Taking Care of 2 Babies at Night?

How do you plan on handling it when you babies wake up at night. Will you and your husbands get up or will you get up and do it on your own. I am just worried about how I will take care of 2 babies at once. Let me know how you guys plan to operate.

 

I'm actually way nervous about this myself. My DH only has 40 hours of vacation/sick time so we're planning on doing some half-days in there so we can stretch it out. WHICH means he's going to need sleep to get to work. I believe our plan was to try and do shifts of a sort so we both get sleep. I'm planning on breastfeeding and from what I hear it's best to exclusively breastfeed for the first month so they get the hang of it and you build your supply SO that means I'm the main supplier for awhile. I think we'll probably try to do shifts of who actually has to get up and change them. On his shift he'll probably change them and bring them to me to feed and put them back so I can attempt to sleep a little longer. I suppose since we're getting close we really need to work this out!! I figure from like 8-11 he can be in charge, 11-1 I'll be in charge, 1-3 he'll be in charge, then 3am on I'll be in charge. Something along those lines. We'll see if it actually works out like that or not!! :unsure: I'm excited to see other people's plans!! Great thread!

 

Honestly, it just works. It does. Don't worry yourselves. If I was just toooo tired, I would have the hubby get up. Sometimes both babies were up, so both of us were. I would try not to wake up hubby within his last few hours. He would usually take the first part of the night like 9-2 am. It will work, you both will be fine.

 

for the first 6 weeks we would just bf the babies so my husband would get the baby, i'd bf and he would diaper and soothe the baby back to sleep. after this, when they started stretching their feeds at night from 2 to 3 hours we would take shifts. that way i would feed them at 11, he would feed them at 2 and me again at 4-5 so i could sleep from 11-4 which is a big deal! The first few weeks are tough, if you can bf through them it gets soo much easier than bottle-feeding. Good luck!

 

I forgot about this until my husband reminded me. With my son, he took 4 weeks off. He would take the first shift at night until about 1 am and then I would get up with the second shift.

After he went back to work and I was still on leave, I would take the nights when he worked the next morning and then when he had the next day off, he would take the night.

I went back to work with DS when he was about 10 weeks old. He started sleeping through the night about 12 weeks. But if we both worked the next day, I usually got up with DS, but if DH didn't work, he would get up. I work 5 days a week (M-F) and DH works 4-10 hour a week.

 

My husband and I both work full time. Unfortunately he works out of town and is only home every other weekend. We both will get a week off work when the babies come. After he leaves I will be on my own. Don't really have a plan but I am sure it will work out somehow....sleep deprivation here I come. Plus i have my 4 year old to take care off and get off to pre-k in the am.

I hope I don't have a c-section cuz like I said, I only get on week off work

 

If you're anything like us your plan will change several times. At first we all got up, me , my hubby and whatever relative we had staying with us to help. Then just me and hubby got up. Eventually I was able to get up with them by myself. And here recently at almost 9 months my hubby has had to get up a few nights and give me a hand. Just when you think you have something figured out, or them figured out it changes! Just go with the flow but ENLIST all the help you can get! We had help for 6+ weeks and we really LOVED those extra set of hands.

 

Just know that whatever needs to be done will be done! Try not to stress over it, it will be fine! I'm a single mom and I've done it alone from start. The best advice I can give is that especially early on, when one wakes to eat then go ahead and do the second! I stopped this around 8 weeks, and started stretching out their night time feeds to accomodate Bell. I knew she was ready to sleep longer and sure enough, she did. This being said, my girls were huge for twins and at the time I demand feeded only they were both already 12 and 15 pounds. I don't know what it is, but it seems that the 12-15 pound range seems to be when they start sleeping thru the night. (at least in my experience)

If you have help at night, take it! You may have to tweak the plan a few times till you get everybody settled, but that's fine too!

Best of luck you all!

 

I was very lucky, my wonderful DH got up at every night feeding and fed one of them. And he gets up at 4:30am to go to work, but he knew it would be too hard for me to do on my own. I am very grateful that he helped out at night, but also think the DH's should help out at night, they are their babies too.

