one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008KG5R6I/?tag=mytwins02-20 and this helped them tune each other out to some extent.

I think you can try to swap nights with your spouse as in one of you does one feeding while the other sleeps so you can sleep in longer stretches at a time - maybe for the midnight feeding, and you can alternate nights. It will get easier as they start sleeping longer - but it's a process - it takes some time and each baby is different.

Good luck, it's kind of hard right now for you and your spouse, and we all have been there - I promise you it will pass faster than you think . My kids are 4 now and I barely remember those days - mostly because I was so tired and everything seemed like a blur . Hang in there and come here to vent or ask for advise whenever you need it.

 

I think its too early to start sleep training. I know it feels like a really long road but hang in there! I promise it gets better.

 

thank you Monica77 and rinaownsu . congratulations to both of u as well  
we are doing well. we will definitely wait for a while , I just wanted to know how soon could you start it. looks like atleast a few more months of waiting needed.   maternity leave upto 8 more weeks right now.(12 weeks total) so its ok for now. but wanted to see if I could train them a bit before I get back to work as well. ben reading up stuff and found this great site, will come here often to source some info.
 
good luck with Yrs,.

 

I think it's still early. You'd have to check (I'm so far out, I can't remember!), but I feel like even the sleep training folks say to wait until later than six months.

It's never too early to establish routine, though. If you're feeding and putting down to nap at the same times, just keep doing that. When they need you sooner, try to comfort that need and then return to the routine. Try to have the same bedtime ritual every night so that they can start to associate rocking and shushing (or whatever you choose to do) with sleep time.

There are no guarantees that they'll sleep for long because they're really not old enough to yet, but it can never hurt down the road to have started these things.

Good luck and congrats. And WELCOME to Twinstuff.

 

:welcome: to TS!
I agree with Stephanie, they are too young for sleep training, but it never hurts to establish a routine with them.  When my two were babies, we would institute quiet time an hour before "bed": used quiet, soothing voices, low light, no TV or other outside noise.  Establish a bedtime routine and you may have to repeat that routine when they wake at night.  I'd always use low light, quiet voices and soothing sounds when they woke in the middle of the night to eat...just something so they'd know it's night time and it's time to sleep.  Eventually they will sleep through the night!

 

thank you all for some more replies today. yeah.. we are trying our best to have a schedule for them. trying to feed them around the same time and change diapers around the same time and put them to sleep at the same time as of now.
every couple of days, they drift apart and we try it all over again.
We will definitely wait at least for 6-7 months before we even think of sleep training. they need to put on some weight and also obviously sleep much longer than 2-2.5 hours before we even go there.
 
thank you so much for all the advice. first time parents and twins , the first couple of weeks were overwhelming, but we are not at all complaining. just doing due diligence and collecting information to be better at this.
 
appreciate all the awesome advice.

 

Mine were sleeping through the night, as in 12 hours a night at 3 months old.  The advise we got from our Pediatrician was to feed every 4 hours, wake them during the day, but let them wake us at night.  At around 8 weeks old, one of the boys woke around 3 for his feeding--at that point they were generally eating at 11 and then 3 during the night--and I gave him a paci just so I had time to get a bottle ready.  He fell back asleep and didn't wake until 6.  Within 2 days, neither was waking for that feeding.  Then at 3 months, we were at my mom's for the High Holy Days, and I was waking them at 11 to eat, and they barely woke up or ate.  My mom said not to bother them, and they both slept until 8 the next morning.  At that age, we never let them "cry it out"--that came later when they would protest going to bed.  At that age, they would just fall asleep around the same time every day--they slept 12 hours at night, and took 2 2 hour naps a day.  My friends were amazed at how they would go to sleep.  It was more a routine, and schedule than anything else.  So they can get on a schedule early--and maybe I just had really good sleepers and got lucky.

 

hi sharon, wow... sleeping for that long at 3 months is just amazing.  quick question - were you feeding them formula or breastmilk. since i heard formula makes babies sleep longer ( not sure how true that is ), since its heavier than BM.