My twin boys are nearly 5 months old.
They're breastfed for the most part, and we did start solids recently, but mostly just the experimental spoonful here and there. Kepler takes a bottle with cereal in it at night to help his reflux.
At about 8, we start turning lights down low. Do a bath (though this sucks, because the boys hate it and we end up with them screaming instead of being soothed.) Books are still out of the question. We've tried, but it quickly devolves into them screaming more.
By 8:30 or so, we start doing the last bottles/nursing (Tycho refuses bottles anymore, so we've given up trying.) I like to do this in bed, really, but if hubby's helping with bottles, then he likes it in the den downstairs, because sitting up in bed hurts his back.
They'd been swaddled until recently, but that is becoming more and more of a problem. If they're asleep, it wakes them up, and if we do it before feeding, it just makes them irritable and harder to feed.
When they're asleep (even after the bottle, they both need to nurse to sleep.) we lay them down in their cribs, with a light flannel blanket over them. (Hey, *I* can't sleep without a blanket even when it's 90 degrees out, I'm not going to expect them to.) This usually lasts a good solid two hours. YAY!
Sometimes if they fuss, they do it without really waking up (if that makes sense?) so we try to stroke their hair/head and offer a paci until they settle.
At the two hour mark, I assume it's because the're hungry, so I get them up and feed them. This is where the night just starts unravelling and I end up with two babies in bed instead of DH. Even limp-asleep, when I put them back in their cribs, they start *violently* protesting. Swinging arms, legs, etc. Again, swaddling has just been exacerbating this lately, so I've chucked it. Sometimes it seems to work, and then I'm back in there 10 minutes later. If I offer the breast, they don't really eat, just suckle enough to calm down for the moment, until I try to lay them back down. (Tycho's the worst about this, Kepler's easier to soothe.)
For a while, I thought things were going well. They'd wake up and make some grunting protests and then get themselves back to sleep before I could even get to their door. I even had a few nights of 5 or more hours straight.
I can't keep doing this. We're putting our house on the market to sell in April, so side-carring a crib is out of the question, because it wouldn't look "show worthy." DH has sleep apnea and doesn't trust himself in bed with one of them, let alone both of them - even if there were space on a queen mattress for that!! I don't even like having both of them there, since I'm uncomfortable between them, so I keep them in the middle and physically get up and walk to the other side of the bed when the other one wants to nurse!! It's getting ridiculous.
I need help. If you've read through this, bless you.
They're breastfed for the most part, and we did start solids recently, but mostly just the experimental spoonful here and there. Kepler takes a bottle with cereal in it at night to help his reflux.
At about 8, we start turning lights down low. Do a bath (though this sucks, because the boys hate it and we end up with them screaming instead of being soothed.) Books are still out of the question. We've tried, but it quickly devolves into them screaming more.
By 8:30 or so, we start doing the last bottles/nursing (Tycho refuses bottles anymore, so we've given up trying.) I like to do this in bed, really, but if hubby's helping with bottles, then he likes it in the den downstairs, because sitting up in bed hurts his back.
They'd been swaddled until recently, but that is becoming more and more of a problem. If they're asleep, it wakes them up, and if we do it before feeding, it just makes them irritable and harder to feed.
When they're asleep (even after the bottle, they both need to nurse to sleep.) we lay them down in their cribs, with a light flannel blanket over them. (Hey, *I* can't sleep without a blanket even when it's 90 degrees out, I'm not going to expect them to.) This usually lasts a good solid two hours. YAY!
Sometimes if they fuss, they do it without really waking up (if that makes sense?) so we try to stroke their hair/head and offer a paci until they settle.
At the two hour mark, I assume it's because the're hungry, so I get them up and feed them. This is where the night just starts unravelling and I end up with two babies in bed instead of DH. Even limp-asleep, when I put them back in their cribs, they start *violently* protesting. Swinging arms, legs, etc. Again, swaddling has just been exacerbating this lately, so I've chucked it. Sometimes it seems to work, and then I'm back in there 10 minutes later. If I offer the breast, they don't really eat, just suckle enough to calm down for the moment, until I try to lay them back down. (Tycho's the worst about this, Kepler's easier to soothe.)
For a while, I thought things were going well. They'd wake up and make some grunting protests and then get themselves back to sleep before I could even get to their door. I even had a few nights of 5 or more hours straight.
I can't keep doing this. We're putting our house on the market to sell in April, so side-carring a crib is out of the question, because it wouldn't look "show worthy." DH has sleep apnea and doesn't trust himself in bed with one of them, let alone both of them - even if there were space on a queen mattress for that!! I don't even like having both of them there, since I'm uncomfortable between them, so I keep them in the middle and physically get up and walk to the other side of the bed when the other one wants to nurse!! It's getting ridiculous.
I need help. If you've read through this, bless you.
) suggest this so that the milk could "stay down" better for reflux babies ... ive seen it work somewhat w/ younger family members, but not always
