Am I doing something wrong?

[WeddingGirl]

My ID twin girls are now 16 weeks old, and generally seem to be fairly placid babies (I also have a 2 yr old DD who I remember crying a lot more)! We manage to get them into bed for around 7pm, and they settle down fairly easily. I'm waking them for a feed at around 10pm, then they wake at least once more in the night (anywhere between 2-5am,so I don't think it is habit). I did try not waking them at 10, but they woke up around midnight -and just as I was getting into a deep sleep, and still another 1-2 times.

I didn't think that we were doing too badly, but met a foster mum today who is currently looking after 2 babies, both of whom have slept through the night from about 6 weeks!! She looked in horror when I told her about our sleeping patterns!

I'm currently bfing, although really starting to struggle with very sore nipples. Also I was tandem feeding until a few weeks ago, when they became too big to handle together. And they have between 6-8 feeds a day.

I read on another post about caffine and bfing (although I don't think I have that much tea and coffee, and without it would really struggle to keep awake all day!)

Does anyone have any advice on how to improve their sleeping at night? Thank you :)

Sounds like you are doing BRILLIANTLY to me. I know some friend's babies (singletons) who don't even sleep well at 2 years old never mind 16 weeks. Every baby is different, even with the same parenting routines. My firstborn had a very similar routine to your twins about 16 week, and by about 18 weeks she was sleeping through from her dreamfeed at 10pm until about 7am. My twin boys however didn't reach routine until about 20 weeks, and didn't sleep through until 9 months and 11 months!

Sounds like you are doing a brilliant job, fab routine for 16 weeks. Trust in yourself, not some stranger. There will always be babies who sleep through nite from 6 weeks and some who get up 5 times at night at 5 months! Remember the definition of sleeping through is different for people - for some it's 5 hours! If you're having problems with bf, maybe start a separate thread for some help and there are positions you can use to tandem feed bigger babies so you could continue with that. Really don't worry, I have 4 dc and only one slept through at 10 weeks which I still think is abnormal!

Babies are different and she has two singletons, of what ages? Sore nipples get Lasinoh or something similar. Sleep through the night from 6 weeks who says, how much and when were they being fed?

You thought you were doing fine, stick to that thought!

Every baby is different, my FB slept 7 hours a night between from 3 months on but then she was always in my bed!
My twin boys are 10months old and wake regularly in the night and they share my bed!
Just do what you feel is right, babies grow so fast in the first year they're routine is always changing, from growth spurts to weaning, it never ends!
Enjoy them

dtds are going down after a bf at 8.30pm (this fits in with being after dd1's bedtime), then we wake them at 11.30pm for a feed (bottle), then they tend to wake at 3.30-4.30am when I usually feed one while dh comforts the other then we swap, but recently the one with dh has fallen asleep until 6.30am so we've decided not to feed as it's just habit - worked last night and both stayed asleep until 7.45am! They were not great at going down after the 11.30pm feed though so that took 30minutes extra.

Every baby is different. dtds go to sleep in their cots but at 3.30am ish waking we pull them into bed with us.

Go with what works for you and your babies.

Agree that you are doing brillliantly, and their sleeping sounds fairly normal to me.
In regards to breastfeeding, I always did one at a time in the night but in the day I tandem fed using an EZ2Nurse breastfeeding pillow which I'd definitely reccomend.

Lavita- any tips? I can't quite get in with mine. Thunk I started using it too early when they didn't have enough head control (premmie) and now they're 9-10lbs there seems to be too much weight at the back of the cushion/their legs dangle off the end...?! Would love to use it every time but find it sooooo frustrating!

Peeling I always sat either in the middle of my bed or on the sofa with cushions around me, to bolster my position if that makes sense. Have you tried putting cushions underneath it ?

Hi there - not read all the replies - but want to add that my ID girls are 15 weeks old and have pretty much the same sleep patterns are your DT's :) and I think we are all doing brilliantly! Don't let that lady make you feel otherwise - and i wonder how old are the babies she minds?Different ages? Don't pressure yourself or compare your babies to others (I've done it a few times, my best friend had a boy 4days before our DT's arrived - he sleeps through the night and i kept wondering what i was doing wrong but realised my girls were 6 premis and are 70% breastfed, he was full term and is bottle fed so shouldn't really compare!)

Re breast feeding - have you tried different positions? I've just started criss cross feeding - both lying down the front of my body with one arm around my waist - they seem quite happy like that at the moment.... might make a difference. My DT's are 11lbs and it works for me - not sure how much bigger yours are?...

Peeling I struggled with nursing cushion too - my ID girls premis too - 90% of the time i use cushions on bed or cushions on the couch! THe nursing cushion has been abandoned!

Hi, thanks for all the replies and reassurance. It's great to know their pattern seems fairly normal. We had a great night last night, they both slept from 7pm until 5am - so definitely on the right track! :o Although they've already been up twice tonight (making up for it probably!).

As for the the feeding, I have got a nursing pillow (not the ez one), which I have found invaluble, the main problem I'm finding with the tandem (apart from their size - 11 & 12 lbs), is they seem to distract each other too much. As soon as one stops feeding, or needs winding, the other one also stops and then I end up with 2 screaming babies, neither feeding well! I think that is also why I've got such sore nipples - they are messing rather than feeding properly. Feeding them singly at he moment usually means a good 10-20 minute feed each :) I keep persevering with the tandem, especially in the day, but not getting much joy!

As a foster mum hers will most likely be bottlefed so are likely to go longer. Also less likely to be premature and the extra weight makes a big difference on the time they can sleep. We were told it wasn't safe for them to go through the night until they were 12 weeks (dt2 was 3lb 13). Yours sound great for this stage.

just wanted to add good luck and try cold tea bags for the sore nipples!