20wk sleep requirements

[penny14]

Hi all,

Looking for advice on my twins' sleeping schedules. Previously had success with the EASY routine, 2hr awake time followed by 2hour twice a day in the pram either stationary or out walking then mini nap in the bouncy chairs before bedtime routine starting from 6pm, sometimes 7pm depending on the feeding schedules of the day.

DS bottle fed baby & takes a dummy. Fairly easy to self settle if sleep cues caught on time.

DD BF and doesn't take a dummy. She requires much more help to settle with shush pat etc.

Lately DD in particular has been really hard to settle as she is fighting sleep. I appreciate that routines change constantly at this time but I just don't think he is getting enough sleep in the day. The last few days she has slept for one hour after the first feed of the day then slept again after the second feed for 2/3 hours. She'll then not sleep again for the rest of the day and totally fights sleep at bedtime. Yesterday she slept 8.30-9.30am then 12-3pm, both babies' bedtime routine started around 6.30pm but she didn't settle until 8.30pm (so had been awake for over 5 hours). We dream feed both babies around 10.30pm & both usually wake again around 3/4am but generally settle straight back down so can't really complain about night time sleep.

Am I wrong in thinking that 4 hours of daytime sleep isn't enough? Should I just reside myself to the fact that she wants to be awake more and wants to go to bed late? I just feel that she's cranky and needs to be sleeping more but don't know how to help her. As she is becoming more alert & curious I feel it's nosiness that's preventing her from nodding off.

Ideally I want the twins to be on the same schedule - should i persevere with this or have different bedtime routines for them?

TIA

I'd say probably more regular naps? 3:30-8:30 is an awfully long time for a young baby to go without sleeping. If she's overtired, she will find it harder to go to sleep, both naps and nighttime.

My DS is 21 weeks and having 4 naps a day, normally 90mins-2 hours after wake up. He normally does something like this:
8:00-9:00
11:00-11:45
1:00-3:00
5:00-5:30/5:45
Asleep by about 7:30.

Hi Tea,

I totally agree. Given that sleep promotes sleep I know she'd be happier if she was sleeping more regularly. Your DS sounds like he has the naps nailed! 😴

I suppose what I'm interested in other people's opinions on is should I be waking her from napping after day 2 hours to stop her napping for too long? I always thought you should never wake a sleeping baby? 😕

Both babies also have a habit of waking after 40/60m...any tips on how to try to get them back over to sleep if that happens??

At 20 weeks we were doing
7am wake & feed
9-10 nap
11 feed
12.30 - 2.30 nap
3 feed
5-5.30 quick nap of 20 mins or so in the buggy: this is the first to go at around 6 months
6 feed
Bath, story
6.45 top up feed
7 upstairs for bedtime

I guess you'll start weaning soon? There will be sleep upheavals then but just try and stay as consistent as possible.

My DS's naps have to fit in with my toddler DD's routine so we've always had more structure than I did with DD. He does nap well as in it's always easy to get him to sleep but I'm ok with him feeding to sleep to nap on me, napping in the sling, car and pram and co-sleeping for a long lunchtime nap.

I have to wake my DD up by 3 otherwise it affects her nighttime sleep which means that DS gets up too, which then means that I can get another nap in (normally in the sling whilst doing tea or in the car of we've been out and on our way home).

My DD didn't nap for longer than 30-40 mins until she was about 10 months but with DS I can get him to nap longer by giving him a nipple when he stirs. Other people would reinsert dummies, bounce bouncy chairs, push there pram etc to try to extend the nap but it doesn't always work. It's the length of their sleep cycles unfortunately.

as the mother of a 6 week old i just want to know how the hell you have such a routine going! is it just too soon for my boy????

At 6 weeks old I would go for
7am wake and feed
8-10 sleep
10.30 feed
11-2 sleep
2.30 feed
3- 4.30 sleep
5 1/2 feed
5.30 bath
6 second 1/2 feed
6 or 6.30 bed
9pm dream feed
Next feed between 2-4 am

rocket I wouldn't have a routine based on time for a 6 week old. I would feed on demand and make sure he slept after about 45-60 minutes awake time. You'll start to see more and more of a rhythm/pattern to the day as they grow and that becomes your routine (rather than you dictating a routine to the baby).

Yes was just going to say it's all very loose until they're at least 12 weeks, you have to just aim to get as much sleep into them as possible basically!

😕I'm worried because my baby hardly ever wants to sleep! he's perfectly happy most of the time, just wide awake!

how do you 'get' him to sleep??

Overtiredness can look like awake.

You need to limit awake time to about 45-60 mins. How are you feeding? If BF, feed to sleep. If FF, feed and then dummy if they have one. Then there are lots of other things you could do - pram, sling, car, cosleep, swaddle, rock, bouncy chair, etc. Most important is to make sure naps are regular throughout the day.

I didn't word that very well. Obviously BF babies might have dummies too which you can use to help them go to sleep. I meant that young BF babies tend to fall asleep feeding.

I know I am in a minority but my DD was already on a routine at 6 weeks. It was also the week when she categorically refused to nap in a bouncy chair or sling. She wanted her cot and reluctantly accepted a pram (with a bit of grumbling).

I basically stuck to the schedule and used shushing and patting to settle DD for naps. She was stil swaddled which was helping a lot. I did think at times my DD did not need much sleep during the day but kept going. By the time DD was 8-9 weeks, naps got better and I was able to replace swaddle with a grobag. Starting from 12-13 weeks, DD really got into the routine and my life became much more predictable and easier.

Thanks everyone for your comments & suggestions. I am still letting the twins determine their schedule rather than trying to mound it but I think the difficulties I'm facing now is reluctance to nap or waking too soon from a nap. Will carry on & hope they settle a bit easier over the coming weeks.