2 year old twins suddenly starting to wake every night at 4am - help!

[bootsdingo77]

My 23 month old twins have suddenly started waking during the night and at 4am.

Twin 1 has always been an unsettled and noisy sleeper and 5 weeks ago got a nasty D&V bug which started at 2am (maybe this has frightened him and is why he is waking?). Since then he has been waking 1-3 times a night and crying out, sometimes hysterically, sometimes just shouting. I can sometimes leave him and he will settle down, other times I go in, stroke him, try and calm him down and eventually he will go back to sleep, have also started leaving a nightlight on for them. However 5 weeks of no more than 3 hrs sleep at a time is taking its toll on me! To make matters worse, Twin 2 ~(who has slept from 7pm - 6am since he was 8 weeks old) has suddenly over the last 2 nights started waking at 4am for no aparent reason. He cried and I have gone in, re setlled him but he cries on and off until 6am when I get him up......am now totally at my wits end as work full time and am exhausted!

The boys are very healthy little boys, they eat a lot, have 3 good meals a day (7am, 12, 4.30pm) and a bottle of milk at 7, as well as snacks through the day. They sleep for 2 hrs between 1-3pm every day and go to bed with no problem at 7pm. They run around a lot and are outside for a lot of the day getting fresh air...

Any advice would be greatly received!!! Do I put them to bed later? Cut their daytime sleep??? heeellppp!!!

My son often has disturebed nights and there have been times when there have been 5 of us in the bed. We have a no wriggle rule and if you go to sleep here you will wake up in your own bed.

I find my twins have much more disturbed sleep than my one. I found putting an extra cover on them, particularly my ds has led to less disturbed nights.

Poor you, its awful and for 3 weeks too. I put my routine on another thread, the one on 15 month old twins not sleeping. May help.

As for suggestions, mine have a shorter nap in the day anout 1 hours but I'd be surprised if reducing it helps as it relates to the illness. Reducing naps sometimes just results in really tired and crabby kids who don't go off to sleep well.
Could you split them up for a bit until you reestablish their sleep patterns, it may stop the second twin going off? We have a spare room with a travel cot in and if we're having trouble with one and the other is getting unsettled we split them up, reduces the stress that the other is going to go off.

We do a similar thing for soothing, pick them up, calm them and put them back down. Repeat and pray.

Your twins and mine sound v similar in terms of sleeping Boots. They are 2yr 9m now and went through a similar phase at that age. T2 had always slept through and it was a total shock when she started waking up as I'd always been able to rely on her even if T1 was waking up. I think it might have been a developmental thing or nightmare related. It was hellish while it lasted but didn't last all that long so hang in there!

I don't think cutting their daytime sleep or putting them to bed later will help as I always find if T1 is tired she tends to sleep worse than if she isn't?!