My twins are four months old today. I think we are a few days into the four month sleep regression - increased night wakings, nursing at each waking, and taking longer to go back to sleep. Last night my boy was wide awake after nursing at 3 am when nursing usually puts him to sleep. After 30-45 min of rocking and bouncing on an exercise ball I finally put him in the swing where he was nice and calm and eventually fell asleep. I feel they are ready for sleep training but they have their 4 month well visit next Thursday. Should I wait to start until next Friday or start this weekend? What would you do? I go back to work in 2.5 weeks so I'm hoping they start sleeping better again by then. Also can any moms of twins weigh in on sleep training twins?
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my LO is 4 months today also! happy 4 months to your twins!
i noticed a few weeks ago that LO wasn't nursing to sleep at his night feedings like he used to go. it made me panic a bit because those were the only times where it was easy for LO to fall asleep. i would go ahead and put him back in his crib awake, and luckily he fell back asleep (or at least was quiet) after a few minutes of fussing.
we started sleep training at 11 weeks because LO had a lot of problems falling asleep on his own and nothing we would do seemed to work, so personally i don't think you need to wait until after the 4-month appointment (barring specific medical/health needs). but if it would make you feel more comfortable talking to the pediatrician first, i think that's a good idea too.
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@edelweiss: thank you! Four months went by so quickly. I guess I'm more concerned about how the shots might undo the progress if we start this weekend. What do you think?
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LO had her four month shots last Friday and they only made her sleep better. I'd go for the sleep training sooner rather than later so that by the time you're back at work things have worked themselves out.
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The 4 month shots weren't so bad for my twins! As for sleep training twins, the only success I've had is with doing things gradually. We've been working on drowsy but awake since birth (6 months old on Monday). I can put them down awake now, but sometimes I have to put them in different rooms so they can talk/fuss it out. Many people (including the author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins) said that they won't wake each other up, and sometimes that's true, but I found that they fall asleep faster in different rooms (sometimes. Often I can put them down in the same room).
Wow, what a rambling paragraph. Sorry!
Also- Baby Merlin's Magic Sleep Suits. Amaze-a-balls if you're still swaddling and want to transition out of it.
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Have you tried just sticking him/them in when they are awake in the middle of the night? The same thing happened to us around that time and the middle of the night was when he first started to be able to put himself to sleep all on his own (gradually with no cry sleep solution was able to for first night put down, and naps as well).
My LO has never been sleepier from shots (or anything else, ha!) but definitely is ouchier and clingier. I don't know what type of sleep training you're planning to do which probably makes a difference. I personally would be uncomfortable not responding to LO's cries after shots.
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Shots have never messed up sleep for us, if anything it helps! If you think they're ready, then go for it. I don't have twins, but a good friend just sleep trained with hers. She said putting them in different rooms made all the difference in the world.
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yeah, DD just turned 4 months as well and her MOTN feedings don't put her to sleep anymore either. she's still in a cosleeper in our room, so i just put a pillow over my head to ignore her (otherwise i would be up until she fell back asleep) and she falls asleep again on her own. i think you can totally start doing any training that you need to. she started sucking her hands to fall asleep a couple weeks ago, so we've been swaddling them out for her and while she's not knocked out like she used to be, she falls asleep on her own (as long as i leave her alone to do it!)
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@WALLAROO: how did the 2 month shots go? as some have mentioned, shots may not affect their sleep (and actually my LO was super sleepy after the 2-month shots).
while i'm far, far, far from an expert on sleep, i don't think there's any perfect time to sleep train. so for me, i would probably want to sleep train sooner rather than later (so this weekend instead of next), but probably the night after they get the shots i would respond to any unusual cries of discomfort. but that's just me! whatever you decide, good luck with the training!
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@meganmp: we are still swaddling and that sleep suit looks interesting
.@scg00387: I tried to put him down awake after nursing him and he just cried. We are planning to do Ferber.
@birdofafeather: how long does it take her to fall back asleep? They have started sucking on their hands while they are awake. We are still swaddling so I'm not sure if they have figured out that it will help them self soothe. Oh they also do not like pacifiers.
@edelweiss: they had low grade fevers after their 2 month shots so I gave them Tylenol which helped them sleep
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@WALLAROO: i would say 5-10 minutes? she doesn't cry, just fusses, sucks her hand. she/i didn't figure out the hand thing until two weeks ago. once i took a guess that it might help her, i swaddled her hand up to her mouth. it helps with naps sometimes and helps sooth her to sleep in the middle of the night. i woke up to her self soothing by sucking on her hand a couple times and then i realized that i had to learn to ignore it unless she cried because i was actually waking her up when she was really trying to get back to sleep.
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@birdofafeather: swaddling their hands by their mouth is a great idea. I think I'll give that a try.
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@WALLAROO: my LO also worked on self soothing by sucking his thumb (wouldn't take a pacifier either) so I think @birdofafeather 's suggestion is great! hope shots go well and so does sleep training
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I haven't done any sleep training, but everything I'm reading says a baby can't fully self soothe until 6-9 months
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