Night weaning/sleep training twins

(12 Posts)
toomuchpink Sat 23-Mar-13 21:44:53

I did it successfully around nine months. They were in separate rooms, which I personally think helped although I do hear of folk having three children in one room and it working out ok. Hopefully as you progress with their day time solids, the amount of night waking will reduce so it will be easier than you imagine at the moment. Not that it is ever easy of course, but sure is nice when you come out the other side!

Eating43 Thu 21-Mar-13 22:25:36

Thanks everyone

Twinniemum78 Thu 21-Mar-13 21:16:52

Hi eating. Like mandy I can only offer my experience and wouldn't call it pearls of wisdom. Also, yours may be a little young still. But when my b/g twins were 7 or 8 months old they stopped sleeping through and started waking during the night - several times - and only a feed (breast or bottle) would get them back to sleep. I was going back to work shortly so was desperate to solve it but i really didnt want to do cc or cio. The thing that worked for us was bringing their evening bottle forward so there was a gap between their feeding and their going to sleep (usually filled by a bath). In other words, they weren't associating sleep with food and were falling asleep by themselves. The first evening we did it, they woke during the night as usual but we just left them, they cried for a couple of minutes (I did go in at one point but didn't pick them up) but then stopped. The second night they hardly cried at all. They're over a year now and we've had months and months of continuous sleep during the night. The health visitor said it was unusual for it to work that quickly, but she said it always does work. That said, it does rely on two things: 1) you being confident they've had a reasonable amount if food during the day, and 2) the underlying problem being that they rely on a feed to get them back to sleep. We never separated them and the little bits of crying they did do never woke the other up, which had been my main worry.

Good luck!!! X

Nancy54 Sun 17-Mar-13 18:24:52

Hey Mandy, my dts are my first and second too!! Just appear to be particularly crap sleepers! In fact we've had good and bad phases but were going through a particularly bad one at the mo!

ScillyCow Sun 17-Mar-13 17:21:56

DT1 was still waking once a night for a feed at 8 months. I started wearing a tight t shirt so he couldn't feed and taking him into bed for a cuddle instead of a feed and he stopped waking after 5 nights.

DT2 slept through at 3 months, but as he was so underweight I had to keep waking him for feeds till I weaned him at 6 months (oh the irony).

if they have been n together, maybe their crying won't wake the other??

Mandy21 Sun 17-Mar-13 17:19:22

Nancy I should have said my twins were my 1st (and 2nd) so I could give them my sole attention and they always slept well during the day so I could put my feet up during their nap. When NUmber 3 came along (and DTs had dropped their daytime sleep by that point), I was exhausted and we just did whatever we could to get her to sleep - all the things I knew weren't helpful in the long run - in our bed, feeding her for ages during the night, even getting in her cot with her!! So I feel your pain with little sleep and having an older child too.

Nancy54 Sun 17-Mar-13 13:32:35

Thanks Mandy, sounds like it worked pretty well for you. I do think mine are a bit young still but I'll def be trying that in a few months time, assuming sleep hasn't improved and it prob won't have!!

Mandy21 Sat 16-Mar-13 21:22:15

I can only offer my experience but am sure someone with a proper answer will come along soon. My DTs were premature so I was quite happy to feed them pretty much on demand during the night for quite a long time, and my little boy starting sleeping through by himself about 8 or 9 months, little girl was still feeding 2 or 3 times. When we decided it was now or never, we separated them, let little boy sleep through then just tended to DD. So, I think they will probably find that they'll be different when they're older so you probably won't need to do both of them at the same time. With DD (this was about 11 months and although she was still b/f at night I had introduced a bottle during the day so she was used to it), I stopped offering her a b/f on night 1, offered her a bottle instead and she woke up as normal. Night 2, I offered her the bottle again but with water, we had a bit of a fight getting her down again, but she did eventually go down. Same 2nd time she woke. Night 3, she woke once, realised it was water and went straight back to sleep. Night 4, slept through smile. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a miracle cure, there were still broken nights here and there but it was 10 times better than her waking up every night.

Good luck

Nancy54 Sat 16-Mar-13 18:48:53

I know, come on people tell us what to do! Lol

Had a really bad night last night, please let tonight be an improvement!!

Eating43 Sat 16-Mar-13 18:25:27

Hmm, no pearls of wisdom, am hoping that doesnt mean it cant be done! In that case I will just report back in a few months if I do manage to get it sorted! Do let me know if you get there first Nancy!

Nancy54 Fri 15-Mar-13 19:50:50

Hi eating! my bg twins are 5 1/2 months and wake quite a lot too! so i'm watching with interest!! (but no adivce, sorry!)

Eating43 Fri 15-Mar-13 18:35:15

Hi. My B/G twins are just over 6 mo, and at the moment I am still breast feeding them when they wake at night, usually 3 or 4 times a night (grrr). With my elder daughter I night weaned at 9 months, by just cuddling and soothing her back to sleep instead of feeding and within just 3 days she was pretty consistently sleeping through. So I am just starting to think about when/how on earth I might do the same with these two. I am not planning on doing CC/CIO, I/we will be there comforting them, but there will inevitably be quite a bit of crying involved.

So, does anyone have any experience of this? Do we do it with one at a time, put them into separate rooms to do it (which would involve one being in our room probably), just do it with both at the same time (again, in the same room?). Do we assign one twin to me and one to DH and just stick with them, or go in alternate times to whoever....Generally they don't disturb each other, or DD1 who sleeps next door, but I'm not sure if this would still be the case if one kicks off just after the other has been finally persuaded to go back to sleep without a feed.....etc etc. just wondering if anyone has any pearls of wisdom for me!

Thanks in advance.

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