Routine..........

My twins are 11wks old, is it too early for me to establish a routine?
And if not how on earth does one go about it?
I have read and read on here and I still cant seem to work it out. They are so unpredictable that I cant seem to work anything out.
There are common themes.......eg
DS is more awake in the morning, he sleeps here and there and feeds every 3 - 2.5 hrs. Until afternoon where he becomes sleepier and does the feed, play sleep thing. He goes down at 9.30 - 10 usually and most nights sleeps through to 4 -6.
DD is the opposite she eats every 3 hrs and sleeps all morning and at about 4 ish her awake time comes and she will hardly nap till about midnight and will not drink all her bottle for love nor money. When she does go down she sleeps until about 4am, has a full bottle and then the sleepy time comes.
This is not ALL the time though.
So I am flat out all day trying to get 5 mins to do anything and find I normally have one baby or the other (and often both) awake.

Question is, if they are polar opposites in regards to their own chosen schedule, how do I get them in harmony, or is it too early to worry about it?
At the moment I just feed them when they cry and seem hungry, play with them or let them play until they seem sleepy then I swaddle them, give them a dummy and cuddle them if need be.

 

Schedule schudule schedule!!! Start as soon as you can. If not, you will go crazy and will be in a straight jacket! Our guys were in the NICU for 9 weeks and they started them on a schedule day one. They relied on that schedule once they came home. We diverted from the schedule a little, but mostly stayed the same.

 

We followed a play eat sleep routine from day one, but it is just in the last month that things are starting to fall into place. A good starting point for us was to try to synchronize their eating habits first, then worry about naps. For a long time, one would sleep while the other was up, they would eat together, and the the awake twin would take a nap and the other would be up. I would try to feed them at the same time, even if one didn't seem as hungry, it was hard b/c they have totally different appetites, but are pretty consistently eating on a 3 hour schedule now. Eventually I worked towards synchronzing naps, and on our good days, they sleep at the same time (and finally there are more good days than bad ones). One thing I do is that if the nap has been longer than an hour and one baby wakes up, I wake up the other one to keep them in sync.

It will come, you are at a tricky age, and just about to turn a corner. For us, it was the magic 12 week mark (adjusted 2 weeks b/c they were born at 38 weeks).

 

You need to get them on the same schedule, they will adapt, trust me!!! So set out to feed them say every 2.5-3hrs, give or take 30mins. When you feed one feed the other, if they are sleeping wake them up. Put them down for naps at the same time. I know you are thinking, "sure lady, easy for you to say, they don't WANT to eat at those times, etc". But you need to start trying to do this, it may take a few weeks/month to get things in more of a structured routine but it WILL happen.

Hang in there, we have all been there

 

thanks for the advice.
how do you get any one-on-one time with either of them?

 

Mine still always awoke from their naps at different times and I used that time to cuddle alone. It is also nice when you have help to each take a baby for some one-on-one time. But really, this is life with twins, you don't get as much of that individual time when they are infants, but thats okay, they do fine!!!

As they get older you will be able to spend more quality time with them individually, until then do what you can to survive and be a good mom :hug99:

 

Ditto Kristi! My rules in the early months were:

When one is hungry, feed both (at the same time, or one right after the other), even if it means waking a sleeping baby.

Put down to sleep at the same time.

That's pretty much it! It doesn't really matter whether you do eat/play/sleep or play/eat/sleep or eat/play/eat/sleep - just try to get their hungry & sleepy times in sync.

As far as one on one time - it is hard having twins. I try to take advantage of when one wakes up from a nap first. When DH is home we also get to take one baby each. All you can do is your best! Don't sweat it too much.

 

QUOTE(fuchsiagroan @ Jan 21 2008, 07:28 AM) [snapback]581959[/snapback]
Ditto Kristi! My rules in the early months were:

When one is hungry, feed both (at the same time, or one right after the other), even if it means waking a sleeping baby.

Put down to sleep at the same time.

That's pretty much it! It doesn't really matter whether you do eat/play/sleep or play/eat/sleep or eat/play/eat/sleep - just try to get their hungry & sleepy times in sync.

As far as one on one time - it is hard having twins. I try to take advantage of when one wakes up from a nap first. When DH is home we also get to take one baby each. All you can do is your best! Don't sweat it too much.


i sometime feel that i dont give enough attention to ea as well. seems like i am constantly washing pump pieces, bottles or changing diapers. i figured it was about 10hrs a day that i do that. so that leaves 14 hrs of the day left, some of which i sleep you know it being night time and all. then i have a 4yr old that wants attention too... so its like pp has said, when dh gets home, dd is a sleep i get to be with thebabies oh for about 2 hrs to actually enjoy them - unfortunately by then im exhausted and want to sleep... its a vicious cycle

 

As far as one to one time, it is getting easier now that they are a little older, I can have one baby in the exersaucer or jumperoo while I cuddle with the other baby. I do feel guility sometimes though b/c I have both babies in "activities" while I wash bottles, do laundry, whatever. I really love the weekends when DH is home b/c the babies get so much more one on one time. I love it to when people come over to visit, even if its just to hold a baby, at least they are getting some individual attention.