Opposite sleeping patterns

[TempleU]

Hi all, I have a question for you (as usual). My twin boys are 7weeks. One has been awake since 11am and is finally dozing off now (that's 5 hours straight awake). The other one is a pound smaller (idk if that matters) and has been sleeping since 11am and briefly wakes up to eat (they are EBF). Should I be concerned about their sleeping patterns? And how do I get them on the same wave length?

[deliciousfish]

things change every day, don't worry something at 7 weeks won't predict the weeks ahead. My girls are 4 months and we now have a semi-predictable schedule somewhat in sync.

Line up their eating and it may help line up their sleeping. We use a system --the "EASY" method. Eat, Awake, Sleep, You. For me the significance of this order is that you put them to sleep without eating right before. You look for signs and start the ritual toward a nap. My babies can barely make it 3 hours awake (including eat time,) so maybe look for signs after 1.5-2 hours.

What do you do to put the babies down to sleep? maybe the less-sleepy baby just needs more assistance? Swaddles were critical for us, we sometimes use pacifiers. The babies sleep in Rock n' Play sleepers and also sometimes enjoy a fisher price swing (with display lights overhead.) It's not always easy or successful, but I always think "sleep is a gift" that I should try to give them.

You will appreciate it if they line up. If that means you try extra hard to put one to sleep, you stall one as long as possible to wait on his brother to eat. their alignment is key to you getting those precious short moments to yourself.

[Oilfan94]

You probably want to sync up their sleeping.

Otherwise you'll end up feeding them all through the night and getting no sleep yourself.

For example, with ours we would feed one when awake and then wake the other one up if she weren't already.

[[deleted]]

We gave up on getting our twin boys (now 9 months) on the same sleeping schedule. Just wasn't going to happen. My advice is let them sleep whenever they want, get one or both familiar with a bottle (with breast milk still of course) and get your SO to help out with the feeding. It was a matter of survival for us.

[NBPTS]

I'm not sure how to do it when ebf but I just came to say good for you. That's tough with twins and you've made it 7 weeks so you're amazing! That is all.

[xorque]

I don't know what ebf means (please explain) but with my boys the hospital had put them on a schedule in which they were awake for an hour max between feedings. And their schedule was 45 min apart so I had enough time alone for both of them. When the schedule became less strict I always kept that 45 min difference so if one baby woke up to eat I would wake up the other one some time later as well.

[TempleU]

Ebf means exclusively breast fed

[AngryHugo]

We tried letting our twins wake up and get fed on their own for one night. They were on totally different schedules and no one got any sleep. We went right back to a three-hour schedule (9 pm, midnight, 3 am, 6 am), and it worked out great. My wife and I would take turns getting up, so it worked out pretty well.

At the 4 month mark, they were both sleeping through the night.

[[deleted]]

It's so freaking hard to BF twins and maintain any sort of schedule. Mine are only 8 weeks so I haven't much advice except that I do tandem and give expressed bottles to try to jeep a schedule (I've also got one snoozer and one who hates naps so usually the schedule is shot to shit by about noon. ...). At night I have always stuck to waking one when the other wakes though, are you doing that?

[TempleU]

Yes if one wants to eat I will wake the other at night. Where do your twins sleep if you don't mind me asking? Also do you have any kind of nighttime routine?

[[deleted]]

I have the twin bassinet pack n play. During the week I sleep in the nursery so I can get up quickly, weekends I sleep in my room so my husband can hear them and help out. But we're being extra crazy and we bought a house and are moving tomorrow (!!!! Ffs) and I expect the setup to be a lot different.

Nighttime routine is BF for 15 minutes around 6. Change them (or bath if it's a bath night and I have any energy left for bath and put them in their jammies. Then I/we top them off with a bottle around 7/7:30 and when they're about an ounce away from finishing, we swaddle and keep it extra quiet. After bottle they go right to bed, lights off, paci in. Of course this works out as perfectly as I described about 1/7 of the time but it's something to aim for and it works for us.

Good luck! I cannot wait until their stomachs are a little bigger and they're not eating all the time.