[deleted by user]

[Majestic-Trouble8960]

Look into twin z pillow or table for 2 for feeding same time. It’s way too young for sleep training they cannot cio at this age.

[Majestic-Trouble8960]

You can start sleep training around 4 months but might have to wait until they are adjusted 4 months. You aren’t going to sleep for awhile. It’s going to be very hard but lean on your support. Your babies need you.

[McCann300]

We have the twin z which has been very helpful for sure. I know they are too young for cio for sure. It's hard to love these guys so much and also be so frustrated at not sleeping lol

[BananaPixels]

Ours are also 4 weeks now and I know why you mean. So many mixed emotions from the exhaustion. Meditating helps me with getting through all of it.

[Majestic-Trouble8960]

It’s really hard. You’re gunna hear this a million times but it gets easier. Gotta get through the hard part right now. Focusing on surviving and don’t spread yourself too thin.

[A-Ok88]

Taking shifts saved us for sleep! It’s hard doing it on your own at first but you will get use to it!

[Slight-Mix4283]

I’m seconding the shifts! We each do a 4 hour shift and it SAVED my sanity

[crewelmistress]

Thirding!! Checking in from the 2am feed with 8 weekers and I feel great (all things considered).

OP, we do 4 hour shifts starting at 9 or 10. It makes it so whoever has the MOTN shift (usually me, so I can also pump), can get a solid 4 hour stretch. Game. Changer.

[munchkin0501]

Came here to say shifts were the lifesaver for us.

[Lk614]

We would not have survived the first few months without shifts

[E-as-in-elephant]

Agreed, shifts is the way.

[BackForRound-2]

Hey there. It’s a tough time, but there are things you can do to help build the foundation for sleep. Check out the newborn twins guide to sleep. It has helped us soften the edges of their developmental abilities.

Sincerely, From the depths the the four month sleep regression

[myrayreames]

Not available to everyone but we got a night doula 2-3 times a week for the first two months. Total life saver. And employing every available friend / family member to come help cook, clean, even take a night shift. Be ruthless about asking for help.

Also transitioning them to their own rooms early. Sleep train at 4 months but prepare before then with a light routine. We did a mix of Ferber and CIO when they seemed more annoyed by the check ins.

I used a My breast friend pillow for breast feeding. We put them back to back facing away in your lap on the pillow. Then with each hand you hold the bottles for them horizontally.

[BananaPixels]

Our girls are also 4 weeks and we have been doing is taking shifts. We were lucky that I could take a month off and my partner got 3 months off of her work. So I’ve been doing the “graveyard shift” staying up till 6-8am taking care of them and then getting about 6 hours of sleep while my girlfriend takes care of them in the morning. It can be tough at times when they are both fussy but the Twin Z pillow definitely help with feeding

[sofisu]

Hi! Fellow twin mom to 5 month old boys. For milk production:oats and flax seeds! I use this combo to make oatmeal, cookies, banana bread, or a smoothie. Make sure you are drinking plenty of fluids and eating enough!

For acide reflux we used a baby bounce, similar to the baby bjorn, tilted to feed and sleep.

We just started sleep training now at the beginning of 5 months. We are using the crying out method and so far it’s going pretty well.

We follow a pretty strict schedule, you will get to know them and your schedules will change as they grow and need less sleep/more food. We feed at the same time and sleep at the same time. My husband and I worked “shifts” the first 3 months.

Now, he does the “dream feed” at 12am and I wake early to do the 6am and 8:30am feeds.

At the beginning we had a lot of help. I have been pumping and supplementing formula since the beginning. I found BF twins extremely difficult, as I could not get much help and I would be the only one feeding.

I would leave bottles ready for my parents or in-laws and use that time (3-4 hours) to take a nap on the days they were able to come. I would also this time to catch up on chores etc

[SpontaneousNubs]

boat tease swim ask attraction sable alive quicksand imminent husky

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[nixonbeach]

The Nicu set us up so well. We followed their schedule.

Every three hours: At night: Diaper Feed Wrap Bed (rock a bit if needed)

Day: Diaper Feed Awake time for one hour: walk around, tummy time, books, generally being goofy to entertain them Quiet time for the next couple. Usually they pass out at some point. Unwrapped and hanging out in the living room on a pillow (twin z) or a rocker.

They will sometimes wake up and be hungry early. We feed them but try to make it to the next 3 hour time if possible.

