How the hell do you get two babies to sleep at the same time?

[yummyscummymummy01]

I have 4 month year old twins. They are gorgeous but are also very hard to get to sleep unless I rock them in their pram, which they have basically outgrown already. I do bed times alone and am BF although tempted to give a bottle before bed. Any tips??? HELP!

Keeping them asleep is also an issue. I'll save that one for another day

[snackarella]

Bottle! ( and I'm a breastfeeding nut!) sounds horrendous ! Good luck x

[TwiceAsNice22]

I ended up co sleeping with my twins. I also BF and they nursed so often, I wasn’t getting any sleep if I put them back in their cots (mine were also bottle refusers, do that didn’t help)

Have you joined your local twin group? You might get some good advice there. Lack of sleep is so hard.

[kenandbarbie]

I used to take my twins out for a drive, park up, leave the engine running and have a nap myself!

[yummyscummymummy01]

Hello all!

I have them in a side cot I've fashioned out of an IKEA cot. One of them has taken to rolling on his tummy and getting stuck though, so I'm not just waking up to feed them, I'm waking up to roll him over too. By morning I'm a bleary eyed sweary mess! I do mostly co sleep with them, but try to put one back at a time due to mr roll-a-lot.

Rolling by 4 months?! Why?!!!

I think I will start giving a bottle, I'm going to go mad otherwise.

Love the car tip, although I'd probably crash our beast of a 7 seater if I drive it at the moment!

[ScrunchyBook]

We bottle fed our two, it would make them drowsy but it was very much a delicate transfer into the cot, and they would often need more rocking to sleep. We introduced a dummy at around that age as well.

[Lipsticktraces]

Four month old twins here. They are both BF but twin two will take a bottle (twin one is a bottle refuser) I’ll usually pop them both in their sleeping bags and feed twin one to sleep while DH gives twin two a bottle of EBM. Then twin two usually falls asleep too and we transfer them to the Moses baskets next to the bed.

[helpamummaout]

I used to put the girls in the pram inthe house and rock them! Bought a rockit for the pram, switch it on when there asleep and enjoy a hot brew 😂

[Shadow1986]

Mine would always have a bottle to sleep. Always worked to get them to sleep at the same time. Not ideal though as they then associate milk with needing to get to sleep which caused problems at night.
I know someone else who takes them for a walk in buggy to sleep...everyday, all weathers.
What about putting them in their cots, dark room and some white noise?

[leaveby10]

I put them in separate rooms - they kept each other a awake.

[minglemoo]

Controlled crying 🙈

[CandyFlossLegend]

I got our DTs in a routine from 6 months and their sleep improved. Take them to their room. Feed, wind, change. Stay calm, give each a cuddle and kiss before putting them in their cots. Put them in their cots and put on sleeping bag and blankets. Switch off light and leave. Mine cry for about half a minute and then they sleep. I leave a light on in the corridor and their door slightly open. They learn the sequence of what happens and it gets easier.

[spinabifidamom]

We have a routine. Once they are asleep I turn on the nightlight and quietly leave the bedroom. My other children helped me. When DS and DD were six months old I started leaving them in their own bedroom one night a week. Slowly I increased it. Our bedtime routine includes reading a book each night and a hot drink too.

[yummyscummymummy01]

Thanks for the further replies! I'm religious about a routine now but I'm doing it on my own most of the time and it's very hard trying to settle one whilst the other screams!

I'm hoping it'll get easier with time, although as I have a 2 year old too I'm not that optimistic

[OxanaVorontsova]

bottle before bed worked for me (both slept through from 3 months!)

[HavelockVetinari]

Please don't use a home-made side cot, particularly if your DC gets stuck - the risk of SIDS in those circumstances is very high indeed

It sounds really hard, can you express or give 1 formula feed a day so you can get at least 4 hours of sleep whilst your DH looks after the babies?

[minisoksmakehardwork]

Do you co-feed or do one at a time?

Is there a particular reason you do bedtime alone, E.g. dh/dp is with the older one/working/lazy?

I'll be honest, dh and I had to work together but we bottled fed so that did make things easier as we could share duties equally. Including looking after the bigger children, and we got them involved too.

Definitely avoid the homemade side sleeper though. Especially with two wrigglers in one cot.

Our biggest sanity saver was rocking/bouncy chairs. We had two which meant when I was on my own, I could feed both at the same time, or feed one while rocking the other with a foot (and trained the eldest, then 4, to feed me crisps while I did it).

[yummyscummymummy01]

Thanks so much for the further replies. The side cot was adapted by a carpenter and bolted on. No gaps for anybody to get stuck. I followed some advice on here, and the Tamba advice about positioning.

I agree about the rolling though, and the risk increasing once they're moving. They've actually moved into their own room now with separate cots.

My DH is very hands on but my son is 2 and quite hard work. We divide it so he does the toddler and I do the twins.

I've got them in more of a routine now with bath, boob, bed. Calm music and dim lights. One is feed whilst the other bounces on a rocker. It's still stressful but is becoming easier.

[MontStMichel]

Mine were in a routine and in bed by 7 pm by 6 weeks. I gave them a bottle each at 6 pm when I had no milk. I co-slept with them and if one woke for a feed, I woke the other so hopefully they would then both sleep 2 hours - if I had b/f on demand separately, I would never have got any sleep. As it was, the 1st 18 months was a blur of tiredness!

Unfortunately, I had to learn to shut out one screaming - if one is in the middle of a nappy change and the other starts crying for a feed, they just have to wait until the nappy change is finished! What else can you do?

[bringee]

Yeah they have to wait.