Twins First Year Sleep Schedules

Twins First Year Sleep Schedules

(And sometimes lack thereof)

We followed strategies from our parent, grandparents, the NICU nurses, and therapist that I worked closely alongside for years. However, I will only ever claim to know what to do with exactly three specific children and even they make me look incompetent daily. So, talk about ideas with your family members, doctors, spouse, and do what works for you and your baby. It might happen to be the exact opposite of everything we did. For us, a parent led schedule and a tiny bit of that cringe worthy word "sleep training" worked wonderfully. 

Newborn-3 Months

• We brought the babies home from the hospital on a 3 hour feeding-sleeping schedule. I gave birth at the hospital I had worked at and I knew I wanted the NICU's feeding schedule for our twins before they were even born. Whether breast feeding worked out or not. 
• After tandem nursing them on my own the first try with no nurses there (I'm proud of that can you tell?). I then ended up nursing my twins back to back the entire first night because the nurses handed them to me one right after another like that all night. 
• As soon as we switched to Mother-Baby in the morning I turned completely exhausted to my new nurse and told her if breastfeeding was going to work out at all we needed to fix that. She helped me tandem feed and get them on that 3 hour schedule more or less. 
• However despite our efforts, I finally recognized they were not getting enough, the same thing had happened with my first child and I had feeding therapist experience this time so I knew what I was seeing. I requested a pump and sure enough there was very little colostrum. My first suffered the first 4 days waiting patiently for mommy's milk supply to be sufficient, it was a horrible experience, and I was not going there with these two. 
• I requested donor milk while in the hospital and we went home supplementing with formula. It was my plan all along to not be a hero with breastfeeding twins, so I did the amount that made me and them happy. I bring this up because I feel feeding schedules drive sleep schedules. Therefore the type of feeding and style matters. Supplementing with formula was a wonderful choice for us.
• In my experience with my three, they slept better with a full belly. That meant supplementing formula with the twins. (If breastfeeding exclusively works obviously that's best because breastmilk is magical, formula might not be nature's magic, but it's a human-made life saving miracle product all the same. It save lives....including emotional sanity. Just saying, formula needs to get it's props too.)
• Husband and I had bottles prepped bedside at night and took turns. We always did diapers first, then I could feed a baby and nurse the other or set them in their rock n plays and bottle feed both of them while I pumped with my Freemie Pump. Sometimes this was just easier than juggling two of them or trying to figure out if one or both had gotten enough breastmilk. When they were done, I would put everything away and go back to bed. 
• Babies slept next to us the first few months in their Rock N Plays with their Owlet monitors on. I rarely co-slept, my son didn't co-sleep well. My daughter did, so I would nurse and co-sleep her sometimes, there was a period where I could co-sleep her every morning and it went well.  My husband sleeps like a bear and usually we were too paranoid about him rolling over onto them, I would block his side of the bed with pillows if I co-slept. 
• Husband and I took shifts. He likes to stay up late and I like to go to bed early and wake up early. This might be the one time in our relationship this really worked for us. Usually he would do the 8pm/9pm feeding and stayed up for the midnight feeding. I went to bed around 8 or 9pm. I would get up for the 3am/4am feeding and then the 6am/7am one and let him sleep. 

3 Months-5 Months

• We stay on the 3 hour schedule until about 3 months when we tried to track their intake every 24 hours and started to try to make the majority to all of that during the day time hours. We had one block of 7 hours straight from both twins at 3 months. 
• Around 4 months my husband convinced me to move them to their own room, they stayed in their rock n plays for about another month and we moved them to their cribs. They still wore their Owlets at night. We felt they slept better in the rock n plays, as had our first baby, but I'm aware there's debate out there on the safety of letting them sleep in their rock n plays.
• My girl twin kept up with 5-8 hours night time sleep, our boy twin was and still is a much less consistently good sleeper. He wakes and screams when he is tired. And yes we've considered everything from reflux to allergies etc. He is a very cranky tired person and a difficult baby to comfort. Bottle, cuddles, diaper changes, not much works. If he is not up partying and playing then he is pissed about it. I'm preparing myself for his teenage years already. The great thing is about 5 minutes of parent torture and he falls asleep! Believe me, these are my last babies and I didn't hesitate to try to spoil him with cuddles, rocking, singing, the whole shebang. 
• We're all happier with a little cry it out unfortunately, he falls asleep faster, sleeps better, and then so do the grown ups. The really wonderful part is that he wakes up in a wonderful mood usually so I feel better. Now, if he is really angry, sick, teething or willing to cuddle we go a different route. 
• By adjusting their daytime schedule, trying to give all their daily need of milk during the day, waking from a nap if necessary, and prolonging night feeds to see if they'd fall back asleep we had twins sleeping through the night about 80% of the time around 4 months old. They still took about 2-3 naps a day. 
• HUGE FACTOR IN CONSISTENT SLEEP AT NIGHT- for us at least--- keeping the same bedtime and wake-up time routines!!!!

6 Months-9 Months

• The twins hit sleep regression at expected developmental growth spurts and we would just continue with our strategies. With my oldest we pretty much had cut out night feedings by this age, but with not wanting to wake another twin or my older child I would offer small amounts of formula at night, at room temperature, and rock them to re-settle them if necessary. 
• We hit a really rough spurt at 9 months teething, illness, and growth and we had a few weeks with rough sleep. 
• Again, they were different babies and our girl twin got back in routine much faster and easier than our boy. The twins took about two naps a day during this period, a morning one from 10-12 and after noon for about an hour starting around 3pm or 4pm. 

10 Months-11 Months

• We got back into routine around 10 months. 
• Down to just one nap: They stopped taking a second nap and we moved the morning one a little later, 1030/11am so they wouldn't be too tired before bed. 
• My boy twin was STILL waking at 3am after our sickness episodes and nothing was working. I finally moved his bedtime about 15-30minutes later, letting him play with his big brother after girl baby went to bed for a little while. This small adjustment did the trick for him and that 3am wake up was gone. He still occasionally does it but falls back asleep within 5-15minutes if we leave him and it's not every night like it was before. 

12 Months

• As we approach their first birthday things are still changing and they are starting to switch their nap schedule on their own. I think we're at an in-between stage where somedays they are tired and still nap by 11am and other days, if I try to put them down around that time they will fight it and not fall asleep until 12pm or later!

May the New Year bring our soon-to-be toddlers lots of good nights of sleep and happy well rested parents.......One can dream!