I am a mother of twin boys who will be 2 weeks old tomorrow. I have beed told to feed one feed both, sleep one sleep both. Right now they seem to be feeding every three hours and wake up together. There have been times where one twin is up after an hour of a feed and the other is still sleeping. Now, should I wake up the other and feed him after just and hour or so? I am not sure if he would be even hungry. But do the rules still apply at such an early age.
Any thoughts would be great! Thanks!
Hi J. - if you are on the south shore I would recommend you join the Mothers of Multiples - you will be connected with a large group of woman who have been thru all stages of twins - I think you will get great ideas and support!
CONGRATULATIONS ON THE BABES!!
i am a grandmother of twins, now 2 yrs old. my opinion, never wake a sleeping child, unless there are medical reasons to do so. as for keeping twins on the same schedule...my daughter was told this to and she tried. i was there the first few weeks after they came home and i will say it's difficult to do two at once. they were premature so she ahd to pump the breastmilk and give it in a bottle so could me measured out what they were and were not getting. the positions one gets into to feed two babies at the same time is quite interesting. ha. we did at times but it is difficult. she much prefers doing one at a time. i'm sure there are days when she'd love for them both to be napping at the same time, but for the most part she prefers one on one time with each.
congratulations! and good luck
You may have already figured out what you are going to try, but I thought I'd chime in. My twins are now 13 months. I never had any success waking up the "sleeping twin" to try and get them on the same schedule. Usually the sleeping one was too groggy to wake up and have a productive feeding. Fortunately, between 6-8 weeks they synchronized their feedings or like another posted, the sleeping twin would start to stir while the other was feeding. My twins slept in the same crib from day 1 coming home from the hospital - perhaps this helped them start stirring at the same time.
Congratulations on your twins! As a mom of twins (20 months old), I tried to keep them on the same schedule for feeding. I would feed one, then feed the other one (usually the second baby was starting to stir at this point). On occasion, I did wake the second twin. I know many moms out there don't believe in that, but when you have newborn twins, you need to do some things differently (in order to maintain some sanity). I do recommend joining one of the Mothers of Multiples groups (depending on what area you live in), as you will find a huge resource of other moms of twins who can share their experiences. Good luck and it WILL get easier!
I don't have twins, so I can'ty speak to that. BUT I do agree, don't wake a sleeping baby! Just my opinion. At this stage, they are far from a schedule and just need to get used to being on the outside and gettng their basic needs met. Try and gets lots of rest yourself :) Take care!
I don't have twins so I am not really qualified to reply but.... As a general rule I strongly believe that you should not wake a sleeping baby. He/she is sleeping because they are tired not hungry. Good luck.
I don't have twins, but I must disagree with the "never wake a sleeping baby" rule of thumb. Both of my babies were sleepy babies: they had mild jaundice, which made them sleep for hours and hours on end. I often had to wake them to feed them on a regular schedule until they grew out of the jaundice and developed their own stronger appetites. In addition to worrying about their intake, output, growth, jaundice, keeping them awake while eating, and trying to get some sleep at night myself, I had a well-intentioned MIL telling me to let them sleep! Go with your gut, and what works for you, but remember there are no "rules" in parenting - except to go with your instinct and do what's right for YOU.
First of all congrats. You've got your hands full. I've never had twins so I can only imagine. I think the theory behind the wake and feed at the same time is so you aren't constantly dealing with a baby eating and awake all the time. You get so little sleep as it is that getting a chance to lay down while they are sleeping would be such a blessing. So you would like to get them on the same schedule. Now some baby's get their days and nights mixed up. So even with one baby it is definitely a good idea to wake them every few hours anyways to feed. Now when one wakes up an hour later are you sure it's for a feeding? You can offer the feeding to the other one. He'll probably fall back to sleep which is fine. But a little something when his brother is ready to eat might help you keep your sanity a little. Because one might just be getting topped off and then he'll be ready to really snooze and by the time you get that one down the other one is awake and that's how the cycle of you being one constant baby tending machine will come into play. If you're breastfeeding it will make it all a little easier anyways.
Congratulations! I have twins who are now 19 months so I understand. The first few months I tried everything. Even one baby newborn is unpredictable-put 2 together and a schedule is non-existant for a while. What did help me is tandem nursing. If they were both awake, I fed them at the same time. If only one was awake, I'd tried to guess. I usually woke the other up if it had been 2 hours or so. Sometimes I didn't and I'd no sooner crawl into bed then have the other one wake up. This was by no means perfect and some nights it didn't work. I never woke my firstborn up to feed but when you have 2 newborns, those rules get thrown aside. For instance, if each baby wakes up 3-4 times a night- that is 6-8 times for you with maybe only a few 45 minute catnaps. People will tell you to sleep during the day and get help but that is not always possible. That advice would drive me nuts.
You won't harm the babies no matter what you decide to do. I did trial and error for a while. Once they are about 6 months old a eating meals, it gets easier and the schedule gets predictable. Good luck!!!
Hi J.,
I do have twins. My baby girls are now 20 months. What worked for my husband and I is to just let them be babies. They will sleep and wake when they need to. One might have a bigger appetite and perhaps the other might like to sleep longer. Whatever their needs are, just meet those need and realize this stage will be over soon. Before you know it you will look at them in just a few months and say, "where did my little itty bitty babies go." Twins are wonderful but realize they are also individuals with different needs. As parents our needs get met, as far as the sleep goes it's a given your going to get little sleep when your babie(s) are little.
L. ...x2.