 

I'm another lucky one. We each got a baby at night. :good: My husband got my ds since he was a better sleeper {DH had to get up and go to work} and I got my dd who was a bit more of a party animal at night :lol:} I'm sure that I would have made it even if I had to get up with both, but I'm very grateful that he helped me out so much. Try not to stress about it too much, it will all work out. :hug:

 

I'm hoping DH will learn to lactate and can feed one of them. Has anyone else had any luck with this? :lol:

If that doesn't work, we plan to both wake up and have him bring the babies to me. I'll feed them, then he'll put them back to bed. I'll be on baby shift exclusively during the day, so he plans to do whatever he can at night...if only he could grow some mammary glands.

 

My dh had to go back to work as soon as we got out of the hospital. What worked for me was.,,When one gets up, you feed/change/put back to bed, and then get the other one up. That way you are up for 1/2 hour and get another 3 hours uninterrupted sleep. That is what worked out best for us...You can't worry about it too much right now. You will need to see how they sleep, etc. It will all work out, I promise!

 

A couple things that have made my night shifts easier:

A co-sleeper. Love it! No going to get the babies, they're right there. (We need to move them now, though, they're 33 lbs. together and the whole thing sways when they kick. But for the first four months it was great.)

and <whisper> babies don't need to be changed every time they eat. Just change them when they're stinky or about to soak through. Once they're out of the teeny-tiny diapers and have their days and nights straightened out, you should be able to get away without any diaper changes in the night, even if they are still getting up to eat. That makes it easier to keep it dark, quiet, and get everyone back to sleep.

 

QUOTE(Korey @ Nov 12 2008, 04:11 PM) [snapback]1067312[/snapback]
My husband and I both work full time. Unfortunately he works out of town and is only home every other weekend. We both will get a week off work when the babies come. After he leaves I will be on my own. Don't really have a plan but I am sure it will work out somehow....sleep deprivation here I come. Plus i have my 4 year old to take care off and get off to pre-k in the am.

I hope I don't have a c-section cuz like I said, I only get on week off work


I can not believe you only get a week off work that is diabolical!! Someone needs to get the maternity laws sorted out! How can the expect anyone to recover from their babies birth that quick its ridiculous. We get 9 months off over here which is fantastic i would never have coped with that little time out!

My partner works full time so i didnt see it fair he get up during the week and be exausted at work when i could sleep during the day. So i did most night shifts with him helping at the weekend when needed. I used to feed them both together meant they were both getting up at the same time and going down at the same time and i got 3 hours sleep in between. Dont worry you will be fine whatever you figre out!! x

 

QUOTE(Louise+2 @ Nov 12 2008, 11:12 PM) [snapback]1067946[/snapback]
I can not believe you only get a week off work that is diabolical!! Someone needs to get the maternity laws sorted out! How can the expect anyone to recover from their babies birth that quick its ridiculous. We get 9 months off over here which is fantastic i would never have coped with that little time out!

My partner works full time so i didnt see it fair he get up during the week and be exausted at work when i could sleep during the day. So i did most night shifts with him helping at the weekend when needed. I used to feed them both together meant they were both getting up at the same time and going down at the same time and i got 3 hours sleep in between. Dont worry you will be fine whatever you figre out!! x


I was thinking the same! We get 54 weeks payed maternity leave (80%) or 48 weeks with 100% payed leave. Additionally we get 7 (or 5) weeks extra with tweens. Dad gets 2 weeks paid leave straight after birth + 6 weeks within the year.

 

We get a 12 weeks full wages, 8 half wages and 4 months at £100 a week. Dads get 2 weeks payed paternity pay too. I would have been dead on my feet if i had to go back after a week or even 6 weeks. I think this ridiculous whats the point you would be that sleep deprived you wouldnt be able to function properly anyways!

