Hi all,
I feel a bit guilty about asking so many questions and never giving answers, but hey, we appreciate all the help so far!
This is a question about the main thing that has been bothering myself and DW. Basically, the situation one of the other of us finds ourselves in is this and we'd like some advice on how to sort it.
It can occur in the morning for their morning nap shortly after I go off to work, in the night time if one of us is incapacitated (like in the shower, as opposed to comatose), or any time during the day for naps.
Basically, using the morning as an example, after waking for the day, both twin DSs (3.5 months old) have a feed at 8am, their breakfast, strapped in their bouncy chairs. Its definately our routine now and they seem to take the bottle well and sit in their reclining chairs relaxed. Once fed, they get very sleepy, and not just because they often have a bit of a disrupted and wakeful 5-7am, but because 8:30 or 9am is when their morning nap is.
However... the issue is that usually neither of them, no matter how droopy their tired eyes get, can settle themselves. They lie back looking exhausted, but until you pick one of them up they'll get more and more vocal and restless until they are crying these tired sounding cries, often until they cry into a red faced stupor.
Holding them in your arms in a vertical position soothes them, but they cant sleep in your arms upright! Lowering them into a horizontal lying down in the arms position, sets them off again!
Its like they associate being horizontal with sleep and they don't like it even if really tired. I myself was a bad sleeper, often reducing my mother to tears as a baby and staying up until the small hours when a young boy sitting on the stairs as I hated being in bed. Even now I like to stay up as late as possible. SLeeping feels like a waste of the day to me. Perhaps they've inherited this rubbish?
Anyway, by picking one up you can eventually sooth him. Even if placing him in the cot or the sofa or whatever it is that his back gently comes to rest with instantly wakes him up again for the first several times.
The thing is, that it takes two people. With only two average strength arms you can't pick up and sooth and put down (repeatedly ad nausium until it works) two babies at the same time. And if you can... how!?
Consequently we each take a baby to sooth. If there is only one of us.... it doesn't really work. One baby will cry whilst the other is being soothed and not soothed very well if his brother is crying! We're not happy leaving one to cry either as they just get more desperate and inconsolable the longer you leave them. Consequently if we're on our own at home alone the only way to get them both to sleep seems to be to let them rest on our laps. Meaning we're pinned.
Whats the solution? Would we really need to take one upstairs and leave his brother to cry out of earshot? It seems really harsh? Or is there some special Twin Hold whereby you can carry and sooth and put two down simultaneously?
We would really appreciate some learned advice!
Matt