Normal sleep ??

[Aluapenna]

Hi, I'm new to this and could use some advice-I have 12 week twins who are little angels in the day , cry when they need something otherwise happy to be on their baby gym ,in their chair or asleep-they sleep about an hour in the morning and 2-21/2 hours at lunchtime and sometimes nap in the afternoon - trouble is at night sometimes they sleep 3-4 hour stretches and sometimes like last night they are up all night,not hungry,just miserable and unsettled and my ds grunts and groans anyway but some nights it's horrendious and keeps us all awake - I naively thought that they'd wake at night for a feed or a dirty nappy-is this sort of thing normal and if so does anyone have any suggestions? DH picks them up as soon as they startto cry in case they wake the other twin ,while I'd be inclined to leave them to see if they settle for a little while. Sorry this is so long but after nearly 13 weeks I hoped we'd be getting a bit more settled and I'm really starting to struggle with no sleep-also I feel like dh and I hardly see each other any more as the last resort is separate rooms with a baby each and we've had to do that several times lately.!I do know how lucky I am that they're settled in the day,just wondered if this sort of thing was normal or am I doing something wrong?

Hi,
I think the best thing is, unless one actually cries, id leave them to grunt and groan and learn to settle themselves back to sleep... but im really not an expert at this! Ill bump for you anyway x

I would definitely leave them for a little while. It would be much better in the long run if they learnt to sleep through each other's noises. And quite often babies are not really that easily woken by noise. I used to be able to hoover right up to my DS's cot without him waking.

Also it is better if they are given the chance to learn to settle themselves. It must be really hard with twins! Good luck.

Aluapenna, it sounds like you are doing a great job - I have so much respect for anyone with twins as one is hard enough!
I agree with the other posters that it would be best to try and leave them to settle - how about trying a dummy? It may be wind waking them so try the old clockwise tummy rub or lifting their legs up and down to release a big trump.
Just to stress that you are doing nothing wrong at all and that the sleep deprivation really starts to get to you about this time....are you managing to get your head down during their afternoon nap?

Hi I have 22mth old twins and from 16 weeks they were both sleeping from 6.30pm to 7.30am. No bottles, no nappy change. The key is to start your routine early. Unfortuantley dads just sometimes don't get it. It does get easier, and even though the twins are important, my philosophy is that if the mother ships goes down every one else will follow. You need your sleep. Babies will cry, that is what babies do. I don't mean to come across like a cruel mum, but i can now tell my children that it is bedtime and they will go themselves. No tantrums. I would start in the next couple of months, to feed and change the babies, put to bed kiss goodnight and walk out. Even if they wake up they will eventually go back to sleep when they know you are not coming back. You must do this every night at the same time. ( I don't go out after 6.30pm at night, but that is the price I pay for great sleepers) The first week will be terrible and you will wonder if you are doing the correct thing, but it will pay off in the long run. Good Luck.

Forgot to mention another tip that worked for me. I put my daughter in a baby swing, and that is where she slept for the first six months of her life. Swaddle the babe, strap in and turn to highest setting. I never regretted it for one moment. They used a fisher price model in the hospital i had my girls so even though it was a bit expensive the fact that i was not sleep deprived was worth every cent. My second daughter (twins) was wrapped and sleeped in a baby bouncer put inside a cot.

Thanks for that- they have started to sleep for about 2 hours at lunchtime fairly consistently( well,for the last week or so-who knows what will happen tomorrow??) So I may get into the habit of resting them - there's just so much else to do isn't there?? Last night they woke at 1230 after being fed at 1130 so we knew they weren't hungry and left them to it-and lo and behold they settled on their own-it felt like a real victory, they then woke briefly at 330 , fed and went back down and then attempted to wake up at 6 but were given dummies and told firmly that days in out household start at 7 and eventually they settled again ( I was wide awake by then but hopefully it achieved something!)so it was a better night and I think DH realised that getting up and cuddling every time one woke up was not the answer! Thanks for all your advice and support-not sure whether I'm doing a good job or not but there's not a lot of choice other than getting on with it is there? And they are so good and contented in the day, not colicky oy anything,that I do realise how lucky we are!