Are you getting sick of hearing about my long nights? Because I'm getting tired of talking about them but it is my life right now. At least today I have some good news to write about - I put both babies down in their cribs last night with very little (we're talking less than a minute) fussing! I think I'm slowly learning. I've been missing the window before they get too tired when I first put them down.
For the Dynamo, I hit it spot on last night at 6:40 PM. I've never seen him go down so well and I've never put him down so early. I had started a routine of reading a book before bed but I knew he was super tired so we skipped the book. He sleeps with his Fisher Price Seahorse and I have a Glomate Junior on in the nursery too. (They don't hold the Glomate yet but I keep it on the railing of the crib and it has a 15 minute timer which is awesome. They love to stare at it.)
Sweet Potato had a late afternoon nap - he was still sleeping when I got home from work at 5:30 - so he didn't go down until an hour after the Dynamo but I had the same luck with him - he fussed for about 30 seconds.
They both woke up for a bottle three hours after they went down and then again around 3 AM and 3:30. If you don't count the times before 11 PM (even though I went to bed at 8:30!), they only woke up once. I can't complain about that.
I do have another question though - my pediatrician told me at their two month check-up that at four months they would be sleeping ten hours. He told me at the four month check-up to let them CIO and if I had to, go in the basement with a pillow over my ears! He said once they are on solid foods, if they wake up a bunch of times during the night it is because of habit. The most I have let them cry is 15 minutes before I've gone to get them (really only the Dynamo) and that was only once*. He falls asleep usually within 10 minutes and I only do it when they first go down for the night or for daytime naps in the cribs**. The question is though - am I supposed to let them CIO in the middle of the night when they wake up? Because that is really where my problem has been. And they don't eat as much in the middle of the night. They guzzled about seven ounces before 11 PM but the 3 AM feedings were closer to four ounces. Am I supposed to wean them off that feeding? Or rather "those" feedings on the nights where they are awake more than once after midnight?
* On this night, I rocked the Dynamo in the dark in the nursery with a bottle and he fell asleep after drinking one and a-half ounces.
** The majority of the daytime naps still take place in the swings and bouncy seats but I've been bringing them up to their cribs during the day as much as possible.
I let Rhian CIO - but waited until 6 months. She was always a pretty good sleeper so it was easier for me (and there was only 1!) But the theory goes that if they learn to soothe themselves to sleep in the first instance, the middle of the night wake ups will take care of itself.
ReplyDeleteThat didn't really work for me but I had to let her CIO for a bit in the middle of the night. But it was easier after we got the initial going to bed thing down. Good luck.
I think it depends more on how much the child weighs than the time frame. My guys were still too small weight wise at 4 months to do CIO, I knew they needed the food in the middle of the night. We had major problems GETTING them to go to sleep, so we did CIO for that. As for the 10-12 hour sleeping through the night (STTN) stretches, we let them gradually do it themselves. Looking back, we could've dropped a feeding sooner (we were doing a dream feed and middle of the night) and they would've been fine.
ReplyDeleteThey started sleeping 12 hour stretches at 7 months.
Hope that helps!
Sounds like you've got a good thing going and yes, putting them to bed EARLIER is key! It's like magic how much that changes things, huh?
Well you have one person in the blog world who is not sick of hearing about your late nights. I am sure you are sick of having them!!! :-) I am very amazed by you doing it on your own with twins. I am in the thinking stage. My mom is a twin and my doctor said it would be very high chance that I have them!!
ReplyDeleteHappy to hear you had a good night!
ReplyDeletePersonally I'm against CIO. Sure, you can get good results, but at what cost!? By traumatising your child?? Sorry but that's how I feel about it. Also I do believe that while it might not be food babies need when they wake at night, they still need comfort. That being said, I know it is much (MUCH) more difficult with twins, and it is easier when you bed share and breastfeed (even if for comfort) [my girl still wakes up every two hours or so]
P.S
ReplyDeleteI've also heard (though to be honest in relating to older babies) of slowly diluting their night bottles, i.e every night add a bit more water to the same amount of powder, which eventually will cause them not to want to wake up for "water".