Sleep Training Twins

We are beginning to sleep train our 8 month old twin daughters at night and would love some advice. They sleep in the same room but different cribs. Their crying is starting to wake each other up. We have been reading HSHHC but I can't find information about how to use sleep training strategies with twins. We are curious about how others manage babies waking each other up, how long your twins cried before falling asleep the first night and subsequent nights and how long it took to get them to sleep through overall. Thanks in advance.

 

We are beginning to sleep train our 8 month old twin daughters at night and would love some advice. They sleep in the same room but different cribs. Their crying is starting to wake each other up. We have been reading HSHHC but I can't find information about how to use sleep training strategies with twins. We are curious about how others manage babies waking each other up, how long your twins cried before falling asleep the first night and subsequent nights and how long it took to get them to sleep through overall. Thanks in advance.

 

Sleep training twins is difficult. I read every sleep book and tried every suggestion. If someone said to stand them on their head and spin 3 times to get them to sleep then I would have tried it! What we ended up doing at 5 1/2 months is CIO. I was totally opposed to it until then. I just thought there had to be other options. Finally I was gettin more and more frustrated and more and more sleep deprived and I was desperate. We tried it and it worked for us. Most times they sleep through each other's cry; however, there are times that my DS who crys the most will wake DD. I then just have to try to settle them both down. Good luck to you!

 

Just curious, my twins are 3 months old and I think they are sleep trained to me...they have their bedtime bottle at 7pm everynight (they ask for it now!) and are asking for bedtime at 7:30pm and they are awake (but a bit drowsy) in their cribs and they are usually asleep by 8pm....is that sleep trained or am I just an exception and have good sleepers?

As for getting them both down, they get fed together, changed together and put to bed together...DD sometimes squawks for her dummy after about an hour or so and I do have to be quick so she doesn't wake DS.

Perhaps you can train one at a time..then one is already asleep or can wait until the other is asleep after training to be put to bed.

 

We just started CIO this week (Sunday)and we just let them both cry if one wakes the other up and it upsets them. That has only happened once at night and it only lasted for about 10 mins that they both cried. I believe one reason to begin CIO and sleep training is to teach them how to get themselves (back) to sleep unassisted, right? One night this week Jacob cried his head off for 20 mins and Nathan slept through the entire thing without stirring! That was our 3rd night and Nathan caught on much faster than Jacob and fell asleep right away. I could not fathom sleeping through all that noise! Good luck with sleep training.

Kelly

 

The books never address the subject of twins, it drives me crazy! Most twin moms seem to claim that one twin's crying rarely wakes the other. I'm not sure I'd quite say that, but it hasn't been much of a problem for us.

We trained them to go to sleep on their own at 5 months. Sarah was actually already doing it, simply because at about 4 months, she had stopped allowing herself to be rocked to sleep.

For Amy, we just picked a night, put her down awake, and went cold turkey. She cried (I mean really wailed and howled) for just over an hour. The next night it was more like 45 minutes -- 20 the next -- 35 the next -- and 15-20 for every night after that (gradually diminishing over the weeks to fussing rather than crying).

We did separate them for the first few nights. We put Sarah in the PNP until they were both asleep, then carried her to her crib. After 3-4 nights, we just started putting them in the same room. Now I think they actually prefer the sound of the other one's fussing/chattering to help them go to sleep.

Amy woke for a bottle at 4:00 a.m. for MONTHS after this (she just stopped at 13 months!), but it almost never woke Sarah; she was just used to it. If one of them cries at an unusual time (due to teething or vomiting or whatever -- which is very rare), it does wake the other, but as soon as the problem is solved, they both go back to sleep on their own. HTH!

 

The Sleep Lady has a chapter on twins. Good Night Sleep Tight by Kim West. I can't remember her exact advice at the moment. But I recommend getting the book from your library or bookstore.

 

What do you do about pacifiers? Does reinserting them mess up the CIO? Last night both of mine woke at 2am not for a feeding but to play! They started to fuss so I put paci's back in rearranged them and left. They both started to cry. I didn't go back in..after 5min one stopped and the other kept crying. After 10 min I went back in and reinserted paci's and left and they went back to sleep. Is this wrong? I know I get up alot to put those darn things back in their mouths. I would think they would use their hands to sooth themselves but nope they want the paci's. I swear I kick myself every single day for giving it to them.

 

navywf...My sister did CIO at 7 months but still went in to give him his pacifier when he cried for it. He is 16 months now and the best sleeper who goes down happy and wakes up happy.