Sleep and Nap Trouble with 8 Month Old Twins

I, too, have twin boys that were also exclusively breastfed. Way to go on that! I know how demanding it can be!

Right around eight months I started letting my boys cry it out at bedtime for the EXACT reasons you described. I know many moms are against this, but when you have two babies to try to keep on the same schedule, and it takes 30 minutes of rocking per child, it would take an hour to put them to bed for naps and bedtime. Then, their nap schedules would be off, and there would be only about an hour where both were actually asleep!

My boys adjusted fairly quickly, and within days they were no longer truly crying, just a few minute whimper. Both boys are completely fine. Now one will go to sleep without crying one bit. His brother is a bit more stubborn and will cry for a minute or two, but he's fine.

Good luck!

It takes a week. But don't let them cry just like that.

Put them to bed, hug them, kiss them and say igood night, it is time to sleep. If they cry, wait a minute, then go back, tuck them in and say it is time to sleep. Use a nice, calm voice and tuck them in but dont't pick them up, especially don't pick them up for hugs and kisses.

They will cry again, so the second time, wait a little longer but no more than two minutes. Go back, tuck them in, say again good night it is time to sleep in a nice, calm voice.

The third time, wait up to 3 minutes and repeat. Increase the time you leave them crying every time you go, but never let them cry for longer than eight minutes - your twins are just 8 months old.

This way you reassure them mom is always at hand and listening, but don't encourage them to do anything else than sleep. They will get the message there is nothing to worry about because your voice is always calm.

It is extermely hard to let your children cry, even when you know you are listening and going back. but in about a week, they will be sleeping as the babies they are.

Of course, I assume you have checked and eliminated any reason for them to cry. Odd enough, one of my friends had this sort of problem with her baby daughter and it seems the reason she cried was sensitivity to the detergent used to wash the linen - it was different to the one used for her clothes - and the problem dissapeared with a change of detergent. I guess her baby got itchy whenever she was in the cot.

Something else you can try is giving them their veggie meal earlier in the day and giving them some baby cereal with milk in the evening - this is more filling than pureed veggies and will help them to go through the night. Adding meat to the meal will also make it more fillig,but it would give your twins and extra boost of energy you don't want at that time.

I hope you get many hours of happy sleeping.

Try reading the book Good Night Sleep Tight by Kim West. www.sleeplady.com It is the gentle guide to helping your child go to sleep and stay asleep. It was my savior with my b/g twins when they were babies. They too shared a room and I didint know if it would work but did! It was the BEST book I read and still refer to it when theres a shift in their sleeping pattern. They are now 2 1/2 and continue to sleep like champs! Hope this helps.

We did the crying method from the get go. The girls are 9/8/5 and seem happy, independent, well connected and cuddly. I never had two in the room at the same time. I let the baby cry up to 20 minutes, pat on back (not pick up), and go out again. My eldest took the longest to figure it out - up to 18 months. My middle didn't cry much ever. And my youngest screeched for 15 seconds and found her thumb and might not have gone to sleep right away, but was fine with that thumb!

I would also drop the 3:30 am feeding. I have twin girls and they started getting worse about nighttime feedings and not better. At 6.5 months we did sleep training with CIO but had to separate them. I had also been sleeping in their room until that point and feeding on demand overnight. Read up on the Ferber method because as the other poster said, you want to have timed intervals of checkins and soothing for when they cry. Also consider separating them at least for this and you can train one and your partner train the other. We chose a holiday week for this reason. Good luck!

Hi M., I know how trying this can be. I have 10yr old B/B twins and tried many things as well. What seemed to work for me at that time, was to have them share a crib and put on classical music or soft music. This seemed to lull them to sleep. Perhaps this may work for you or may not, give it a shot - you may be surprised.

G'luck and all the best,

ML

Although breastfeeding is very soothing to baby, a liquid diet for 8 month old babies does not provide enough sustenance. You might want to start bottle feeding and add cereal to the formula. Consider weening off the breast and adding solids for dinner. After this diet change, your babies might stop waking up in the middle of the night. The bath, singing and massage will never be enough if an empty stomach is what you're trying to fix. At 8 months you should not have to getting up in the middle of the night.

I never allowed my children to cry themselves to sleep, but they did not cry unless they were sick or hungry.

Good luck with your twins.

Have you tried some sleepy time music to put on low that may soothe them. I had to use some Mylicon with my daughter before bed because she would have some terrible gas build up. She also had chronic ear infections at a young age to only find out she had severe food allergies at the age of 1-including her formula. I am not sure what damage this will do, but there is a possibility that it could cause more of a separation anxiety. If you talk to a doctor they will probably tell you to give a dose of infant motrin or tylenol to try and relax the children. ( thats what they told me). I wish you the best and it will work out.

Hello, I don't have twins but I went through a similar situation so maybe this could help? The #1 best advice I read was to put your baby in the crib *awake* at bedtime. I started this when he was 6 weeks old, he wouldn't cry at all, just chill out or already be drowsy and go to sleep. Not perfectly every night, but there was rarely any fighting sleep.

Well, at 4 months he went through a developmental spurt (way more alert, no more long afternoon nap, grabbing things, etc-) and off and on for 3 weeks, he'd cry when we put him down! So we did a similar thing to Ferber, but we went in and comforted him as often as we wanted to. Just never picked him up and rocked him except for a couple super-fussy times, when I nursed him again. After those crazy weeks, he was back to a peaceful routine that has pretty much remained to this day, unless of course he doesn't have a good afternoon nap and then is a wee bit overtired.

As you go back and forth to check on him, keep an ear out - often, you'll hear the crying slow or be muffled as they start sucking their binkies or thumbs or just nestle in tighter; and their eyes will be shut...to the point that if you DO walk in, you'll make him cry more because he's on the way to sleeping, by calming himself down more. Soon you'll get the hang of it. (A good way to distract yourself from the crying is, in between checkins, work on chores or start dinner or whatnot so you can handle it - it is tough to hear!)

Much research speaks to the fact that as long as you give your kids lots of love, care, and attention, this crying will not damage them long term. As long as they're fed, not sick, clean diaper, etc., they're okay. And I know EVERYONE says this, but truly, my guy is good natured, and is overall a happy kid. What I realized is, as adults we can go for a walk, work out, gossip with pals, watch a funny movie, etc, to work off steam; a baby really just has crying, especially if they can't run/play yet to work off excess energy. Sometimes it seems to me that my boy is just venting or letting off steam. He's wanting to sleep but maybe still wants to play, maybe he is working on a new skill and he's overwhelmed by it, or is overtired, etc. As long as you're always checking in to comfort him in the crib instead of leaving them alone to cry it out, they know you're there and they have that security. And they are already good sleepers through the night (I agree you could even skip the 3am feed - my guy sometimes wakes up at 3am to vocalize and play, I just change him and replace the binky and say good night - it usually works, he often is back asleep in 10 min) so you're well on your way to a good sleep routine.

A good guide we used was Sleeping Through the Night, by Jodi Mindell. Similar to Ferber but not as structured. Beware, though, that a lot of experts want you to think that then your kid will ALWAYS go down easily and ALWAYS sleep through the night, but they evolve from time to time and that's normal - sometimes we push his bedtime back for awhile, for example; or if he's hitting a growth spurt he may wake once a night to eat (he was low birth weight). So far though nighttime is pretty mellow, and will be for you too! Good luck!