I have 7 week old twin boys who are no trouble at all! But over the last couple of weeks I have noticed that they don't like to sleep much through the day, they may have a half hour or so nap here and there but other then that they don't want to sleep, they are still waking up every 4 hours or so during the night, on the odd occasion in the last week they have slept 6-8 hours of a night but most of the time its just 4 hours. I know they are still young and I do not expect them to sleep through the night every night but I don't think they are getting the amount of sleep they need, does anyone have any advice of what I can do to try and get them to sleep a little longer through the day? Also when we are feeding (bottle) throughout the day and night they are falling asleep not even half way through and are near impossible to wake back up but as soon as we put them back to bed they are wide awake again! this has been going on for maybe nearly two weeks now, before this they were really good feeders and had no trouble finishing their bottles, they were drinking usually about 150mls and then all of a sudden it seemed they wanted more so we went up to 180 but then after that they were lucky to drink 100mls. I had them weighed just before this started happening and they had both gained a good amount of weight, and they are due to be weighed again in a weeks time, so it will be interesting to see how much they have gained this time. They also have been really snuffly/blocked up in the nose and a little bit chesty the last week or so too the doctor checked them out and just said it sounds worse then it actually is, maybe that is affecting their feeding & sleeping. If anyone has any advice they can give me to help them sleep a little bit more through the day or even sleep longer at night if possible and to get them to finish off a bottle I would really appreciate it! Its just frustrating because by the time I get them both fed, its like the first one is getting hungry again because he didn't finish his last bottle, then through the day they have a little play until they start getting tired so I put them to bed but then they are wide awake again and just grizzle until I get them back up. They are usually pretty good at going back down during the night once they have had a feed.

I don't have any advice on how to get the to sleep longer during the day. For some babies it's a trade off for getting good stretches of sleep over night. 4 -6 - 8 hour stretches overnight is excellent for 7 week old babies.

If their drop in feed volume has coincided with the congested nose then it may help to use a saline spray and or snot sucker prior to feeds to help them breathe. Little babies can tire easily with a feed if their nose is blocked.

Congratulations on your babies!

Hi there!!

Sounds very normal and that they have probably just "woken up" as such. My twins would sleep beautifully for blocks of 2-3 hours for the first month or so, and then after that it was just cat-naps of 40 minutes or so and needed resettling to sleep longer.

The babies might be falling asleep on the bottle as they are probably tired. Lots of babies (mine included) were just not happy having 40 minutes sleep and were only really refreshed after 1.5hrs or more. I guess all you can do is try and keep them awake as much as possible for the bottle, give them so awake time - not much at that stage and then try and settle them. I guess I'm talking about a rough feeding/sleeping routine. I tried to get to 2.5 to 3 hours between feeds, but sometimes that just wasn't doable. I was breast and bottle top-up though...They may be appearing hungry, but actually tired but want to use the bottle to go to sleep - which is perfectly normal!!

They are still so little its hard though - plus they change so much at this stage! Have you got a swing? One of my twins would sleep for hours in the swing! So after she woke at the 40 minute mark I would pop her in the swing and she would sleep more - it was great!

Mine didn't sleep well at night for ages - I can't remember how long. I think they really only slept through around 8/9 months??? My singletons slept through at 5 months and 3 months respectively - so they are all different.

Maybe just try a few different things and see how you go???

Good luck

I have been using the saline spray and also cleaning out their noses before a feed, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. They are using stage 1 avent teats, so I am wondering if maybe they are too slow for them now and perhaps they need stage 2, I guess the only way to know is to try and find out.
They actually had a feed not that long ago, one finished his 150 ml the other left a little bit, but they actually went back off to sleep in their beds without fuss, I won't get my hopes up until we get past an hour though!

I do have swings and I use them if they won't settle back in their bassinets, although the same thing happens, they sleep for a little bit then wake up again.

Its all just a big learnig curve for me, as these are my first. I don't like complaining too much because they have been very good babies from the start and have slept really well of a night from about the second of third night of being home! They don't even really cry as in full on screaming cry, they just grizzle, which can make it hard to tell what they want at times, cause they may be hungry but they won't cry enough for me to really know, so I just have to guess really, but then thats better then having two screaming babies!

Thank you for your advice and ideas, I guess its all about going with their flow and working around them.
I might try the stage 2 teats next feed and see how we go.

I just wanted to jump in and say that 7-9 weeks my two were pretty fussy and little more restless than usual, but that it settled down. I also think you get a better idea over time with what grizzles/cries mean - what is settling what may escalate/

I just followed the 1 and half - 2 hours awake at a time, keeping an eye out for tired signs and would let them nap as often as was necessary and found an early bedtime (we switched from 8-8.30 to 6.30/7) helped a lot. They really sorted them selves into a routine overtime/

Mine are also my first and it is a STEEP learning curve, but they change so frequently ! Wish you all the best!

congratulations on your lovely babies.

I just wanted to chime in that there is usually a growth spurt at about the 6 week mark. so maybe EITHER they have dropped off bottles because they are past that spurt, OR maybe they are doing it a little late and just needing to feed smaller amounts more often for a week or two while they do that (they still have little tummies, so can't always just do a bigger feed in a growth spurt).

If I am reading your post right, they have only been snuffly recently, not their whole lives. Is that right? Our twin 1 was snuffly from birth, and after midwives telling me it was fluid from the birth, doctors telling me it was a virus, blah blah blah and more than a month of salineing and suctioning her nose at every feed, I finally axed dairy from my diet and within a couple of weeks her nose had cleared up. I don't think that's your problem though if they've been fine with their formula up until this point.

Lots of babies are catnappers up to the 4, 5 or even 6 month mark (or beyond...). Resettling is a great idea, by whatever means you prefer, but it sure is hard to manage with two little babies at once. Tight wrapping can also help, but I'm sure you have tried that already! Do they sleep better if you chuck them in the pram and go for a long walk?

it's all guesswork, isn't it? my twins are my 2nd and 3rd kids and I still don't know what I am doing, or just when I think I have it all in hand, something changes.

You are doing a wonderful job!

Loz

With the feeding I switched to the stage two teats and they are drinking a full bottle without falling asleep now, so I am guessing that was the problem there!

They do seem to sleep better if we are walking in the pram and even in the car. They are even more settled in their swings rather then their bassinets during the day, I am just worried about them getting used to falling asleep in their swings and then not wanting to sleep in their beds of a night, which at the moment they are doing without too much fuss! Maybe they just want day time napping to be separate from their night time beds! lol
I have been thinking of getting one of those fold out couches and seeing if they might nap on that during the day. And yes I wrap them too!

I too have just been doing what you are doing gem+twins and having them awake for an hour & a half to two hours and watching for tired signs and once I see the signs I put them into bed only to have them wide awake again in 15 minutes and not settling back down.
Hopefully it is just a faze they are going through although its been going on about 3 weeks now!

They have been snuffly since around the same time they stopped napping but it cleared up then come back again. I'm in Tassie and our weather has been all over the place lately which doesn't help, one minute we need a fire next minute we don't!

Hopefully they will grow out of it soon. I have also been thinking maybe its time to move them from their bassinets to their cots and see how they go sleeping in them, but it makes me sad cause I feel like they are growing too fast putting them in their cots already!! lol