any advice on getting 8 week old twin boys in a routine ?

[roxy12]

Hi, I have twin boys that are 8 weeks old, was born at 35 weeks so premature! My partner is going back to work begining of july and I need to get them into a routine of feeding seperate and in general! Has anyone got any advice or ideas on how to go about this as am abit worried I won't cope so want them into a bit of a routine before partner returns to work! I also have a 3 year old boy too!

Hi there Roxy!
Congrats on your twins. Mine are 7 months old today, and my DH went back to work when they were 7 weeks old so pretty similar to you (although I don't have older DC).

There is a poster on here called xkatyx who has 5 DC including baby twins and she is great on routine so I hope she'll be along soon.

In the meantime I'll tell you what routine we were in at that age (I mix feed so not sure whether you bf, ff or mix). We had a night nanny 3 nights a week until they were 12 weeks by which time they slept 11pm to 7am

*start the day at 7am regardless of what happened in the night
*feed at 7am (I did bf + bottle at every feed)
*wash and dress twins
*play for a bit
*sleep at 930-10 for an hour in cots in nursery
*feed at 11am
*play for a bit
*sleep at 1230 for 2 hours in travel cot downstairs or in pram
*feed at 3pm
*play for a bit
*sleep at 430 for 1hour in travel cot downstairs or in pram
*bath at 6pm (bath chairs from mamas and papas make it possible to bath both at once)
*feed at 630pm (ff only, no bf)
*bed in cot in nursery. I have a mobile that spins and plays lullabies and would switch this on and leave them to self settle.
*wake for feed at 11pm (or earlier if wake on their own) (ff no bf)

During the night wait for a twin to wake, then wake the other and feed together. I only ever gave ebm or ff during the night, no bf. I felt this discourage them from waking just for comfort and also allowed DH, night nanny and DM/MIL to help out.

There is a thread on here for parents of twins under 12 months - come and join us!

This question is for ceeveebee - I also have 8 week boy girl twins and the routine above is what I am sort of on, however I am demand feeding at tr minute so the times I feed them change everyday so everyday is a different timing schedule. I was wondering on this routine if you woke the babies up throughout the day to feed at those times even if they were sleeping. Which I don't mind doing if that's the way to get a routine but can you not overfed them?

Hello Gunning
That was a blast from the past, my two are almost 12 months old now and everything has changed completely since I posted!
At that age, I never had to wake them. They always woke of their own accord before their "scheduled" feed time, and if they showed signs of hunger I would feed them earlier.

You don't say whether you are bf or ff (or mixed like i was). I don't think you can really over feed a bf baby, and I was giving formula top ups but not massive amounts and would never force them to finish if they stopped drinking (unlike my MIL who is obsessed with getting them to finish everything in their bottle/on their plate grrrr)

Come and join our thread!
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/multiple_births/1538378-The-under-over-around-1-Twins-thread-for-support-tips-on-how-to-survive-and-enjoy-twin-parenthood