I'm new to this but was wodering if anyone has any advice for establishing routines for twins.
My girls are 16 weeks but were 9 weeks early and until now I have been demand feeding but would like to introduce routines. This is proving difficult!
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.!

Hi and welcome. Congratulations on your babies.

We had a routine right from the start so didn't have to go through to much transition (I demand fed one night and it did my head in!). At 7 weeks (your twins' corrected age) our routine was a bottle feed (I went from BF and comping with EBM and/or formula to fully formula fed at 6 weeks. If you're fully BF then this routine may not be appropriate as 4 hourly feeds might not work) every 4 hours approximately with the first feed at 6am (or whenever the first baby woke around that time) and then around 10am, 2pm, 6pm and 10pm. Early on when the first baby woke in the night we'd wake the other and feed them both at the same time. But around 8 weeks they started to stretch the sleep after the 10 pm feed out so we started leaving the sleeping one and from 9 weeks one would sometimes sleep through. And then when they were 10 weeks old (12 October 2003 to be precise - a momentous day!) they both slept through from 10.30pm until 7.00am.

We always did the 10pm and night feed in dim light, no talking, singing or anything else - just feeding. We tried to make the day and night different.

The important thing with routine for little babies is the feed/play/sleep cycle. Every time they wake it's a feed then a play (ie tummy time, kicking with nappy off, under the baby gym, cuddling) then when they start showing "tired signs" into bed while they're awake so they go to bed before they get overtired and learn how to go to sleep on their own. I think it's really important to learn the tired signs for your babies - examples are jerky movements, rubbing eyes, staring into space - these tend to happen before crying or grizzling. If you leave them too long after the tired signs, they get overtired and then have trouble getting to sleep.

Routine can seem like a real bind when they're tiny. I felt very housebound as I found feeding 2 babies at once difficult anywhere but home. But the payoff is settled babies and certainty for you - you don't have to guess at what to do next.

Good luck with your babies. Hope your efforts to get some routine into your life go well.

Maree

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

Thank you so much for your advice.
My girls are fully B/F so trying to stretch feeds to four hourly has been hard. mostly its 3 hourly with a straight sleep through from 10pm - 6am. Have thought greatly about comp feeding with formula lately as it has become quite a bit draining feeding them both and finding time for my 5 yr old, housework etc.
A friend had recommended I come to this site when I find time to try for advice and I'm glad I have. It is great reading all the threads and relating to other peoples experiences.

Thanks again.
Steph.

DITTO from this camp! We used the feed/play/sleep routine, as soon as our girls started to have more wake time. I always felt like the "routine nazi" but it was very important for my sanity and keeping the girls settled and happy. We had very few sleep issues, and always find that the girls know what to expect from their day. It works for us. The hardest thing for me was adjusting to the girls growing and changing the routines, but we have always managed to keep some sort of routine going along with help and suggestions from many here!

My girls are breastfed, but we did give them an evening bottle of formula, only a top up, I think the most they ever had was 80 - 100mls or they would have a bottle if I went out etc. Once they started having a couple of "solid" meals per day, we dropped the bottles. We never encountered any problems on that front. I am still bf at 16m, not bad considering I thought I might only get to about 3m!!!!

I think gently as she goes when introducing a routine or changing one. Gradually move them into the time frame you want. Stretching out wake times etc, without compromising your sleep routines. I really found once they started having solids helped too. Obviously thats a way down the track for you, my girls were 7 weeks early, so they were almost 6m before starting. But we had a pretty good routine going with just the bf.

Congrats and good luck with your babes!

Sharyn
Meg14/4/99
Hannah & Josie 22/3/04 (33 wks)
DH David



...some days are diamonds
.

Hi ladies....sorry to gatecrash your thread stepho I also have ?'s about routines. My boys are 8 weeks old tomorow! and are fully BF. Nakigirl, as you said, when one wakes in the night, we wake the other and feed them both. But we have been wondering if we should let the other sleep and see if they sleep through but have been hesitant to do this in case the other wakes an hour or two later and they are then out of sinc and we are up twice in the night instead of once...

At the moment they have a 5 or 6pm feed and only wake at around 12/1am and then again around 5/6am. Ladies do you think if we wake them for a 10pm feed their big sleep might be from 10pm to 5/6am instead of 5pm to 1am and we might get them to sleep through the night or will we stuff things up and end up having two night feeds...any advice? Or maybe introduce a fomula feed as their last night feed or will this affect my milk supply???

what to do?

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Thanks guys.
Twice today I've checked to see if anyone has replied and twice today I've been pleasantly surprised with some advice that I can actually use, by people who know what I'm going through. THANK YOU!!
The last four months have been hazy, foggy to say the least but knowing that there is light at the end of the tunnel is reassuring.
Establishing routines is a hard thing to do with one baby let alone two. My husband and I have done pretty well with the help we have but a bit of advice can go a long long way when you are struggling to remember what day it is.
Eliza and Hannah are slowly establishing the eat, play, sleep routine but somehow I wish I'd been the hard nazi a little earlier. Better late than never I suppose.
Hope to spend some more time on here and get to know some of the regulars, it would be a nice contact to the outside world from which I seem to be trapped for the present time.
Thanks again.
Steph.

Been feeling guilty for gatecrashing your discussion Steph...ignore my post...I will post another discussion....

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Just a note to say don't be too hard on yourself if you can't get into a good routine with your twins. Mine are 10 months old and I am still struggling to get our DDs in sync with each other. Up until 6 months they fed every 2 1/2 hours, even now it is 3 hours between each meal (except overnight). And they still wake up in the morning at different times and have day sleeps at different times.

I found this very hard to accept at first, and felt like such a failure, but now try and take advantage of the flexibility this offers. It is hard enough getting one baby into a routine, let alone two!

But good luck with it!

Narelle

Hi Steph
I just wanted to say that it sounds like you're doing a good job of getting a routine happening, without realising you probably have one!
My girls feed 3hrly - even though they're formula fed - and sleep from 9pm-6am at night, similar to yours. Changing to formula may not lengthen to 4hrly feeds during the day (mine have never fed 4hrly & have been on formula since 5 days old!), but I suppose it would allow things to be a bit more predictable and let others help you feed? It's great that you are b/f twins, that's a feat in itself!
It's fantastic that you're getting that much sleep at 7 weeks corrected age though, my girls have only started doing this in the last few weeks even though I am a routine nazi!
Hang in there!

Lisa
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