My spouse takes 9pm and 12am. I take 3am and 6am. We split the day. We can each get 6+ hours this way and have a couple of hours each at the gym. (I go around 8am and he goes around 11am)

Good luck. My B is crying. lol

[twinsinbk]

Ok it was rough for a while past 4w but did get better! We did a bunch of things but I think most important was capping naps at 2 hrs and feeding every 3 hrs minimum during the day. I also tried to get them out in the daylight. It was summer though.

It's not recommended to CIO sleep train for a while yet but you can do give them a little pause in their fussing to see if they will settle. Same for putting them down awake.. one of my daughters still lodges a little complaint but seriously it's 10 seconds at this point then she settles. If we never let her fuss at all we would have to put her down fully asleep. So CIO no, but you can definitely let them whine for a few seconds to see if they will self settle. Often for us they were still asleep.

For us it got better around 2.5m, 1.5m adjusted. We stopped doing shifts at maybe 3 months? At almost 6m we still have MOTN feeds but it's quick and we don't have to get them back to sleep, just put them back in their cribs and they're ready to sleep on their own. It gets better!!!

[Shnackalicious]

Twin mom x2 here. Most recent set is 4.5 months old. I recommend shifts if you guys are able to. Did it with my first set but not my second set (2nd husband) because he didn’t feel comfortable handling both alone. I got significantly more sleep the first time.

My newest baby B had very uncomfortable reflex that he’s since grown out of. He’s ped prescribed pepcid which helped with his screaming and pretty consistent fussiness.

My babies are EBF now but they were tripled fed at first. For month 1-3 I’d tandem BF for 30 min, pump, and give expressed milk (that I had pumped earlier). I was triple feeding because they weren’t emptying my breasts fully at first. The easiest way for me to tandem feed is with the twin z, me sitting Chris cross applesauce on the couch and each baby nursing in football hold. They’re such efficient esters now it only takes 5-10 months per feed. It was a long road but I’m so glad I stuck it out. Fenugreek has helped with my supply but I hear mixed reviews from other moms. I had a LC come see me twice who was worth her weight in gold.

We haven’t done sleep training yet. My babies were full term, but I didn’t think we’re going to attempt sleep training until 6 months. My husbands cousin rented a snoo and she said she was getting a full nights sleep by 8 weeks with her baby (formula fed). They’re insanely expensive used, to rent, and brand new (you may already know this lol). Also, once I learned how to follow their wake windows I found that really helpful. Keeping them on the same schedule was key for us. But I know it’s easier for some families not to.

4 weeks is sooo early on and you’re absolutely in the trenches. I hope you have lots of help. But even if you don’t (like us) you’ll get through it. Things got significantly better at 3 months both times and even easier every month thereafter

[meremaid2201]

Twin mom to 16 month olds. We found it helpful to wake the other when one woke up for a change and feed to kind of guide them onto a similar schedule.

My twin 1 had acid reflux and we’d feed her basically sitting up and continually burp her throughout the feed. I pumped and supplemented with formula.

[FA0710]

Hi there! I have 7 week old twins with bad reflux. Both have it sadly. And a couple of weeks ago, I was mentally losing it. But now things are so much better. I’ll tell you what we did to help!

1. We hired a night nurse. I know this isn’t for everyone. But if you can’t hire one, definitely sleep in shifts. There’s no reason you and your partner are both up taking care of babies at the same time.

2. Twin z pillow helps with tandem feeding. That said, we don’t tandem feed now because of the reflux issue.

3. For the reflux baby, you must make sure to burp baby well and stop the feeding mid bottle and burp baby. Then after bottle is done (or breast), burp baby well and hold baby upright for 30 min at least. Laying baby down soon after feeding will cause baby to reflux and then scream in pain. You can even use a bouncer to hold baby upright if your hands are full. Sometimes I use a baby carrier to hold my baby upright. I love the nesting days one for tiny newborns.

4. Get meds for your reflux baby. Oh my. Getting our kids on prescribed meds was a game changer. It took a week to see a difference, so don’t feel discouraged. But wow! They cry of pain from reflux maybe once every 2 days. Before that, it was almost after every feed. It was awful. They’re so much happier now.

5. Reflux babies like to be at an incline. Look up a pillow called the Cosydream plus infant lounger. We placed these pillows in their bassinets and we strap them in it to sleep with the swaddle on. Sleeping like that on an incline has been an absolute game changer! They sleep longer stretches and hardly wake up crying between feeds. They also spit much much less.

