6 week old twins won't sleep in cot!

[twincessesmummy]

I know it's been asked so many times but I'm desperate!
My 6 week old twin girls won't sleep in their cot! They used to when we first came home from the hospital but now they just seem to cry every time they are in it!
Please no shaming but we have ended up having them sleep next to us on the bed in there Twin feeding cushion while the other person sleeps on the sofa, we just needed sleep!
Feel like we have tried everything, lullabies, swaddling, night lights, hot water bottle, stroking face ect! How long would you leave them crying until you pick them up again?
I want to be able to sleep in the same bed as my partner again :(

Co sleeping is entirely normal, as is babies not wanting to sleep on the cot! I can imagine it’s slightly tricky with two.

Yeah really tricky :( sometimes they both just want to be held, it's impossible! Because it is a weekend we both ended up in bed last night and nodded off with one each on our chests! It scares me to death! I just want to try get them into a good bedtime routine as soon as we can with their being 2 of them it's even more paramount we get into a good routine. God it's hard work

Cots can feel huge and scary to a tiny baby. Have you tried a bedside crib each?

We have 4 year old twins who have just gone to school, and I slept in the spare room for a good year between them being 1 and 2 because it gave my wife the space for night feeds and I needed the sleep, and she told me I was not much help during the night anyway and was a lot more use during the day having got a reasonable amount of sleep. If it all went horribly wrong I was always happy to get up, and did at least once a week. My wife often slept in the early evening and I stayed up late with the kids to help her sleep as long as possible, and also got up early to help her get a few hours in the morning and especially at the weekend too.

So in the evenings she would sleep from 6 till 10 or 11, I'd sleep from then until 6am, she'd sleep from 6 until I left for work in the week or until 10 at the weekend. We often slept with them on us at the weekend during the daytime naps too, that was lovely :)

Large parts of the first year (and the second tbh) were spent with all of us in bed at odd times to get rest when we could. Others will have done differently, doesn't matter if it worked for them :) The important thing is to do what suits your family best.

One of the best bits of advice we were given was to try to synchronise what you do with them, ie when one feeds, feed the other too, when one needs a new nappy, change the other too. They are different children and if they were singletons they would likely have different routines, but for your sanity and getting what sleep/rest you can, it is easier to have them doing the same thing at the same time.

Twins particularly are an endurance event! Congratulate yourselves for the first 12 weeks, the first 6 months, the first year and still having everyone happy and reasonably clean 😉

PM me if you'd like, happy to chat about the twin thing 😁

A twin mum we know swore by Gina Ford, we didn't do that but had a rough order/timing for food/activity/naps and let it bend by half an hour when they were small, and more now they are older and we can go longer without having screaming overtired kids 😉

Also, ours slept in the same cot for the first 9 months, and they seemed to take comfort from that. They were in our room through that time too, but not sure what impact that had, I think sometimes towards the end of that time it disturbed them.

Thank you for replying! Nice to hear you survived 😂!
They do share a cot (when they go in it)!
At the moment I sleep on the sofa 9-1 then my partner wakes me and he sleeps on the sofa until he gets up for work at 6am. Maybe it's a bit soon to expect to sleep in the same bed again then lol! I know they say you can't spoil a newborn baby but I don't want to get into bad habits having them with us constantly.
Oh regarding Gina ford, I do have her twin book, read about 1/4 of it during pregnancy... and now I never have a spare minute to try read it haha! But I will try!
They are currently going through the 6 week growth spurt, it's been hard work!

Bang we wouldn't have space for 2 bedside cribs unfortunately

Would moses baskets fit into the full size cot?

1 probably would, maybe worth looking into

Have you got a couple of carrying chairs. I put my twins in them for the first few weeks to sleep as lying them down they got bad reflux and that made them scream.

What are carrying chairs?

I coslept with twins as I was bf and it was the only way we would get sleep. I just did it safely, no duvets, no pillow, (I used a pillow to cosleeping with one but couldn't see a safe way with2).heads at chest height etc. I took no medication ever, neither of us drank and we don't smoke.

I moved out of the bedroom eventually as they were feeding all night and I work ft but by then they were 18 months.

I once read the trick to the first year is everyone getting as much sleep as possible. Ds transferred easily to a bed at 2 and is a great sleeper - 11.5 hours most nights 6:30 to 6 / 6:30. So cosleeping didn't create a rod...

That's good to hear 43! Maybe I will end up looking at safe cosleeping if we don't manage getting them back in the cot shortly! They are doing well with their sleeping... when they are with us! Now going between 3-6 hours between feeds

DD slept on my chest for the first 4 months.......

My twins are 5 months now and sleep through in their own beds every night.
For the first 2 months they slept in the bed with me. I found it harder co sleeping with twins than my single baby but it was the only way we slept

How was the transition from co sleeping to own bed jjpp? Brilliant that they sleep through in their own bed now

Safe co sleeping is safer than them falling asleep in your arms. Just make sure their heads are at the same height as yours. You wear a long sleeve too so your duvet is only round you from waist height etc etc. No pillows. Are they in grobags? That will help. For now, your partner just needs to sleep on the sofa.
I have co-slept with all my babies for the first few months at least. It’s the only way they would sleep!

Ps no problems transition to cot and then bed for any of mine.
They just start sleeping better as they get older and you know when it’s time to move them into their cots. Trying to get them into their cots during the day so they recognise the surroundings also helps

I have coslept with all 5 of my babies (single births) from birth until they were 3 ish.

They couldn't sleep without me and honestly, I couldn't sleep without them.

I think between the 5 of them they spent a total of 3 hours in a cot or crib. They screamed every time I tried. I have never had a sleepless night with any of them, and that is thanks to cosleeping. As far as I was concerned, I could manage anything as long as I got 6 hours sleep a night.

The eldest is 18 this year and the youngest will be 5. None of them still share with us

One twin went first. She was sleeping really well so we swaddled her and tried her on her own. She took to it well and was doing 3 hour stints which have gradually stretched out to all night. My second twin is more fussy, she really needs white noise to sleep on her own and shes only just started to sleep through. She also preferred swaddling when on her own.
We have 2 bedside cribs (they disturbed each other all night being together) and will each rest a hand on them til they drop off after their last feed.

@twincessesmummy my twins are 15 months old. From birth till about 4 months they slept in Cocoonababy, my son still wouldn’t go in a cot in that so I always had him in my bed (DH got booted out after a couple of weeks) in his Cocoonababy and then I didn’t have to worry about the risks cos he was on a different level and also I didn’t have to worry about waking him when his sister woke up or when I was awake pumping which took forever.

Sometimes when my girl wouldn’t go back to sleep in the night i would bring her Cocoonababy into the bed too and sleep in the middle of them. I had to hold onto my son for him to drift off. Of all the baby stuff I bought the Cocoonababy and baby bouncer chairs are the things I literally couldn’t have done without.

Time absolutely flies by and they’ll be 1 before you know it.