It’s been about a month since I posted about the boys’ sleep habits. A quick summary: when we brought them home we tried and failed to put them to bed at 8 PM every night. This routine evolved into essentially letting the boys stay up as late as they wanted (somewhere around 10 PM), taking a nap until they woke up (anywhere between 12 and 2 AM), feeding them, going back to bed, and then getting up for work in the morning. At the time this seemed like a good plan but now it sounds absolutely terrible. Why? Because things have gotten better?
Soon after I wrote that post, we started getting the boys into a better rhythm. Zach started sleeping 8-9 hour stretches each night and Adam started sleeping up to 6 (which was amazing for him). We’ve recently been able to start getting into a routine with them where they fall asleep around 8 or 9 and, depending on how awake they were during the day, they’ll sleep until 3 or 4 AM, sometimes even until 5 AM when we get up. We’ve gone down from three feedings a night, to two, and now down to about one. It’s fantastic! A few nights ago they both slept through the night!!! I’m talking NINE solid hours of sleep here!
You technically aren’t supposed to put babies on any sort of schedule for the first three months, but it was absolutely imperative for us to try. If it worked, it worked. It took a bit but they started to slowly get used to the routine to the point where they would start to fall asleep at the same time every night. Combine this with an increase in their bottle size to 5 oz and Adam finally sleeping in the crib (no more car seat!) and we start inching closer and closer to a full night’s sleep every day. It is fantastic, and it seems to be affecting the boys in a positive way as well. They seem much happier in the morning and evening which has made our time with them even more enjoyable.
So to the parents of twins who are pulling their hair out wondering when the hell they will ever sleep I want to say this: It does get better! It just takes a lot of work. We’re still learning and things are changing every day, but at the moment, things are looking up. Here’s to more nights of full sleep!
Relatively Ambitious 