When to change a sleep schedule?

Hi, everyone. I'm wondering if I could poll your collective wisdom and see if we're on the right track. Our twins, Jack and Emmeline, were born on 12/16 at 34W6D gestation. They spent two weeks in the NICU, where they were put on a regimented schedule -- feedings every three hours at 3, 6, 9. etc. When we got home, at our doctor's suggestion, we kept up this schedule and it seems to be working pretty well -- if they're not awake by the designated feeding time, we wake them up, change diapers, feed, and, during the day, have a little play time before putting them back down. My question is -- how do we know when they've outgrown this schedule? During the 3 am feeding, very often neither of them are awake yet, and I feel terrible waking them up out of a sound sleep. Plus, during the day, I think they're starting to sleep less and less so I'm wondering if we should be moving toward fewer naps of longer duration and more play time. Everything I've read stresses the importance of keeping them on a schedule, and I'm afraid of the utter chaos that might occur should we start deviating from the current schedule too soon. How do I know when it's time to start letting the schedule change and how do I go about changing it without everyone going crazy (i.e., husband and I up 23/7 tending to one twin or the other). Thanks for your help!

 

I would double check with your ped, but if they're growing well and keeping their diapers wet, I would keep the same schedule during the day and then let them sleep at night for as long as they want, but feed both babies when the first one wakes up just so they're still on the same schedule. So for example, feed them at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 7 pm, (man, that seems like a lot, did I really used to do that too???) then let them sleep.. say if one wakes at 11 pm, wake the other and feed them both and repeat through the night. Or, you could just move to an on demand system where when the first twin is hungry they both eat day and night.

Some people feed their twins on demand separately and that works for them, but for us keeping them on the same schedule was the key to sanity!

 

I agree with the PP about keeping up the 3 hour schedule during the day, but waiting until the first baby wakes up at night. But definitely wake and feed the other baby at the same time!

 

I agree with the pp's, too. I would not wake them at night for sure unless your pedi says you need to. And unless your pedi says not to, I would probably try to feed them more but less often during the day. So maybe every 3.5-4 hours instead, but they get more (if they will eat more at one time - Michael would always eat whatever we gave him, but Gabriel was a bit more picky and would only eat so much). Our boys were born at 37 weeks and weren't in the NICU, though, so things may be different for you.

 

I agree with everyone else...At night-let them sleep. I remember dh and I were waking them both at night to feed. I noticed one woke, and the other was still sleeping. So I let him sleep! Slowly they started to sleep a little bit longer, and they were on the same sleep schedule at night again. Or, dh had one baby and I had the other. Definitely keep the schedule the same during the day. As for knowing when to spae out naps more, they will let you know. If they are having a hard time going down, maybe push it back 15 minutes gradually. I wasn't strict on our schedule until 6 months old when they were sleeping through the night. That's when I was relatively strict with their feedings/sleep schedules. Good luck!

 

I agree with pp as well that if your pedi is ok with you letting them sleep then let them sleep and just wake/feed both when the first wakes. Naps won't really fall into a schedule until closer to 4-6 months so I would allow them 1-1.5hr of wake time of they can tolerate it but no more. Mine were born at 34wks and at 3 months would still require some 4hr naps during the day and they did sleep through the night as well. So they would basically wake, eat, and go right back down with no "play" time. Hang in there! Just as you get used to 1 schedule those twinners like to mix it up on ya

 

Thank you all so much for your quick answers. We have a ped appointment on Wednesday, so we'll double check with the doctor and then start adjusting the night schedule next week. We've read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and according to him, developmentally their sleep will be following their adjusted age -- i.e., they're a little over two weeks old, adjusted. So he says that the big nighttime change of sleeping longer periods can't happen until six weeks, adjusted. Was this your experience, those of you who had premature babies?

I really appreciate all of your input. These are our first kids and we have no idea what we're doing!

 

My kids actually did things closer to their actual age rather than adjusted. They were 34 weekers. Maybe for the micro preemies they did things according to adjusted but for ours they reached almost every milestone by actual vs adjusted. They started STTN around 7-8wks so that is only 1-2weeks adjusted.

 

I think mine are reaching normal developmental milestones as well -- thanks for the confirmation. Maybe he does mean that info for more premature babies. When I read that I couldn't possibly expect them to start sleeping for longer periods overnight until they were 6-8 weeks adjusted, I wanted to cry! That's at least six weeks away!

 

No advice here - but just wanted to say it's a great post as I also was wondering about this! We have 34 weekers and they are 1 month old tmrw (not adjusted). They were in NICU for 3 weeks and also put on a 3 hr schedule. We've had them home since Tuesday (so 4 days) and we are keeping them on the schedule set by the hosp just to make life easier. At times they go half hour more (so instead of eating at 2:30, I'll wake them at 3) but usually we do try to keep the same eating times for all of our sakes.

I'm also curious to see when we would change this schedule but seems like according to the answers, that we won't for a while - unless it's at night time!

Thanks for the info ladies!