Tips for changing a babies routine so they go to bed earlier??

[Jenniferb21]

Hi I’m desperate to change my twin girls’ ‘routine’ this is briefly the situation now:

6am Breastfeed (Bf)
9am-9:30 both wake up on their own BF
10am- porridge and water
11:30-1pm somewhere here a BF
2:30-3pm somewhere here a BF
4:30pm main homemade meal and fruit purée or yoghurt and water
7-8pm bath and BF
11pm BF and go to sleep around then
Put them down asleep.

2-3pm small BF
6am

Sorry posted too soon!!!

Meant to put 2-3am - small Bf
Sometimes waking at 1am and even 4am sometimes wake nearly every hour or two sometimes go 3-4 hours. But they don’t settle with me or hubs with cuddles , water, rocking etc only with BF. They don’t have dummies and I don’t want to introduce them.

They are identical twins and share very much the same routine. During the day and night they feed and sleep on the same schedule. They are nearly 8 months. I feel like they feed for comfort at night they don’t feel for long and don’t swallow loads
So I think it helps them to sleep more than anything.

I have a toddler too and I’d rather not change the 4:30 main meal time for this reason as he eats at that time.

Any suggestions on the best way to get them to go to bed earlier and waking up earlier? Even if I’m still feeding them every 2-3 hours I’d be much happier if it was the case their schedule allowed me to have an evening.

Thank you in advance I really welcome any tips/ advice x x

How old are they? DD is 9 months. She is BF at 6/7am, breakfast(e.g. Porridge) at 8.30, lunch(e.g tomato pasta) at 12.40, dinner (e.g beef casserole) at 5.30. BF around 7.30. Sleep around 8. Wake up and BF at 3/4am. Sleep til 6/7am. I went back to work recently and she is a bottle refuser so I had gradually got her used to not having milk during the day.

HOw old are they?
Are you saying they don't go to sleep till 11pm?
Do they nap during the day?

They’ll be 8 months next week. They don’t go to sleep for bedtime until 10:30-11:30pm yes. They tend to have a nap around 11am-12pm for 20-30 mins max and then have an hour nap or so mid afternoon. If I’m at home I have to Bf them and they’ll shortly then sleep or out and about they’ll fall asleep with motion like most babies.

I’m 90% sure they aren’t feeding from hunger and it’s for comfort the amount of times they feed is difficult but what I find the worst is I never get any time to myself or with my husband im an evening and some mornings it’s such a rush when they get up so late.

I was thinking of after Xmas waking them about 7:30 am bringing breakfast forward and starting them on lunch (food) around 12pm and trying to get them to nap earlier in the afternoon and then hope this brings bedtime forward but don’t know if forcing them to wake will be too disruptive

If they wake up for a feed at 6.00 am then start their day at 6.00 am, and aim for a 12-13 hour day so bed time between 6 and 7pm

I didn't have twins, but did have two close together. I know some people don't agree with this, but I set the routine that worked best for me and fit the babies into that. So they went to bed at 6.30/7 and woke up at 7.30/8. They also had 2 good naps a day (1-2 hours) and were fed to a routine too. I'd have gone a bit mad otherwise.

Generally it worked, as I went along the routine was tweeked and altered. There was a bit of controlled crying at times, but when I changed their routine I always did it as gradually as i could. Changing things by 5 mins a day till things were where they needed to be.

Your plan sounds good, but a cold turkey shock to the system might leave it doomed to fail. Maybe do it in stages bringing everything earlier over the next few weeks.

I brought my dd bedtime earlier by gradually waking her earlier in the mornings. we had quite a consistent rhythm in the day with her napping x mins after waking so it naturally affected night time. waking several hours early just meant she treated the next nap as night time again. wanted it sooner and slept for ages unless woken.