6 month old twins waking at 4am!

[Tinks30]

I really need some help. I have 6 month old twins that wake sooooo early and it's killing me :(
Routine:
7am bottle then wash dress and little play
8:30-10am nap
Wake up and play til bottle
11am bottle
Play til
12:30/1ish nap until 2ish
Bottle at 3pm
Play
4-5/5:30pm nap
Playtime til bed
6:45 upstairs to get ready for bed
7pm bottle
7:30/8pm in cots asleep
Between 1-2:30am wake for bottle. Take between 4/5oz
4am wake up!!!
How can I get them to sleep later? We've tried a dream - feed didn't work. If anything made it worse because we were still up between 1/2:30 for another feed.
They constantly spit their dummies out so this is another disturbance. When they wake they are still tired and often crying. I sometimes put them in my bed and they fall fast asleep which tells me they don't want to be up at that hour.
Please someone help me, I'm going crazy!

Am no expert at all, but didn't want to leave you unanswered.

It looks like a good routine, although the morning nap is longer than some might suggest is ideal. Personally, I wouldn't dream of waking them up, though, and I'd imagine this will just change in time as the morning nap shortens and the post lunch nap gets longer.

Do they have a bottle at 4am? Would you think of giving them milk then? 6 months is still young and lots of babies still have more than 1 feed a night at this age. There's also a lot of big developmental changes around now. As the night goes on, it gets harder and harder to get small people back to sleep so maybe a bottle and/or just bringing them in with you is the solution for now. It may all change again in a month or so but I can really imagine that with twins you especially need your rest!

Is it possible to push morning nap back at all? My almost 6 month old can last up to 3hours in morning before nap. Though all babies are different and have differebt needs!!And it does seem a little long- they say long mornjng naps cause early waking as its like an extension of night sleep.
Though I feel for you- I'd find 4am tough with one baby never mind 2!!! X

Ok, so we had an amazing night last night. Bed at 7 and they went through til 2:30am then slept til 7am in their own beds!!!! I think the reason for this was because after each feed they went down awake. Could this have helped do you think? My younger twin fussed after her night feed but eventually went off.

Do you feed them at 4am? My 5 month old wakes at 12/1am then again at 3/4am I feed him and he sleeps then til 6am.

Your day time routine sounds spot on.

Hi Mandoo, I used to try feeding at 4am but they wouldn't take anything. Plus quote often they wake at 2:30ish and take a decent feed so wouldn't expect them to be hungry again so soon at 4....

Wrt putting you twins down awake, this is most definitely a good thing if you can do it, as they will learn the art of self settling & if they wake in the night will be better able to put themselves back to sleep. I think your early waking problems are more of a routine issue though, than being related to this.

I'd say the reason you might be getting early waking is twofold. Firstly that nap at tea-time is pretty long at 1-1.5hrs. Around 6-7 months is when most babies drop this tea time nap & just have a morning & an afternoon nap. Taking a long nap so close to bedtime is likely to cut into their night sleep. Secondly, they are taking a long and early morning nap. Of course they need it at the moment, because they are waking early, but this will keep you in the early waking cycle, because they are able to catch up on the sleep they missed at night with the long morning nap. I would address this as follows:

firstly, cap the tea time nap to 45mins max. You might need to bring bedtime a wee bit earlier to 7/7.30pm to compensate for the shorter nap. Hopefully they may sleep a bit longer at night. Even if they continue to wake up at 4am they will be getting a longer night's sleep because of the early bedtime.

Give this a few days to a week to take effect & then very gradually start to shift that morning nap later by just 5mins every 3 days. You do this slowly so they don't get too overtired. I would suggest pushing the start time of the nap to 9am. At this stage they are still so young that I wouldn't cap the nap unless it goes over 1.5hrs, as you need them to still take a decent length afternoon nap.

As the morning nap gets later, the lunchtime nap will also gradually shift later & so will the tea-time nap. You will find you need to trim the tea-time nap down to nearer to 30mins or they won't be ready for bed at bedtime.

So ultimately, you are moving your morning & afternoon naps a bit later, with the ultimate aim of cutting back the tea time nap so short it can eventually be dropped. This will most definitely help your early waking issues.

HTH.xx