S.I.T.B.A.C.K. with twins

[ananymous]

Have any twin parents had success with Taking Cara Babies' SITBACK sleep training method?

Our boys are getting closer to ready for sleep training. One already puts himself to sleep well after a calming routine, but the other gets anxious any time he's put down not fully asleep. When he cries, he wakes his brother. As you can imagine, this can make SITBACK hard, because I don't want the first twin to wake up too much. I often have to skip a lot of important steps so at least one is sleeping.

Anyone feel like they got it to work? Or should I abandon this in favor of something else?

 

[johnvladimir]

@ananymous So, I read a lot of different things when my babies were little to get ideas (I liked precious little sleep), but here’s the thing, babies are people, and people are different, and what works for one person may not work for others. Humans of all ages aren’t machines that come with one set of instructions that will work across the board if you just follow the steps exactly.

If taking care of babies isn’t working for you, the problem is not you and your failure to implement it correctly, it just may not be right for you and your babies. So, take what works, leave what doesn’t, reference some other ideas, experiment, try some other stuff until you figure out what works for you.

Sounds like it’s not taking cara of babies, even if that works amazingly for others. Your kid may need more comforting right away or else he gets wound up and it’s even harder to get him back down (plus you get the bonus of then getting his sibling back down too). Maybe, with him, it’s better to go in right away and calm him before he hits level 11.

Maybe he’s just not ready yet but if you try the exact same method in a month or two, it’ll go much more smoothly.

That’s fine.

Honestly what I think is most helpful for sleep is consistency. Have the same wind down routine every night, do it the same time. If you set the structure, they’ll learn to come to know what to expect and what is supposed to happen next. That’ll help them go down and stay down once they are developmentally ready. Which is just going to happen when it happens.

Again, every kid will get their on their own schedule.

 

[ananymous]

@johnvladimir All good perspective and a welcome reminder. Ty

 

[sarahjane5595]

@ananymous We did Taking Cara Babies and my twins slept through the night starting at 5 months. I will say we started with the sitback method but pretty quickly created our own style of it just based on what worked best for us (ex maybe doing the pacifier step sooner, etc). My twins did get pretty used to each others crying and didn’t wake each other up too often

 

[ananymous]

@sarahjane5595 This is so helpful, thank you. I am getting started on minor aspects of sleep training rather early (ours are just barely 3 months) with an eye on better schedules and routines being in place before we really go full SITBACK. Perhaps some of my concerns will resolve in the coming 8-9 weeks.

 

[sp538]

@ananymous Had to look it up but this is basically what we did, and I would second that they stopped waking each other eventually. The sound machine helped with that. They don’t say this but I would add to keep it dark. We were lights out (or as dark as possible) from bedtime to wake time no matter what was happening and I really think that made a difference.

 

[ananymous]

@sp538 We use a sound machine now but may need to go louder. Been waiting on our blackout curtains for 2 weeks, after which I think I'll have some better success. Twin 2 sleeps better if I put a burp rag on his eyes.

 

[sp538]

@ananymous Hahaha I had one that I swear I had to remind him he was allowed to close his eyes. He’d just be staring off and I’d gently close his eyelids and they just wouldn’t open again. So silly.