Calling All Mothers of Twins!

Hi - real quickly... mine started sleeping through the night (by that I mean 7pm - 5am) at about 8 months old. By 4 or 5 months old they were sleeping from 7pm - 5am with one middle of the night feeding, but that was pretty quick and they went right back to sleep. Then around 12 months they dropped a daytime nap and slept from 7pm - 7am. They kept that up until about 3.5 and now go to sleep more like 8pm.

Mine were not breastfed, but they were fed exclusively breast milk - I pumped for a year but could not breastfeed.

They shared a crib until they were 5 or 6 months old and then we moved them to their own cribs, next to each other. They have never slept in separate rooms - they learned early to sleep through each other's cries. It got worse around 2 when they wanted to get out of bed and play with each other - until then, no problems sharing a room.

Advice? Hmmm... put them to sleep early in the evening. Don't try to do a 9pm bedtime hoping they'll sleep later in the morning. It just doesn't work. Stick to your schedule. The better routine you get on, the easier it is. Don't worry if you have to nurse to sleep, rock to sleep, have them sleep in swings, etc, when they're little. You won't be doing that when they're two.

Good luck to you in dealing with two babies that need to sleep! How old are your twins? (and congrats on having twins, of course)

I have 8 month old twin boys, Conner and Sean.
1) they started sleeping through the night at around 3 months old. they sleep from around 8pm or 9pm until between 7am and 9am. i was not able to breastfeed, i never produced any mill = (

2) they have been in their own cribs since they were about 4 months old. they were just so long and kick a lot so we had to seperate them.

3) so far we have kept them in the same room. our house is really small with only 2 bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs that my husband built. our oldest boy is just 2 1/2 and since they are all still too young for us to be down with them up or have big brother downstairs we have the twins crib and pack-n-play in the living room. we put the tv downstairs. they have learned to sleep through big brother playing and talking and we recently got a fish tank so now they here the water falling from the filter as well.

as far as input or advice, wow, that is a tough one because we are all so different. my advice would just be to take it easy. it was so hard at first when they are both hungry or cranky at the same time and one has to wait. espcially with a 2 year old running around i feel like someone is always having to wait or be put on hold. but i dont feel guilty anymore because i know i'm doing my best. and if it takes you what seems like "forever" to get a routine down dont worry!!! like i said my twins are 8 months and with illnesses and surgeries and other things we are just now getting a really good routine down. even though they may wake up at 7am, they dont do good with eating that early. they both get a diaper change and go in their walkers while I do some dishes or laundry. they are ready to eat around 9am or so, sometimes not even until closer to 10am. I just watch them and as soon as they get restless or start to fuss i make a bottle. How old are your twins??? any other kiddos???

How old, are your twins?

Hi L.
My twins started sleeping through the night (about 7:30 p.m. - 5 am if I remember correctly - they're 9.5YO now so it's quite possible I *don't* remember correctly LOL) at around 6 months. They were breastfed

They shared a crib up to around 11 months. In our twins playgroup, there was a lot of variation in how long the siblings shared a crib - anywhere from 3 months to 2 years! (I'd say the average was around 6 months). Ours have always shared a room - still do - but it's not unheard of to put twins in separate rooms if space permits - one family in our playgroup had to do this at 3 or 4 months.

There are a variety of sleep books out there that can be helpful - just remember that every family is different and that what works well for one family might not be what works best for you and don't feel guilty if someone else's method doesn't work for you. Some books that families in our parents of multiples club have found helpful are "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth (if you're open to the possibility of some CIO - although I *do* know families that have found the book useful even if they ignore the CIO part. The most helpful advice we got from that book is to try to put our kids down to sleep *earlier* than we had been - because, counterintuitively, keeping babies up later doesn't make them sleep later but generally makes them over-tired so they have a harder time falling asleep, don't sleep as deeply, and wake up earlier - just like what happens when we grown-ups have to force ourselves to stay awake - no matter how exhausted we are, it's harder to wind down and settle down to sleep when you finally have the chance that it is if you didn't have to force yourself to stay up later) and "The No-Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley if you want to avoid CIO if at all possible.

My twins are allmost one.... they still dont sleep thru the night!!! They go to bed at 630pm, wake up sometime between 11pm-1am for milk and than back to bed till 530am
I tried breastfeeding for a week, & it just wasnt the right choice for me ( I hated it)
They went into their own cribs in the same room at 3 months ( my son was too big for the bassinet) My daughter will not sleep if her brothers not in the room so I think they will be sharing a room for a while ( that and we dont have any more space) They never shared a crib. They just moved way too much.
My Ped said the same thing about sleeping thru the night, I told her she was welcome to come hear the screaming that can last for hours if we just leave them and dont give them any milk.

I breastfed my twins and they started sleeping through the night (about 8 hours) when they were nine weeks old (they were each weighing about 12 pounds by that point).

I put them in their own cribs at seven weeks. I was getting ready to go back to work and wanted to make sure the transition was done before working.

My boys still share a room and they're 2.5. We don't have the space in our house, especially now that we have a newborn.

Try reading the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins (ha! Like you have extra time to read!).