Surviving the night with newborn twins

Would some of you pros mind to list your best tips for having the best night experience possible with new little twins? Mine are one month old. They are now out of that premie stage where they sleep like crazy and have to be woken up.

They're acting like full term babies now - great, I'm glad they're healthy, but I am SOOO tired! Thanks everyone ahead of time for the advice.

 

What's happening at night? Do you mean too many night wakings or are you having the witching hour of inconsolable crying? My first recommendation is to get the DVD Happiest Baby on the Block and watch it right away. You may be able to rent it or you can buy it from amazon.com and have it rushed. If you are trying to calm crying babies, I would say swaddle, swings, white noise and just good ol' powering through. If they fall asleep in swings or bouncies let them! If you mean waking to feed...well, that's just the age. I'm not sure how early yours were but mine were one month early and I saw things get better significantly around week 12-14. I know it seems like forever, but it went fast.

If you give more details about what's happening I'll try to give more specific suggestions. Everyone on this forum was soooooo helpful!

 

Unfortunately, we're still going through some rough nights, so I don't have much advice. The best thing I have found for that inconsolable screaming cry is the shushing I learned from the Happiest Baby DVD mentioned above. Swaddling never worked for my boys and I'm beginning to let them cry for 15-20 mins to fall asleep. Of course 1 month is too early to start that. I also read the Healthy Sleep Habits book (not the exact title) and it gave me some ideas, but I found it contradictory. It did make me feel better to know that what the boys were doing was normal for their age. Good luck and enjoy those cuties!

 

Get some sleep. If you have anyone who can help you, DH, family member, etc., let them take a shift with the babies so that you can get some sleep. That is the only thing that saved me in the beginning. DH took the early night shift from 8:00-12 so I could get some sleep. I couldn't deal very well with my babies without sleep.

 

No tips really- glad you posted this, I will be interested to see responses! We are going through the same thing too. About the best thing that gets my girls to sleep is holding them, and that means not very good sleep for me, of course they both want to be held at the same time!!!!
Good luck- I hear it does get better- I am looking forward to that time!

 

My best advice is to have DH get up with you!

Also having them at bedside was really helpful since I was breastfeeding.

hang in there! It does get better...evenutally!

 

White noise worked very well with my girls. Also swaddle, swaddle, swaddle! Mine having been sleeping through the night for about 2 months, they slept in the pack and play in my room until then. It made it easy for me to get them up when they did wake and leave the lights on low, eat and they would go back to sleep without a lot of "waking" stimulation. And honestly this is funny but my DH's snoring helped put them back to sleep! Never fear it will get better the first time you sleep for 4 hours straight you will feel like you could run a marathon! :hug99:

 

I never did it with my twins, but co-sleeping with this one is making a HUGE improvement on sleep!! As far as other tips to survive the night wakings I always found that food helped..I'd have a stash of crackers and lots of water on hand...it'd help me wake up a little more and deal with the feedings better.

 

We tried to keep night feedings as short as possible. We formula fed and made up the bottles before we went to bed so all we had to do was add water, shake and feed. When they finished their bottle and burped, they went right back to bed. Like pp said, get help. I tried to feed both my kids myself so my DH could sleep (he was back at work) and that didn't last very long. So we took turns with them and you make it though. Take help if you have the chance. Even if it is during the day so you can get a long nap in.

It will get better. Mine was around the 2 1/2 month mark for the DS and the 3 1/2 month for my DD.

 

We had the girls' in a co-sleeper attached to our bed; when one would wake up, I would pull her into our bed, nurse her and then wake up DH and hand her off, he would burp her, get up and change her, and then re-swaddle and put her back to bed. While he was doing that, I was nursing the second one (who got woke up if she wasn't awake), and then he would repeat above once I was done with her. This way, I hardly ever had to get out of bed, he got a bit more sleep (he didn't always hear me feed the first one), and everyone got back to bed relatively quickly. (everything done quietly, in the dark, as quickly as possible)

We kept this up until about 3 -4 months when 1) they stopped pooping most nights, so we didn't always change a diaper 2) DH hurt his back and it was harder for him to get out of bed for a couple days 3) they started sleeping a bit longer at night.

