Premie Baby Routine and Baby Wise

My husband and I plan on doing the Baby Wise method of parenting the boys. I have a question though for you guys that are doing the Baby Wise - How did you do a schedule with twins when they are premies? Any suggestions on the rigid schedule with twins. I am feeling overwhelmed and could really use some advice.

 

Not sure about Baby Wise, but my twins came home from the NICU on a 3 hour feeding schedule and we just stuck with that. Around 4.5 months they went to feeding every 4 hours. They stayed on that schedule until they were off bottles and formula at 12 months. As far as naps, they did not get on any kind of real schedule with that until around 5 months. Not sure if that helped at all, but that was my experience.

 

I followed baywise with my daughter and it worked wonders. I do plan on trying it with the twins too but I don't have any answers for you yet sorry.

 

I think the key with Babywise is that you need to adapt it to your situation and children. What Babywise is really about is using a schedule so that your family runs smoothly. If your boys spend any time in the hospital, they will probably come home on a 3-hour feeding schedule. Keep that feeding schedule and life will be much easier. For the first 6 months or so, most babies only spend 1.5-2 hours awake at a time so that will help you set a nap schedule. Schedules make it easier for you, DH, and the boys to know what is supposed to happen next and allows your family to plan activities and downtime.

After that big shock of going from the warm quiet womb into the cold loud world, you might just want to comfort the babies for a couple of weeks and do what you need to do to get them settled. They'll sleep a lot and cry a lot at first. I won't sugarcoat it, it is really tiring and hard for the first couple of months after you bring the babies home. But you are also happy because of the wonderful blessings you received.

 

I used Babywise with all my kids. The main thing is not to worry so much about "rigid" but working toward a consistent schedule. I was horrendously strict with my first. We didn't go ANYWHERE that interfered with naps or feedings. By the time the twins came along, I had figured out what was important to me and what didn't matter so much. With them, I worked toward a 3hr feeding schedule. It didn't take long. I ALWAYS fed them at the same time. Any sleep they got in between was a bonus. At first they slept all the time. It wasn't until about 2 mos that they started being awake more or not sleeping until the next feeding. Don't stress too much about "they have to sleep until it's time to eat again". The every three hour schedule allows naps to eventually fall into place.

I don't want to bore everyone here so if you have specific questions I'd be happy to share more, like what we did at night and things like that. Just PM me!

 

I also did Babywise (to a degree) w/ my first, but found that I had to be flexible to keep my sanity. If a friend wanted to meet for coffee, I would adapt accordingly (making sure we had the feeding and nap in there...but maybe not at the same exact time as the day before). It can be a very rigid method if followed to a "T", so I think w/ preemies you will have adaptations.
Best of luck to you!!

 

I did not follow Babywise strictly, but I did follow the basic premises of that book.

My kids were born at 34w4d. We avoided the NICU, but they did want to sleep all the time and it was a struggle to get them to eat in the beginning. So we had to wake them up religiously every three hours to eat. Because of that, they were on a very structured schedule from the beginning. When we stopped needing to wake them, they started waking themselves to eat every three hours. Then everything else just sort of fell into place. They ate, "played," napped, and then woke to feed again.

We were lucky. I suppose that if they were waking every hour to eat it would have been a different story. But they left the hospital on a three hour feeding schedule, and we stayed with that for at least the next three months or so.

 

QUOTE(twoin2005 @ Jan 27 2008, 07:55 PM) [snapback]592628[/snapback]
I did not follow Babywise strictly, but I did follow the basic premises of that book.

My kids were born at 34w4d. We avoided the NICU, but they did want to sleep all the time and it was a struggle to get them to eat in the beginning. So we had to wake them up religiously every three hours to eat. Because of that, they were on a very structured schedule from the beginning. When we stopped needing to wake them, they started waking themselves to eat every three hours. Then everything else just sort of fell into place. They ate, "played," napped, and then woke to feed again.

We were lucky. I suppose that if they were waking every hour to eat it would have been a different story. But they left the hospital on a three hour feeding schedule, and we stayed with that for at least the next three months or so.


I'm just curious...how long did it take for things to "just sort of fall into place"? I'm just trying to get myself ready mentally...

 

Well, to be honest I am sure I have the 'ol blinders on because it has been awhile. But I honestly remember the first couple months being a bit easy (well, that term is relative now that I have two toddlers ripping through the house). I don't want to give you false hope, but there is so much doom and gloom expected with two infants and we just did not experience that. They slept ALL THE TIME in the beginning. We had to wake them to eat and so we had it fairly easy. We could sleep when they slept, so even though I was getting up a few times a night, I was also sleeping in until 10am!

So, to answer your question, I think things were easiest once:

1) I gave up pumping and bf and just went straight to formula. I was killing myself pumping after each feeding (including night feedings) and attempting to bf during each daytime feeding. It was way too difficult a task for me. I gave up after four weeks.

2) We learned to get out of the house with the kids. I have been taking them out on my own since the beginning. I am not kidding, but a trip to Target just to buy a roll of paper towels at 6 weeks old, was a sanity saver for me. I was on bedrest so it was important to me to GET OUT. I was sick of being couped up for three months. I have a vivid memory of taking the kids down by the beach for lunch with DH and sitting there feeding them on the boardwalk and thinking, life doesn't get any better than this. They were maybe a month old at the time.

3) We established good routines. I recommend doing a load of laundry a day so you do not fall behind. Make formula in batches to last for 24 hours. Wash the bottles in the dishwasher everynight, even if you do not have enough dishes to run a full load.

4) Let them sleep wherever they fall asleep during the day. My kids transitioned to their cribs for naps at three months with no problem. But man oh man, they slept all the time in their swings those first few months.

I realize that we had pretty easy going babies. That makes a difference when you do not have to deal with colic or reflux. But it was doable. And like I said, things just fell into place. If you can get them eating on a schedule, the naps will follow. I hope I answered your question.