5 month old twins waking up to 4 times a night and won't settle unless in the bed breastfeeding!!

[Lucywithtwins222]

Hi I just wanted some advice about sleeping habits! For around 2 months now my twins have started waking frequently at night. Usually I tandem feed them and they were only waking at around 3-4 am and then again at around 6-7am. Now they can wake as early as 10.30- 11 pm. I've started feeding seperatly as I didn't want to wake up the other however they are now very out of sinc and I am getting up swapping over babies every 1-1 1/2 hours!! I'm going crazy! I try to delay feeding but one of my twins gets very frustrated if he dosent get his milk and he won't settle without being fed!! Also there is pressure not to leave him to cry too long as he will wake my other baby!! I don't want to be making the situation worse by giving in too quickly but also I don't want my other baby to wake crying when he had only just been fed!! I am Breast feeding but the last feed of the evening at 7.45 is a bottle of formula. They settle themselves very well in their cot after this feed. Is it too early for me to be expecting them to sleep much longer durning the night and only wake once or even sleep through?! (They are 5 months old)
Anyone have a similar experience with twins? What did you do?
Part of me is
hoping they will settle into a routine themselves and stop waking when they don't need to feed as much. However I'm worried their waking at night will become habitual.
I will also add that I have just begun weaning them... Could this help to settle them more at night?
Any advice would be great!!
Thank you

No advice I'm afraid but it sounds very tiring!

Weaning can be complicated. I think in your situation I might be tempted to try a strict bottle routine...

Are you following any kind of routine during the day? Also is there any other reason for wake ups ie dummies? At this stage they may be waking from hunger and weaning might help. One of my twins started sleeping through at around 6 months but the other didn't until we sleep trained (off the dummy).

Well during the day they only sleep after feefing from me and fall asleep on the feeding pillow next to me or they go to sleep when I tald them for a walk in the pram! Not the best routine but it's hard to do anything else with twins. I can't move them off the pillow without waking them
Up and then they don't go back down! I've tried putting them in the cot during the day but they won't have it! I've not used dummies with the boys so it's not something I want to start introducing now. How long did it take to sleep train? Did your two a wake eachother up? I will be putting them in their own cots soon in their bedroom. Hoping this doesn't disript things further!

Sorry for all the poor spelling, I didn't read it back and was trying to write quickly inbetween entertaining two very demanding boys ha x

My twins turned one today and still wake for feeds twice each at approx 12 and 4. I think it's normal unfortunately.

They don't wake each other up though, despite sharing a cot.

You have my sympathy! That moment about 45 mins after one twin has fallen asleep and you've stopped listening like a startled meerkat to every teeny sound coming from the cot and let yourself doze off, when the second twin wakes up - aaaaargh!

We found that moving our twins to their own cots in their own room around This age helped a lot with the night wakings. I think we were all disturbing each other. Weaning definitely helped too - having had no real routine for 6 months we sort of fell into more fixed routine based around meal times and nap times in the day (after breakfast and lunch) and that seemed to help with the night routine as well.

Mine rarely wake each other up-I think if you're less anxious about it, then you'll see they get used to sleeping through the other's noises. If you can then I would try getting them into a routine in the day-I think this improves sleep-everyone I know who have twins who sleep well follow gina ford. I'd also start putting them into their own cots in their own room
at nap times-they will protest but they are very adaptable at that age and it shouldn't take more than a day for it to work if you perservere. Once that's all set, then the nights should start to improve.

Soontobesix-my twins also turned 1 today

That's cute chocolate. Has it gone really fast for you? I can't believe they are one already.

Thank you all for your advice. I think I will try again with nap time in the day in the cot chocolatedrops31. I don't like to let them cry for long though and they seem very easy to set off but I think I need to try this. It is truly exhausting not having much sleep and yes Tftpoo we literally tiptoe into bed and already have the cover pulled back ready to get into bed so we don't make any noise.... Who knew A feather quilt could be so noisy! I must admit I think it will be a relief when they are in their own room... Evey noise I hear disturbs me and I sit there waiting for them to wake. Not ideal.
I did try a dream feed but it didn't make a difference to the night wakings and I didn't want to get them into a habit of waking at that time as well! I'll try to get more of a day time routine and hope that helps the nights!
On a note about weaning... Anyone recommend a good way to make very smooth purees? I just can't seem to get things to a smooth consistency and as a result get some very unhappy disgusted expressions from my boys! I use a food processor but it just doesn't make it smooth enough!
Thanks

A hand blender tends to get things very smooth.

Yes I managed to get some pears pretty soft with the potato masher and heating it at the same time. I think I will definatly invest in a hand blender. When doing small amounts my food blender just doesn't do anything! No they are in their cot in our room ( they share a cot at the moment with a cot devider inbetween to stop them bashing each other)! They are a bit too big for the Moses baskets now. I went back to tandem feeding last night which helps as it doesn't make me feel like I'm up like a yoyo all night! I hope things settle down soon!

Things will settle down soon-btw you might want to repost on the multiple births section-I got great advice from them re sleep in the early months x