Now, they are in cribs in their own room, when I hear them (yes, we aren't STTN, but that's ok!) I go feed the one who is awake, then depending on what time it is and if the other one is stirring or sound asleep, either feed that one or come back to bed. DH gets up if I wake him up if both are awake at the same time and I need to tandem feed in bed or if I can't get one back to sleep. We are usually up twice at night.

I guess a lot of our routine was dependant on me nursing, so it depends on how you are feeding your babies, too.

HTH.

Erica.

 

The first week home was torture- sleep wise. DH is a HUGE help. We finally found a system that works for us.

For me, I rather stay up at night to do the feedings because when I'm not trying to sleep, I'm WAY less frustrated with feedings/changes..etc

For us, this is what works but you have to have a willing helper (dh or someone)

Dh is on duty from 7pm-11pm and I sleep in bed uninterrupted. I then stay up till around 4am or so before I'm tired. I just watch tv, surf the net, or clean while the girls sleep. After their 3am feeding (usually lasts till around 4am) I lay down on the couch. Dh gets up and ready and comes and relieves me at 6am. I then go back to bed and sleep till around 8:30am when he has to leave for work. Then I take care of the girls all day long and dh helps when he gets home. On the weekend, we basically do a switch and I sleep the longer stretch at night (11pm-6am) and he is up. He loves to play xbox and stuff so he does that between feedings..etc.

I think the key is to have help. You need at least a couple sessions a day of uninterrupted sleep in your bed.

 

I could have posted TwinsInOkinawa's post, that routine is what worked best for us. FWIW, I still get up atleast three our four times a night to nurse, its much quicker now and they go right back to sleep so I get more sleep. Keep up the good work it does get easier!

 

Right now my DH takes the 8- 11 shift and I go to bed. Also Emily loves to be held at night, sometimes they take turns on who wants held. Most of the time I end up having both them on me, my feeling is do what ever it takes to get some sleep. During the day I even have to hold them to take a nap. I have also heard that it gets better when they get older. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

 

I wish that I could say that this will be easy, but I can't. My DH and I got up together. We found that if we tackled it together, we eventually got more sleep surprisingly! It gets so much better. Just hang on!!!

 

QUOTE(girls! @ Jan 11 2008, 11:02 AM) [snapback]567972[/snapback]
What's happening at night? Do you mean too many night wakings or are you having the witching hour of inconsolable crying?


I'm sorry I wasn't more specific. They are waking often to feed. I guess I'm lucky - they aren't inconsolable criers.

I'll try that DVD! Thanks. I tried swaddling, music and keeping lights on last night. It helped a lot.

 

QUOTE(Susanna+3 @ Jan 11 2008, 12:14 PM) [snapback]568114[/snapback]
I never did it with my twins, but co-sleeping with this one is making a HUGE improvement on sleep!! As far as other tips to survive the night wakings I always found that food helped..I'd have a stash of crackers and lots of water on hand...it'd help me wake up a little more and deal with the feedings better.


Excellent advice! I'll try this. Breastfeeding twins I kind of feel like a steamroller has run over me by the time morning comes.

 

no doubt about it, those first months are brutal. and if you're nursing it's even more difficult - esp. with all the energy/calories you're pouring out.

i never found it helpful when people said 'sleep when they sleep', but - really, DO try that. Forget the house. have other peopel do what needs to be done, and accept that it will be messy and chaotic for a few months at least. that;s NORMAL - you have twinfants!

even if you can't SLEEP when they do during the day, try to lie(lay?) down, at least give your body a break. i ended up distracted, spent lots ot time on this site that i should have been sleeping, etc... If i could take it back, i'd just at least rest my body when i could. And of course make sure you're gettng enough nutrition and water; nursing just sucks the life out of you. In a good way, of course!

and if you can get someone to come in during the day - friends, people from your synagogue or church, whatver it takes to just GET SOME REST.

Good luck, you're doing great.