When to stop waking 2nd twin to eat at night?

So many questions from my this morning! My twins sleep only about 2.5-3.5hrs at a time at night, my dd seems like she would go longer between feedings, but for the most part ds is the first to wake up, so we also wake up dd to feed her at the same time. I am wondering at what age did you stop waking your second twin to find out if they would go a longer stretch of sleep at night?

 

We just started that, but mine are only 7 pounds at this point. I plan to ask the pedi this afternoon if that's o.k.

 

At around 2 months I stopped waking the other when one woke up. One actually started sleeping through the night this way! Although, once we moved them into their cribs she started waking again. I still don't wake the other when one wakes, but may have to start doing it again, as now I am up at least 5-6 times, 2-3 with each :wacko: .

 

We always did (wake the second, if she wasn't already awake), until we ended up not feeding them when they woke, which if my foggy brain remembers, was at about 5 months. When we went in an just patted and paci'd, we obviously let sleeping baby sleep.

 

I can't really remember when I started, but what I can tell you is how we experimented for starters. It might mean a couple crazy nights for you, but will help to sort it out in the long run. My DS was always the one waking, so we left DD sleep past the first feeding for a couple nights in a row and she eventually started waking near the time of DSs second wake time. Then I woke HIM up when she was waking....so she skipped the first feed and was about right on track to eat when he'd be getting up anyway. It worked out pretty well. Then, she was the first one to STTN too...

 

We always woke up the other twin to feed. My fear was feeding one and then starting to fall back asleep and the other one would wake up!

 

Between 2 and 3 mo I stopped. For about 2 weeks it was crazy feed DS hour 3, DD hour 4, DS hour 6, DD hour 8, DS hour 9. But after 2 week DD was going 8 hours and DS 4-5 so life was much better. But be prepared for a week or so of worse sleep. Good luck

 

QUOTE(isis @ Apr 1 2008, 11:41 AM) [snapback]698881[/snapback]
So many questions from my this morning! My twins sleep only about 2.5-3.5hrs at a time at night, my dd seems like she would go longer between feedings, but for the most part ds is the first to wake up, so we also wake up dd to feed her at the same time. I am wondering at what age did you stop waking your second twin to find out if they would go a longer stretch of sleep at night?


We stopped when it became obvious that we were always waking Ben. It was always Daniel up first so we thought we'd see what Ben would do. Turns out he slept like 5 hours or something (vs. Daniel's 3). I didn't think it was fair to always wake the same one, night after night.

Once we switched, we started each taking one of the boys. Usually I would do Ben's feedings and my DH would do Daniel's. That way, we weren't up all night long. At first, it was a bit hard (i.e. I would worry when my DH was feeding Daniel by himself), but I got used to it and we have stuck with that ever since.

 

I never woke the second twin. Having said that, My twins have been, for the most part, sleeping through since they were 3months old. They are formula fed though. By the time they were 2 months DS would often go 6 - 9 hrs without waking. Bliss.

 

We still wake one when the other wakes. It's not always the same one that wakes up first, so I think the other would wake soon after the first if I didn't get him up anyway. They just get up once around 2:30, then sleep thru till morning.

 

I'm not entirely sure, but I think it was around 4 months? Once we figured out we were consistantly WAKING him to eat when his brother awoke, we tested him out on a weekend and let him wake on his own. Figured out he'd sleep till 7! And he has ever since- and sometimes even past 8!!! Now, my other one, STILL regularly wakes once a night to be fed- but I think we're SLOWLY getting better. Maybe 1-2 nights a week he'll STTN. So we're getting there!!!