I have 5 month old twin boys and am breastfeeding. One goes to bed early around 7:30 and the other not until 8:30. They both wake up at 11pm or 12am and then are up every 2 hours after that to eat. The difficulty is that there are 2 of them, so I feed one at 11pm and one at 12am then from there i am up every hour feeding them. We have tried to wake them both up at the same time to feed them, but what if one of them is ready to sleep longer - i don't want to squash that. And now for some reason they are both waking up at 3am WIDE awake and don't go back to sleep for a good hour. I breasfed my daughter every 2 hours at night, so this is not a problem for me, but having 2 at the same time is geting a little tricky. Any advice on how to make this work and still get some sleep?
Linda,
I don't have any advice but I think you're awesome for nursing your twins, taking care of a 2 year old, and working!
I know what it's like to nurse ONE baby every 2 hours around the clock, but haven't had the experience of nursing twins.
I hope you get some great advice that will help you continue to nurse and get some sleep :)
I commend you for exclusively nursing twins. I know how hard it is...
I exclusively nursed my duaghter who did not sleep well and was up at night for months..
I remember how it si to feel like a zombie..
After 5 months I might try a bit of formula or maybe have dad give a bottle of expressed milk once late at night... you do have to sleep.
We worked out a plan that I went to bed early 8 or 9 pm.. my husband stayed up with the baby and gave her a bottle and them put her to bed. so I managed to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep //
First of all - you are awesome for nursing those babies! If you were in front of me I'd give you a high five. :)
My advice is to rotate co-sleeping at night. So when one baby wakes up, bring him to bed with you until the next wakes up. When that happens, enlist your husband to get the other baby to sleep in their crib and you get to work nursing the other baby. Lather, rinse, repeat! Hopefully this helps.
Do you have side-lie nursing perfected? If not, do so! It has saved my sanity and I have a singleton.
Do not give your baby formula or expressed breastmilk in the night! If you do that, your body will think it doesn't need to produce that milk for that nighttime feeding. It can have a serious affect on your supply, and since you're nursing twins the last thing you need is to give your body the wrong signals. Plus, nighttime nursing has proven to be an important factor in delaying your fertility. Lots of bonuses!
Good luck, mama!
Try keeping them up a little later...play with them, it's almost as if they still have their days and nights mixed up. Try to keep them awake till YOU go to sleep...and I know it's early but when my youngest ate every 2 hours, he just wasn't full......i gave him cereal at night and he slept like a baby...lol
Linda,
You should talk to your doctor. At 5 months old, babies should be almost sleeping through the night. They absolutely do not have to eat every 2 hours. My daughter stopped eating between 11pm and 7am by month 3. For your own sanity - try to stretch this time out more.
Good luck!
Linda,
I found with my twins, that I just had to wake them up and feed them at the same time. Otherwise, I was up all night. And, quite frankly - even with feeding them together, I still didn't get much sleep. It wasn't ideal, and I felt terrible waking them up sometimes, but I couldn't survive otherwise.
I wish I had better advice, it's really hard. You can try stretching out the times between their feedings - and keeping them up a little later at night too. They shouldn't "need" to eat every 2 hours at that age.
Good luck!
my twins are 5 months old and i am breastfeeding also. they like to change their schedule on me alot...breastfed babies need to eat more throughout the day and night lol :) are you sure they are hungry each time they wake up? i have found that sometimes my boys just wake up to play and not to eat or they need a diaper or even a burp. at 11pm give them a good feeding then let them sleep and fall back asleep on their own if they wake up. unless of course they are screaming bloody murder....but sometimes my twins do that just to get my attention because they want to play :) i am right along with you on what to do...i dont think there is much to do except what we are doing but also allowing them time to fall back asleep on their own....people are amazed that we breast feed twins....it is harder than only one....i breastfed my firstborn for 18 months and that was easy compared to two babies but we are awesome mothers to commit to breastfeeding our babies :) good luck and i hope you can figure something out