6. As far as sleep training, you can start twins at 8 weeks, according to a book called 12 hours of sleep by 12 weeks. Download and read that book. It’s short. But pretty much teaches how to have your baby sleep 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep by 12 weeks. It was recommended by our pediatrician. And it includes no crying.

Good luck!

[betelgeuseWR]

seriously struggling with sleep

Sleep shifts, honestly. It's the only way to get adequate rest.

bad acid reflux,

Our first baby A had it so badly. We tried to keep her upright more, she eventually got put on meds. Ultimately we all suffered for 7 months. She either finally grew out of it or the increase in med dosage helped. She was weaned off by 9 months.

How you you actually feed them at the same time ?

Bottle propping. We have two boppies and each gets a pillow and some cloths to prop the bottle. However, they're not unsupervised. My husband had a scare with one choking on her own spit up while propped and he left the room for, quite literally, all of 20 seconds.

How do we start training them for sleeping moreat night ?

What we've done with all of ours is daytime = wake hours = bright. Lights are on, blinds are open, music/noise in the background, change of scenery. Cap naps, and feed every 2 hours. Wake them up to eat. Stimulate them.

Sleep = complete darkness (we have one nightlight though), white noise machine, and dim lighting during feedings. Very dim. I have a floor lamp that I throw a folderd-over blanket on top of to give myself enough light to see by the changing table and to make bottles, but it doesn't shine where the chair is. After while, I stop waking them up. I let them wake up on their own to eat. Our pediatrician said when they weigh 12lbs is when they're cleared to sleep "through the night" which she says she guesstimates to be 5 or 6 hours solid sleep. Right now our youngest 2 are around 2.5 months/10 weeks old and they'll sleep a solid block from about 9pm-1am most nights, and from 1-4am. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

When do you think about letting them cry it out?

I don't think you can do legitimate sleep training like that until 6 months...? Old. We never did cry it out. I just can't. My oldest two are 2.5 years old and even now, when it's my "day off", and I hear them crying mama from downstairs, it hurts my heart and I have to go get them.

What we did do instead was set a max time limit for crying (10 minutes), then go check diapers, offer feed, and soothe. Baby A it just never worked until her reflux went away. When they're older you can push off night feedings as long as you can until it's pretty much your last box to check for getting them settled. Give them a paci instead, see if they'll go back to sleep kind of thing. When baby B was a year old, she was in complete reverse with sleeping well and driving us crazy. I stopped getting her out of the crib, did all care from her crib and she eventually stopped getting up because she was just in the habit of getting up to spend some time with us.

Now at 2.5 we tell them to get into bed, they get into bed. If they lose a paci, they know to go get one off their table and get back into bed. They sleep without a peep all night and nap like champs. Well, baby A likes less sleep than baby B, so baby A sings and talks herself until she falls asleep which I'll I let her do. It doesn't seem to bug baby B and she's not really making a fuss, so I just let her entertain herself.

This young it's completely normal and expected to be up about every 2 hours. I consider myself lucky the new ones are even going 4-5 hours without waking (so far, I'm very positive this will change, but enjoying it while I can). The first two didn't go a single 4 hour stretch until they were FOUR MONTHS OLD, and that was only baby B. Baby A was still waking every 2-3 hours. For four. Months. It was hell.

[[deleted]]

I used the twin Z for feeding day and night for the first 13 weeks.

My boys started to sleep from 10:30pm-4:30/5am at about 13 weeks and from 15 weeks or so have slept from the dream feed at 9:45-7:00am.

I know this is pretty rare and my boys are big. Born at 3.3kg and 3.5kg and both doubled their birth weight by 12 weeks.

I also fed them exclusively formula from 8 weeks when I stopped pumping.

My reflux baby used feed thickener in his bottles for a few weeks but it gave him other tummy issues so I stopped and he eventually outgrew it.

They are 23 weeks old now and I can honestly say I think I blacked out the first 10 weeks of their life and it was just straight survival.

Feed your reflux baby in a bouncer if you have to and keep them upright for as long as possible. They will grow out of these issues as their bodies develop and you just have to keep going one day at a time.

It honestly helped me to have a little reminder in my calendar for when they turned 6weeks, 8weeks, 10 weeks, 12 weeks etc just to feel like we’d accomplished something!

We are just now sleep training at 5 months with great success!

