bedtime! baby twins and 2 elder dcs. advice needed!

[beachesandbuckets]

Any words of wisdom/advice appreciated.
Have 2 dcs, 5 and 3 (just). They have both always had a good bedtime routine, upstairs at 6pm, bath or wash together, story, songs, lights out at 7pm. They are frankly shattered at that time.

Dh and me do bedtime together fortunately, I read to dc (3) and dh reads with dc (5), and its the only chance we get for him to practice his reading. Dc (3) is a live wire and it wld not work having her in the room whilst reading practice takes place.

Just had twins. Whilst too early to establish a routine yet, its been a bit stressful the last week or so, as babies have their witching hour at 6pm, screaming, unsettled etc, wanting to feed (I give them something to keep them going before we go upstairs but not working) which is stressful for all concerned and ending up me bouncing them on my lap whilst simultaneously singing/reading.

Any advice, tips? X

No, but watching with interest. Due with twins early Nov and have a 6yo and 3yo. Husband not usually back for bedtime either, I can see myself doing lots of bouncing and reading!

Have you thought about moving their bedtime routine to a separate time and? Bathe them together around 5.30ish with both you but then maybe let the eldest play in his room quietly while you read to her, so DH can concentrate on the twins fussing then after reading, swap over, you have the twins and DH read with him.

This is what we had to do when the twins were newborns, we had to adjust times and routines until the twins were a little older. As the twins got older we started letting the older dc help bathe the younger ones to try and settle them first before older dc.

It may not work for your family but it worked for us. I know how frustrating it can be and exhausting.

Maybe someone could come along with better advice than me and has some ideas :)

Congratulations! I had a very similar age gap when my dts were born, ds1 was 5 and ds2 was 2. I think MM has got the right idea, but you'll probably find you switch things around a lot over the next year so don't let anything be set in stone. We've done every possible permutation! If it were me, I'd be moving reading practice to an earlier time if you possibly can for a time anyway. If one of you could read to both older dc in same room it will make things far simpler imo. I usually dealt with dts as they both fed for ages at 6pm, dp did the boys. Two hungry babies will not wait! For the first 8 weeks at least for us.
Might an audio book or dare I say iPad for the 5yo be a way to buy you a little more time? It took me a long while to start being more flexible, you have 4 under 5 and sometimes shortcuts help you through a tricky stage.

Oh god I remember this, mine would scream and scream from 5pm onwards, couldn't do anything.

I have 3 others as well as twins, the youngest of the 3 was only 11 months older than twins, what I did was brought the babies bath forward, to be honest it got earlier and earlier.

It does get easier my twins are 19 months now and I had forgotten about it.