Please help! Sil's twins wont sleep through night.

[mummylove]

My sil has beautiful twin boys aged 6 months, they are little angels until bedtime....

they share a room and go down about 7.00pm, one of them wakes at 12.30, 3.30 and then 5.30am - ouch!!!!!!!!!!!

sometimes he wakes the other twin too and you can only imagine!

problem is one of them always wriggles so much he gets himself in a mess, loses his dummy and cant turn over so he cries out, she has to pick him up rock him to sleep and puts him back.

she is a wonderful and patient mother but totally exhausted. i have offered to look after them so she can have a break but she is reluctant to leave them at this age which i can understand.

i am going to stay at hers in a couple of weekends and sleep in the babies room so she can have one nights sleep!

she needs help - are there any twin mothers around with some advice?

she does not want to give in to putting them in separate rooms yet as wants to have a room spare for visitors (she lives miles from anyone so we need to stay if we visit)

she cant let him cry it out as it would wake the other boy.

any suggestions would be great...

how difficult... the dummy thing you see is a hard one, i 'weaned' my dd1 off the bf at night by gradually decreasing the time i feed her over a period of time and replacing with a dummy. but then she got dependent on that. babies, when they come into a light sleep, need whatever it was that first sent them off to sleep, to get them off again. i evetually, when she had a cold at 10 months and couldn't breath and suck her dummy, took it off her - which meant she had to cry a bit for a night or so. but is tip top now. was 2 last week and sleeps 2 hours at lunch and 12 hours at night. not useful at present i know, but something to bear in mind.
i now have dd2, who is 3.5 months and not sleeping though. we only have 2 bedrms and i am not sure about how to get her to start sleeping though before i put her in to share with dd1. at least your sil does have a spare room if push comes to shove. with controlled crying, it is so so so hard but it doesn't take too long. perhaps she could try one in the pare room until sorted, then put them back together? the younger they are the better?
advice on how to get 2 of different ages together too would be nice.
good luck to your sil

how about separating them for a while until he learns to sleep through the night. And maybe wean him off the dummy.

Does he sleep in a sleeping bag - that might help ?

My twins share a room and at 20 months rarely wake each other up - even if one is screaming !

Also try asking on the forum at twinsclub.co.uk (I always seem to be sending people there !).

I agree with getting rid of the dummy, my DS's would always wake if they lost theirs.
However, mine didn't really sleep properly until they were about 3yo, so we co-slept most of the time, as it was the only way we could get any sleep.
I must say how nice you are to offer to let her sleep,DH and I had no help off family, and would have given anything for someone to take them off our hands for a bit.

hello

thank you for your advice - i think temporary separation is a good idea.

Any more twin mothers about to share their advice?

x

Mummylove,

Do they wake for a feed, or it is losing the dummy and wriggling about only.

I have eight year old twins, who did share a room, and if my ds woke for a feed, we woke dd and feed her at the same time. They stayed together until about a year, although they were about 10 months before we got a full nights sleep. Is there any way you could stay with her and then look after them while she has a good night. My sil did this for one night, and physically it didn't do much good, but emotionally it was brilliant, just one nights' break from it made a ton of difference

hello

one twin just wakes because he has got himself in an uncomfortable position and wants his dummy back.

i am hoping to go stay with her soon,

mummylove, long time since mine needed dummies, but kept them both together in same room until they stopped night feeds, they then joined their brother in his room, its something he will grow out of soon, tell your sil to just bare with it, he'll soon be able to put the dummy back himself, perhaps he will soon stop is over wriggling at the same time, just make sure he's at the right temperature, just because they are tins does not mean they both will need the same temperature ie blankets / duvet / sheets etc...re other one waking so what they will both go back again, they won't always wake each other up, she very lucky to have someone willing to go and help by giving her a goodnights sleep...