How to handle night feedings?

[lesliesara63]

My mom has been helping me at the 12 & 6 feeding, and dh & I together at 3AM. Things have been going pretty smoothly, he sleeps earlier in the evening. I get a 4hr stretch after the 3:00 and mom goes home to sleep after the 6am. But she is getting tired and doesn't want to keep doing this. And the daily offers to move in from when I was pregnant are somehow not happening - no surprise there. So how do you handle night feedings? How do you get everyone back to sleep without all the babies crying? My girls are almost 10w. Usually I nurse them and whoever is helping gets them settled back to sleep, or Mike will give one a bottle. At 6 I sleep and they all get a bottle but same issue. Between the babies crying all evening and the lack of sleep I feel like I'm drowning in baby hell. I already have a sitter that I pay to come 4days a week so I can't afford any more paid help. 

[nktigger99]

I have twins so I really don't know if I will much help...I think having triplets would be a whole different story over twins.  Also I Formula Feed. 

I do night duty all alone Sunday night through Thursday night since DH goes to work at 3:30am for work....he does bedtime for the big kids (2 and 3)  it isn't like he is off the hook completely.  I have never had help other then DH period...I have always been alone with my 4 kids (4 3 and under) My boys are now 2 months. 

The boys sleep in their swings and have actually gotten better at settling to sleep if put down sleepy...we never let them cry or anything but they love the swing. When one wakes up I will get a bottle and feed that one...I try to feed them before they start crying...IF they get to full blown crying it is harder to get them back to sleep.  If the other happens to wake up at the same time I will feed them at the same time...we use the boppy method...sitting each in a boppy on the couch...I can sit between then and feed them both...My DH uses Podee bottles at night to feed the babies...I am not a huge fan but my sleep is way to important. 

For us not having a sleep or feeding schedule makes it work where both babies rarely need to feed at the same time so I am able to feed each baby just like my singletons(I breastfeed them though).  They usually wake up with in the same hour...unless it is the feeding where my one twin normally skips all together. 

[Smurfette2]

We put our girls on a strict routine. They go down for bed starting at 7pm. It's evening solids with the family at dinner, a little wind-down play afterwards, bath time and then I nurse them. They get off the breast drowsy but not quite asleep and they lie down with Daddy. All three of them (including Daddy) are usually snoring by 9pm. They used to go to bed at 11pm. That was horrible. They sleep all night until 5am when I nurse them. They go back to sleep once Daddy leaves for work and I start getting up around 6:30am. I drive my high schooler to school by 7:15 am with the twins asleep in their carseats. When we get back home, they usually sleep until around 9 am and then wake up hungry. I do a breastmilk/formula bottle, they watch cartoons and we go about our day. I nurse each baby 4x a day.

I'm hoping to have them weaned off the breast/bottle by the time the trips arrive next Jan/Feb. I'm going to let them dictate how it goes though. Definitely get the babies on a schedule. From the beginning, we've stuck to a schedule. It makes for a happier family.

[ItsyBitsyBean]

Lay flat on your back with your head on a thin pillow. Place a thick pills behind each arm. Nurse baby A on the left boob, with her belly on your left ribs and her diaper near your left waist/hip.
Nurse baby B on the right boob, with her belly on your right ribs and her diaper near your right waist/hip.
Put baby C in the middle, with her belly on your chest and her diaper near your belly button.

Fall asleep like this. An hour later, rotate babies.

Repeat.

You can get most of your nursing done at night this way. Your milk supply will soar. It makes the whole day easier.