A No Cry Sleep Solution for Multiples

[Barefoot Farmer]

I have 3 month old triplets and to say the obvious, my time is limited. I was hoping that experienced MoMs could give me their sure-fire, time tested, mama approved, sleep tricks. I would love to have the trips in a night-time routine by age 9 months. How did you do it? We are managing, but doing just that managing; I'm hoping that as we face the bigger challenges coming up that I am ahead of the game with some sleep tricks up my sleeve. So list them here -- list all your night-time/bedtime sleep tricks for multiples here. I will be reading the responses it just may take me a while to respond.

[venustx]

Do you have any specific questions regarding issues you are experiencing or are you looking for more general advice?

I don't have any particular tricks to share, but I do have triplets (18 months old now) so I wanted to respond. We just followed their lead on sleep and always had a routine, but not really a schedule. I did feed all of them when the first one woke up at night, but I always fed one at a time so the third one was waking up by the time the first two finished anyway. I believe at that time we were still feeding about every 3 hours. They slept in one crib, attached to my bed, and we swaddled them with their arms out. It's all pretty much a blur but I think at that time, they were still falling asleep pretty easily after eating.

[Barefoot Farmer]

I should have been more specific. Sorry. I wasn't speaking about this newborn phase; right now, things seem to be working. I'm more thinking about the 9mo-2yr time frame, you know when they wake each other up, teething, etc. I'm under this impression that MoMs have tricks to get multiples to sleep, I mean how else do you do it (sort of joking); I understand the importance of a routine (not schedule) and it worked wonders for my older DD; I'm more wondering what you all did specific to multiples that worked well -- did you put one in the hallway during teething time? did you put earmuffs on all the babes so they didn't wake each other up? You know -- tricks -- stuff that works and is essential for those times when the routine is out of wack. TIA.

[hergrace]

A lot depends on how much your trio wake each other up and how similar their sleep needs are. With my three, most of the time, DD and DS2 would sleep through each other crying, but DS3 woke DD up and sometimes even DS2. So, when DD or DS2 have been sick, teething, etc., I have kept their routine the same. With DS3, I have played things a lot by ear. Since he often woke the others up, I would often take him out of the room so the others could sleep.

We have had the three in their own room, but have been willing to take a sick child into bed with us. Usually, I would take the first to wake into the guest room. That way, DH was available if one of the other kids needed a parent. If all three were needing to sleep with a parent, I would sleep with two in the guest room and DH would sleep with one in our bed. If all three needed us at the same time, we generally would end up all in their bedroom so DH and I could switch off who had two kids.

Our biggest issues have been during the transitions from two naps to one and again with dropping the nap. They were ready to drop the third nap at about the same time, but they were ready for the other transitions at very different times. When they dropped from three naps to two, they were in cribs, so I would sometimes let them play in their cribs before naps if two were ready for sleep and one wasn't sure or I would put one down earlier than the others. By the time the transition to no naps started, they were in beds and they would jump into each other's beds and wake each other up if they weren't tired enough to sleep, so I dropped everybody's naps earlier than I wanted and put some to bed earlier on nights when they just couldn't make it to bedtime. We had months of somebody falling asleep on the floor or couch most afternoons to catch some extra sleep, but it was much easier than trying to make them all nap.

Also, we have had massive issues with jumping on beds. We had to take the beds out of the room for a few months and get them used to sleeping well on the mattresses before putting the beds back. We took the bedframes out when the first one strated trying to drop naps and put them back in when I stopped trying to get anyof them to nap in the afternoons and they were too exhausted at bedtime to think about jumping.

Basically, we have found that sleep is one of the places that we have to look very carefully at what each child needs and at the personalities of the three kids and be willing to change things up frequently.

I know this is long. I hope it helps.

[~bookcase~]

I've only got twins (16 months) and the best info I can share is that if they don't hit a same schedule, then the best thing you can do is accept it and relax.

I have spent YEARS of my life trying to get little people (and bigger ones) to sleep - all it does is raise my stress levels so try to get them in a rhythm, but surrender if it doesn't happen. It really won't last forever, and so long as you are getting enough sleep to get by, everybody is fed and clean(ish), then the job is well done!

[Shuli]

We have had the same routine for our twin boys since they were about three months old (it took us that long to figure out what they needed). Now at 2.5, they are still on the same routine. We don't always start the routine at the same time every day, it depends on what time they start to get tired after dinner. Some days they go up to the bath earlier than others depending on their afternoon nap wake-up time.

It's basically bath, brush teeth, pajamas, singing, bed. Between dinner and bath they play, read books, etc. and I watch for signs and try and get them upstairs before they start to loose it. The trick that I have found with mine is to catch them before they reach melt down so that melt down happens somewhere between bath and bed. I also find that if they are overtired they do not fall asleep or sleep well. Some days it works like clockwork, other days it doesn't. The main thing is to be consistant in your routine so that they know what comes next and they know what to expect/what is expected of them and then things go a little smoother. (At the age of 10 months DS1 said his first word as he came out of the bath, which was "teeth" knowing that it was time for brushing").

The actual schedule will depend on personalities and needs, but this is what worked for us. Hope this helps - sorry it was so long.