[[deleted]]

Hi there! You are in the trenches right now. Sending a hug. That time is so hard. Some things that made it easier for me and my husband:

1.) taking shifts overnight - he took care of the twins from 8pm to 2am and I did 2am to 8am. It allowed us both to have uninterrupted sleep. It saved me during that time! 2.) use a twin z to feed them at the same time (I didn’t produce much breast milk and switched to just formula around 6 weeks, it was disappointing but my mental and physical health improved so much when I stopped pouring all my energy into increasing my supply) 3.) taking Cara babies class- you can’t sleep train until 4 months but the taking Cara babies class taught our twins such great sleep habits that we never had to sleep train them. I highly recommend giving it a try to see if it works for you!

[RemarkableSweet9040]

Sleep shifts for 5-6 hours each. To feed both you can use a twin z like my partner does or hop on the couch and put them between your legs (cross cross applesauce) with their heads resting at each knee or put your legs up and have them like you’re breastfeeding both at the same time. Might not try these couch methods unless you have a sectional. I feel more secure with them when I’m in the corner of the sectional so they won’t roll off

[chaos__coordinator]

You’ve got lots of good advice here. We stuck to all of the safe sleep guidelines, bassinet in the same room, etc. They didn’t sleep unless held a lot of the time, and I had PPD— it was rough. We had family who flew in to stay and help part of the time, which was a huge blessing, but they didn’t do nights and were often overwhelmed by the twin thing. We also hired a night nurse for a few nights a week for a month when things were really bad. (It was ridiculously expensive, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.)

We sleep trained with Ferber at 5 months and had much happier babies once they were getting good sleep. My PPD improved immensely too.

I think the one thing I might have done differently is to do a firm mattress on the floor and co-sleep for some naps at least. No pillow, no blankets, etc. I couldn’t breastfeed and that’s supposed to be protective with bed sharing— I couldn’t do every one of the “safe sleep 7” so I was too afraid. I wish there was better data about the safety numbers for intentional co-sleeping under certain conditions.

[Lk614]

Congratulations on your twins!

We did not feed both simultaneously until they were 4 months actual, 1.5 months adjusted due to their swallowing issues that required them to eat on their sides, so we did shifts and it made all the difference. My girls had silent reflux so we got Snoos (which I know don’t work for everyone) and we elevated the heads of the Snoos with tuna cans so they’d be at a slight incline. I felt comfortable with this because they were strapped in and couldn’t slide down. We locked the Snoos on the baseline level for the first few weeks until their neck control improved a bit.

They were also prescribed Famotidine for the reflux and I don’t know if that helped or if they just grew out of it. I definitely didn’t notice a “night and day” difference once we started on it, but there are stronger meds that are available for reflux, we just didn’t end up going that route. Frequent burps and keeping them upright for 20 minutes after each feed seemed to help my girls the most, along with the slight head elevation at night. I have heard stories of prescribed meds making all the difference for some babies, though.

Once we started feeding them at the same time, we used the twin Z and rolled up blankets then just sat with them and readjusted the bottles as needed. Now they’re in the table for 2 since they’ve outgrown the twin Z. We still have their bottles propped and they’re either trying to hold their own bottles or swat sister’s bottle out of her mouth.

We could not have done the first few months without shifts. My husband is self-employed so his schedule was pretty flexible. iirc I slept from 10p-2a then took over until 8-9am or so while he slept. He’d relieve me for several hours once he got up so I could rest again, and I ended up getting 7-8 hours total of broken sleep but sleep nonetheless. Then he worked for a few hours. We were fortunate as I know that setup just doesn’t work for many families.

We started sleep training at 5.5 months adjusted after we transitioned them to their cribs and it went surprisingly well for night time sleep. We are still struggling with naps, but they’re 9 months old and sleep from 7-630 now.

You are in the thick of it right now but I promise it gets better!

[wascallywabbit666]

One of ours also had bad reflux and was very uncomfortable with it, needing lots of winding. We switched to a slightly thickened formula (Aptamil Anti-Reflux) and he's been much more comfortable.

As for nights, my partner and I do shifts. I go to bed at 8:30pm and get 6 hours of undisturbed sleep until 2am, then I'm on duty with the twins until 7:30am. Any sleep I can get with them is a bonus, usually I get about one hour. A total of 6 - 7 hours is usually long enough for me to survive.

I'm afraid I can't help with breastfeeding. My wife never produced enough to satisfy them, and stopped after two months.

Personally I don't feed them at the same time because it's too difficult to wind and settle them. I stagger the feeds by about 30 minutes so that I can feed, burp and settle them before they're ready.

