Q: What exactly is "putting them to bed"?

[steve_br]

@annastasia My twins didn't settle into a real routine until about 10 weeks. Before that, feeding was every three hours around the clock. We would take nighttime shifts; we would feed together and then one of us would immediately go to sleep for 5ish hours. The other would do the next feeding alone. Then we would feed together and the other would get to sleep. This allowed us blocks of sleep. Getting proficient at feeding two at the same time (one on a boppy and the other on my knees/legs) made this possible.

At about 12 weeks they started a longer stretch of sleep that went from 9pm to 3ish and maybe 60% of the time they would sleep until 7am straight through. I think having a routine of bath, bottle then bed really worked for us. They would typically fall asleep eating that last warm bottle. We transitioned them from the twin pack and play in our room to their cribs around 4 months. They are 8 months old and sleep from 7:30pm to 7am 80% of the time, with occasionally one waking up for a feed around 2am or because of teething pain/snot blockage.

Mine sleep on their stomachs and have almost since the beginning.

 

[beautitudine]

@annastasia Yes other comments are right, babies that young still need to feed often. My girls were needing to be fed every 3 hours on average. If she is not breastfeeding there is where your lack of sleep is very noticeable. I breastfed my girls at the same time, in bed, at night every 3 hours and I actually got good sleep. This requires the babies sleeping next to mom of course which they need this young anyway. Believe it or not those babies will sleep better when they are next to each other and next to mom. Even if they squirm alot, they are used to that movement already in the womb believe me. I would be mostly laying down, propped up a little and pop them on and then off a few minutes later when they were done feeding and asleep (oh it helps to change their diapers just prior to feeding too if possible). This method saves alot of time because you don't have to get up and go make bottles, clean bottles, measure, etc. Breastfeeding doesn't require all of that.

 

[goodfruit]

@annastasia You're getting closer, I promise! But they're probably too small for a set bedtime right now. Soon they'll just start sleeping a little bit longer at night but one thing that helps in our house is bathing in the evening close to your desired "bedtime". I let them stay in the water for a bit after washing then we massage with lotion and cuddle up with a bottle to relax. They sometimes sleep for 7 hours on those nights. But one of my girls will make up for the bottle she missed during the morning hours and that's alright, I'll feed every 3 hours all day long if they'll let me sleep at night! Mine are 13 weeks old right now, 9 adjusted.

I also recommend turning the lights and sounds down lower in the evenings. We want to help them establish a circadian rhythm of sleeping when it's dark and waking during daylight hours.

 

[phronema]

@annastasia I have nothing to offer you but to say my wife and I didn't get a single full uninterrupted nights sleep for 9 months.

The worst thing I've ever experienced.