Hi mums,
this is a bit of a long one, I’ll try to condense it as much as I can but I hope you’ll stick with me Because I’d love some advice!
so I have twin boys that are 13 months old. They’ve been terrible sleepers since they were around four months old and they started teething/hit a sleep regression. We had a desperate time of it around December/January where they would genuinely wake at least six times each. Things are better now, on a good night they’ll wake twice, maybe take a bottle and settle back down again but we end up with one of more of them in bed with us most nights. We still hold them to sleep at bedtime after their bedtime bottle and then lift them into the cot.
so my husband’s cousin is a wonderful woman who has been a huge help to us and is a good friend but she’s a bit older and all her children are grown. She tried to help me before saying they were old enough to put themselves down for a nap and I should let them cry it out, it was awful. I never did it again! Tonight she said to me that really the boys shouldn’t need a bedtime bottle now and they really shouldn’t have us holding them to sleep, she doesn’t push because she knows how I feel about it. Really though it stuck in my head, is she right? And if so how do I go about transitioning to putting them down without us holding them? I know they won’t need me to do it forever but just now if you put them down drowsey/awake they’ll jump straight up and mess and then cry. They are in the same room and until recently were in the same cot. I really don’t want to put them in separate rooms (which is something she’s also said on a number of occasions) has anyone any advice they can offer me?