We have 8 month old twins. After just getting over a month of them having colds (one gets it and then the other and then back again, yeah) we are having trouble with night sleeps. While sick DD would only go to sleep at night while being rocked and now we have a bad habbit (our own fault) which we dont know how to break. Second problem is both are waking about half a dozen times (combined) during the night and we have to go in a settle them, rock they and they will go back to sleep.

How can we break these habbits? I think they should be sleeping through without hassles, but please tell me if I am wrong.

We tried to let them settle themselves last night and let them cry and they just kept the other awake so once again we went down and rocked them to sleep.

Please help! What can we do?

Lack of sleep is awful! And times two is even worse. First I agree with you that at 8 months old babies can sleep through the night (although I'm not sure if your 2 were before they got sick?). My girls have slept 12 hours since they were 4 months - a lifesaver!!!

I think it depends on your parenting style and tolerance for your babies' crying which method you use to try to get some uninterrupted sleep. We have found that sickness can disrupt sleep even when the kids are better. From my reading and experience it seems that your main options are to carry on as you are (doesn't seem like you want to, though) or try a sleep programme. My suggestion is to do some reading about sleep programmes, find one that makes sense to you and DH (you both need to agree because you can really question things in the middle of the night) and then commit to that programme. I think you need to be consistent otherwise you'll confuse the babies. If, for example, you decide to do controlled crying and not pick them up, and then after an hour you can't stand it any more and pick them up, the message is that if you cry for a long time, eventually mum and dad will pick you up - not the message you want to send.

We've never separated our 2 and they are used to each other's noise but it may be worth trying if you have space - you may find it's really only a problem with 1 baby.

Good luck!


Maree

Eleanor 1/8/03
Harriet 1/8/03

We had similar problems with one of our girls at about the same age - and she started to wake her sister, so we had screaming x 2. We ended up separating them for a few weeks until they settled down again.

We would put Hannah in a cot in the dining room which was dark and quiet and Paige (the wakeful one) in the bedroom, next to our room. DH was in charge of CC for Paige as I couldn't handle it. While he was doing it, I would settle Hannah to bed and then go and make our tea. I would get up to her if she woke during the night on weeknights and DH on the weekend - quick cuddle and then straight back to bed. Once she learnt to settle herself off to sleep at bed time she was able to do it during the night too and we didn't need to get up to her any more. After a week or so of her sleeping through, we moved Hannah back into the bedroom and haven't looked back since.

We also found that they started to sleep longer (12-13 hours) once they learnt to settle themselves.

I wish we'd done it sooner, it made such a huge difference to our quality of life!!

Good luck whichever way you tackle this problem. Sleep deprivation is used as a method of torture for a good reason!

Nicolie
DDs Paige & Hannah (23/09/03)

Sounds like my story at the moment. My twins are almost 8mths and have both had colds - such bad runny noses that my poor DS has had a bleeding nose from me wiping it so often...poor thing. I coudn't get him to sleep without rocking him and at our worst, last Friday night, he slept for only about 1.5 hours. My DD has been the same, crying at each sleep, even day ones and is waking several times a night...not happy unless she's being picked up. I have since had a feel around and noticed that DS broke through his first tooth and DD has her third (but first top one) come through. So the poor things have been dealing with colds AND teething...here's me thinking it was just them with a cold but all along they were in pain from top to toe !!!

Could it be that it's teething for you also???? I have no idea what to do...all I know is that I'm keeping with my routine...DH has suggested that when she wakes we bring her down to watch tv with us...obviously I'm not going to do this...I just keep on doing what I do...there's been a lot of crying lately but I don't know what else to do. I make both babies warm, give them panadol/nurofen/bonjela, give them cuddles, reassure them, but failing all that there's not much I can do other than ride this storm out.

I hope things get better for you soon. I "think" I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. DS went down this morning without even a murmour (fingers crossed)

Good luck.

xx Megsy
ttc 6yrs
4 x IVF
angels @ 5.5wks, 7wks, 10wks (nat pg)



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