 

Luckily for us DH got a whole lot of OT work to do just before the girls were born [I'm being VERY sarcastic]. [He'd been asking for OT for months and his boss finally had something for him - he didn't want to turn it down.] His mom was here for a week [to help out and show me the ropes on childcare, lol] after that, I was pretty much on my own. DH worked from 0600-1900 for the first two weeks.

I'd get up with the girls at night and let DH sleep - unless they both woke up, then he'd come and help out. Somedays when I was waay too tired he'd let me take a nap after he got home from work. On the weekends we'd take shifts. Now, on the weekends I get up with the girls [usually around 0500] after then he takes over and tries to let me sleep in. They get up for the day around 0800.

 

Im with you, really freaking out. Ill be here just me and the twins with the other 2 kids. Ill have 4 under 3. No help, Jim will be gone and there is no family around that can help in a situation like this (people work). I try not to think to much about it or I do start to have a hard time breathing!

 

QUOTE(Queen of Carrots @ Nov 12 2008, 01:38 PM) [snapback]1067892[/snapback]
A couple things that have made my night shifts easier:

A co-sleeper. Love it! No going to get the babies, they're right there. (We need to move them now, though, they're 33 lbs. together and the whole thing sways when they kick. But for the first four months it was great.)

and <whisper> babies don't need to be changed every time they eat. Just change them when they're stinky or about to soak through. Once they're out of the teeny-tiny diapers and have their days and nights straightened out, you should be able to get away without any diaper changes in the night, even if they are still getting up to eat. That makes it easier to keep it dark, quiet, and get everyone back to sleep.



agree, I even found an insert that helps soak up more... also, i talked to a mom who but an extra maxi pad at the top of the diaper.... i wouldn't skip every change but maybe that one that comes at 1 in the morning, survival.

 

Dh did wake up with me at night for the first 3 months. We each were in charge of a baby.

 

QUOTE(TwinsInFL @ Nov 12 2008, 03:46 PM) [snapback]1067768[/snapback]
I'm hoping DH will learn to lactate and can feed one of them. Has anyone else had any luck with this? :lol:

If that doesn't work, we plan to both wake up and have him bring the babies to me. I'll feed them, then he'll put them back to bed. I'll be on baby shift exclusively during the day, so he plans to do whatever he can at night...if only he could grow some mammary glands.



HAHA It would be great if they could!! :rofl:

 

for the first month when DH was home we switched on and off during the night
when he went back to work it was very hard, he worked third shift so slept during the day and was at work all night
so i was on my own. but you find your own way of doing thing (trial and error) and it gets easier.
I know everyone says it but it really does help if you nap when they do. as you will be up at night.
good luck your a strong woman and i am sure you will do great!

 

we will both be getting up at night . i will wake him after im done feeding the first so he can change and get her back to sleep well i do the other one, we are both back to sleep much faster, i also have 2 other kids so ne rest for me during the day. i guess you will figure out what ever works best for you and that is what you will do, my husband and found with our 2nd child. that after i feed he would burp & change him, well i pumped and cleaned myself up. we where always back to bed very quickly, some moms find it easier to do on there own. you will know/ good luck

 

I am not a twin mom just yet but have read that taking shifts works so that everyone can get 6 hours of straigt sleep. An example would be someone takes care of the babies from 6pm-12am while the other sleeps and then switch 12am-6am shift. I plan on going back to work (i cant even begin to share my disability/maternity leave situation...CA sux!!!)who knows who gets what shift but while i am not working i will let my hubby sleep the 12-6 shift. dont know how long or if this will even work but it sounds good! my friend who had twins agrees with the feed one baby then the other so that they get on the same schedule of eating and sleeping. i am not breastfeeding (never enjoyed it) so this will help with letting others feed them.

 

Oh poor Korey's Mum! That is so unfair.
Here in Australia we get a baby bonus of $5000 per child (about US$4500) plus this year as a one off we are getting a $1000 bonus for every child in the house to help stimulate the economy. Maternity leave here is 12 weeks I think but I won't qualify (must have worked 2 continuous years). I will have a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old so I will be using the money to hire a part time nanny.
When I had the two little ones the thing that worked for us was me doing night shift and my husband getting up from 5 and doing all the breakfast, dressing stuff. I would sleep in til 9 (when he went to work) and cross my fingers the little one was ready to go back to sleep!
I am planning on doing similar with the twins and definitely feeding no 2 after no 1 whether he wants to or not!