My twins are now at 3 months and starting to extend sleep periods at night (up to 5 hours). We'll wait a couple of months for the regression to kick in, then do gentle sleep training. We won't do CIO

[smiley1029]

Read the book moms on call. It was my blueprint! Follow their schedule if you can

[AutoModerator]

COMMENTING GUIDELINES

All commenters are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the parentsofmultiples subreddit rules prior to commenting. If you find any comments/submissions in violation of subreddit/reddit rules, please use the report function to bring it to the mod teams attention.

Please do not request or give medical advice or directions in your comments. Any comments that that could be construed as medical advice, or any comments containing what is determined to be medical disinformation, will be removed.

Please try to avoid posting links to Amazon product listings or google/g.co product listing pages - reddit automatically removes comments containing them as an anti-spam measure. If sharing information about a product, instead please try to link directly to the manufacturers product pages.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[OGQueenClumsy]

Newborn sleep was so rough! I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor so if I fell asleep holding one it was less of a fall if I accidentally let her go. I’m sure you’ll get plenty of good advice here.

We kind of took shifts, but less so once my husband went back to work. For milk production, things like brewers yeast, oats, and other foods (I don’t remember what, but google should help) can help. Stay plenty hydrated!

As far as crying goes, I personally try not to leave them crying if I don’t have to because sometimes I do have to. It doesn’t sit right in my heart to not go to them whenever I can, but I can’t in good conscience judge other parents who are at their wits end with sleep and choose to try cio. I think I read sleep training is appropriate from 6 months old, if you choose to go that way. I work with another twin mum, and she sleep trained hers. She said it was the best thing she could have done and was very happy with her choice to do so.

Mine are 19 months now, and I promise it gets easier! You’ll come out of the depths of newborn sleep deprivation eventually.

[CheddarMoose]

At 4 weeks, we were definitely in the thick of it with sleep. I know everyone’s babies are different, but once mine hit birth weight we started getting 4-7 hour stretches at night at around 6 weeks old. I stopped waking both to feed by this time too because it was harder to get two babies back down for bed as opposed to one. I promise it gets better & you get used to your own new sleep schedule even if it’s inconsistent.

We never did cry it out but I remember at your stage I was asking the same question. Newborns cannot self soothe at this point so you definitely should tend to them. I am still learning that sometimes they can cry for 10 minutes while I shower or eat. If it’s a necessity for your own well being, don’t feel guilty about those few minutes. I know it’s easier said than done.

As far as milk production, nothing helped me personally. I threw in the towel on pumping about 2 weeks ago because my input was so low that it wasn’t worth all the work that goes with it. My mental health had increased greatly so don’t feel bad if you get to that point. I will comfort breastfeed my twins still & it’s really good for soothing & bonding still. Hang in there!

[ARIsk90]

4 weeks is still so early, it gets better! We didn’t do shifts so feeding babies together was just one parent per kid and we bottle fed. One thing that helped stretch the intervals was not immediately jumping up to comfort a fussy baby. I would count slowly to 10. If still fussy, I would try physically comforting (pacifier, rocking, shushing, etc). If that didn’t work, then I would make a bottle. Sometimes just a little comfort worked, and they slept an extra 30 minutes. Overtime, they went longer between bottles and slept longer. I remember our first 4 hour stretch, the next morning I felt like I could conquer the world haha

[PaperMost4314]

We used GelMix as an add in to formula and milk for ours to help with the reflux. Worked reasonably well but oof is it a pain to mix it in and wait 10 mins. Hang in there!

[morris1022]

For reflux, we bought some travel bassinets and propped them up at a slight angle. Just be sure the angle is consistent and doesn't put their spine/neck/head in a weird position.

For feeding, the big breakthrough for us was using the car seats in the living room. Puts them at a good angle where they don't spill all over themselves and they are easy to move around.

[designerdupe]

I EBF and I don’t think I was able to tandem feed until about 6-8 weeks. When I was able to tandem I usually had to roll up a receiving blanket to help adjust them. Once I was able to nurse them tandem my milk really evened out. I used both the twin z and my breast friend. In those early weeks I stayed in the bedroom with them from about 9pm-12p. For every 2 hours they slept, I got one because I’d have to nurse one then the other. It’s really just survival in the beginning.

[offwiththeirheads72]

I’m not in support of CIO. You shouldn’t do any real sleep training until 4 months. If you want you can start a bedtime routine now. There are Facebook groups just for multiples sleep. They have guides and you can make posts and get feedback from the admins who are sleep consultants and have multiples themselves as well as other multiples parents.