[CalaRei]

So, I know the "cluster feeding in the evening" thing is apparently common, but I can't keep going like I am right now.

Here is my afternoon/evening. We feed on demand, but generally wind up in a groove of days past so feedings tend to happen "around" the same time. So the times here are estimates.
5:00 - nurse
5:30 - make dinner/eat then daddy time
7:00 - nurse
7:30 - snuggle/play/fun time with dad (Though this usually is more of "walk around the house with crying baby)
8:30 - tired of unconsolable baby, nurse again. This nursing session tends to be in the bedroom, quieter, darker
9:00 - Babies wide awake, happiest babies in the world. (Gyuh. More entertaining babies.)
10:30 to 12:00 - Nurse. Babies fall asleep. Transfer to crib. Crying. Nurse again. etc.

We cannot physically get these guys to sleep before midnight, and then they're up again at 8. (They do have cat naps during the day, but eesh, I feel like they should be sleeping longer, even if it is broken up for night feedings - I don't even mind that. But I would really like *one* more sleeping sprint at night; I'm dying here!)
The sticky wicket is that 9:30 happy happy joy joy time. Any other time of the day, they come out of a nursing session at least slightly sedate, but not that one at all. They might lay in their cribs relatively happy for a few minutes, but really just want to be entertained.

Anyone have any ideas? Is 3 months too young to be doing this? Is there something else we can add to the routine to cue sleeping time? The bath/book/boob thing seems a little advanced at this point (Not to mention that they hate baths, and don't get them every day right now because of the stress.)

Errr... I posted this in the wrong forum, though it's *slightly* on topic here. Mods, if you want to move this to the Nighttime forum, please do!

Thank you.

 

[JayJay]

Well, 3 months is prime "growth spurt" time! So, the cluster feeding thing might be a little more extreme right now because of that.

Now my DD is a lot younger, but once again the not getting to sleep before midnight thing is familiar to me! She does like to cluster feed for about two hours at least, every evening. But my tactics have been a bit different because we co-sleep and I think part of it is that she just likes to be near me at that time of day. So I can kind of pop the boob in and out of her mouth whenever she wants it.

At first (and I say this with caution because of course, I've only been "at it" three weeks and not three months, and she is a singleton and not twins) it was hard to get any sleep even co-sleeping, but now - and this has been quick I suppose, really - I can quite efficiently doze deeply between cluster feeding and fussiness. So much so that I feel pretty good during the day! I do know a good friend of mine went through exactly what you're going through with twins, and had her hubby attach one, and her attach the other and just kinda swapped boobs, laying down, for however long they needed to nurse.

Also I have found that even with my 3 week old daughter, a bath does help relax her. If I'm feeling brave enough, I even breastfeed in there - though only if she's recently pooped. I DID get pooped on once, which was pretty hilarious, but just switched the shower on and hey presto, no more poop! Now here I say, I've never ever bathed her in an infant tub - our house is pretty cold - we live in MN - so I actually simply take her in the bath with me, which she doesn't seem to mind at all. Now you, with twins, would no doubt need hubby's help with that one, but one baby at a time would be do-able. I find a bath cuts out an hour of late night fussiness and helps her sleep for about four hours straight when she does drop off. Which is nice!

So anyway, I'm not the most experienced mother, but those are the things that work for me! Co-sleeping, baths with mama and just kinda dozing between feeds in the big bed. I figured I couldn't change what she needed at night, so just resign myself to it and learn to sleep in between fuss, and I'm no longer a zombie with a headache!

XxXxX

 

[CalaRei]

I couldn't help but laugh at the pooping thing. I got pooped on a few times even out of the tub in those early days. Then sometime around... hmm, maybe 8 or 9 weeks, they stopped pooping every day. Tycho goes 5 days sometimes! Kepler probably goes around 3. It's so weird to go whole days without poopy diapers, but I guess it's normal now. So maybe soon you can take baths without poop!

 

[JayJay]

Lol

I love breastfeeding in the bath and intend to continue, poop or no poop, but sure, no poop would be better because then I can sit back and relax and feed without wondering if I ought to be turning the shower on at any moment