 

With my daughter my husband and I always took a night - that way we would know that the next night we would get a full night sleep. That worked great for us because we both worked full time. Now though we are really not sure what we are going to do with 2 of them.....eek :huh:
We have tossed around the same thing because it worked so well but are just not sure....

 

QUOTE(Joanna416 @ Nov 19 2008, 06:21 AM) [snapback]1076729[/snapback]
With my daughter my husband and I always took a night - that way we would know that the next night we would get a full night sleep. That worked great for us because we both worked full time. Now though we are really not sure what we are going to do with 2 of them.....eek :huh:
We have tossed around the same thing because it worked so well but are just not sure....

Good idea! I didnt think about doing that! I will use that as my second choice if my sleeping in shifts doesnt work out! Thanks for the idea!

 

We tried the shift thing and it just did not work for us because I was not able to sleep when they were up and crying. They were both in the NICU and that got them on a three hour schedule so it ended up we would feed one, the other would be screaming, feed the other, the first one would start screaming, get them both finally to sleep and then have to wake them up shortly afterwards - it was just not good, the whole feeding, changing, soothing process for both of them took an hour and that only left two hours of sleep if you could go straight back to sleep after putting them down. Plus, they were in our room in a double pack and play so the other couldn't really sleep through it anyway. So, when we realized that neither of us was really getting any sleep we both started getting up and it worked out great! We did wake them both up (if they weren't both already awake) at the same time and changed them before we fed them so they could just go right back to sleep when they were done eating. That got them on the same schedule and now we are up once at night and continue to do everything at the same exact time to keep them on schedule. If we have to feed them by ourselves we use a boppy on each side just so they can keep eating simultaneously!

 

We tried both doing it together, each taking a baby, but neither one of us got sleep so in the end we each did 4 hour shifts, i did 12-4, he did 4-8. which garaunteed that each of us would get at least 4 hours of uninterupted sleep, and whatever else you could get during your shift, between those feedings ect. it worked best for us.

 

The first week my DH and I did it together because he had taken off of work. After that, we took shifts. We did each do it on our own and it wasn't too bad. I expressed so I bottle fed breastmilk and propped one up on the boppy and held one, or put them both in their bouncies. I did plenty of cuddling during the day, so didn't feel like it was absolutely necessary to hold them both--I was pretty much just trying to survive the first few weeks and that is what worked for me. I'm pretty sure my DH did it the same way.

 

DH was off work 2 weeks when the twins came home from the NICU. They were eating every 3 hours which doesn't leave a lot of time to sleep. We were both up until he went back to work. It was brutal.

What finally worked was I took the 9pm until 2am shift and DH took the 2am until 7am shift. He got more sleep usually but he was working. We didn't change every overnight feed unless poopy.

We slept the babies in the den in a PNP bassinet for a few reasons. One, they were SOOO loud, no one could sleep in the same room. It sounded like a barnyard. Two, when they were up, they were loud so I was afraid they'd wake big sis. Three, the person not on duty would be up anyway because of the noise. Having the babies near the kitchen was easier for me. I also pumped after feeding and I never worried the noise of the pump would wake DH. They babies never cared.

There's no easy way to do this. You'll be utterly exhausted any way you do it. It's over before you know it and you will look fondly on those days. I know we do. It was like Twin Boot Camp, definitely a rite of passage.

 

I was up with both babies every night, but I had help every day for weeks after we got home. I always got the chance to sleep during the day. I never did wake up the other baby to feed when one woke up. I let them get up whenever they chose. I hope you have help. I can't imagine what I would have done without it!!

 

I have to say my husband and I really work as a team when it comes to taking care of the twins at night. He gets up with one and I get up with the other one. Its tough especially when they are little to take care of both of them early on.