[stacyann_1]

Hi Everyone..
My b/g twins are 8 months. My daughter is currently co-sleeping with me, and my son is sleeping in his crib. He wakes up 2-3 times to nurse and she wakes up more than that. We have a small apt and my husband sleeps on the couch. I really don't mind co-sleeping with one, but I can't do both. I'd love for them to naturally sleep through (in their crib), but it doesn't seem to be in the cards. Just wondering what everyone else does, and when did your babies night wean.. my guys, don't even seem close.

Thanks,
Tired Mommy - Stacy.

 

[sarahloughmiller]

My boys will be one next month and both sleep in my bed, one on each side of me. We have a king size bed and dh sleeps with us maybe 1/2 the time and sleeps with our 3 year old the rest of the time. They wake up a few times a night, sometimes only once, but mostly about 3 times I think. It's kinda hard to remember

No real advice here on how to get them to sleep better or alone, but that's what we are doing

 

[stacyann_1]

Thanks Sarah. I tried that but was getting no sleep.. I was constantly rolling from one side to the other and the babies would wake each other up. Do you have the mattress on the floor or bed rails? We have neither, but I was thinking of upgrading to a king bed and I guess I need some rails or something.

How do your babies nurse at night. Do they find you at this point and latch on themselves. My daughter did that the other night and it was so weird... but it was nice to really not be woken up that much.

 

[seemfrog]

Hi Stacy,

have you seen Karen Gromada's website? It has lots of great pictures of bfeeding twins in different positions, including laying down on your back with a babe on either side.

Once I got this down, nighttime was MUCH better. I think I started them nursing this way about 6 months (I started during the day for naps, to see what I was doing), but they really got good at it around 10 months (now 11 months). I prop my shoulders and head up a little with a pillow then put a small thin pillow under the head of each (they sometimes don't even need the thin pillow anymore as they grow bigger and get better at it, and at first I put a larger pillow), put their heads on my shoulder to nurse on either side. I think around 10 months is when they got good at getting into that position on their own. This works WAY better then flipping back and forth, as both are comforted simultaneously.

http://www.karengromada.com/photos/index.htm

 

[1Plus2]

We had a king sized bed and both babies slept with me from birth. DH (we are now divorced) slept in the guest bedroom and my other dd slept in her own bed right alongside of my bed. I would sleep between the babies and either roll from side to side to nurse or I would nurse them both while lying on my back. They took a while to nightwean...I think they were about 2 1/2 years old before they slept through. Not something you probably want to hear right about now.

 

[sarahloughmiller]

We have our bed on the floor in the corner and have a bedrail on the side not against the wall for when dh is not there to prevent a roll off. I just roll back and forth or sometimes nurse one laying on my side with the other laying over my back. A little awkward but it works! The boys don't latch on on their own but I always wear a shirt so that kind of prevents that. I have to wear a short or I get hickies all over the place

A king size bed really makes a huge difference. We have slept on smaller beds a few times and it never works out. Good luck! Oh, as far as sleeping through the night goes, my 3.5 year old still rarely sleeps through the night and he has been weened for a year.

 

[mimid]

The girls are 3.5 mos now and go to sleep all together in their p&p in our room. They wake up once during the night and after eating are in bed with us. Ususlly 1 is in the middle of dh's back and 1 is in the middle of my back and 1 is nursing. We intend to keep them together as long as possible and I intend to keep them in bed with me as long as possible. Dh disagrees, though.

 

[redwolf2]

The boys have slept with us since we brought them home. Though DH doesn't anymore, he resides on the pullout couch downstairs

The boys sleep next to eachother in the middle of the bed and I flip on either side to nurse. Now that they are starting to crawl I only have to worry about one getting away. (I make a wall before we go to sleep, I really need to get rails) We have a king size bed. DD has a toddler bed in our room. She usually stays in there the night but occasionally comes up with me. She sometimes sleeps downstairs with DH too.

I t works for us...

 

[~Meg~]

My two begin the night in their cribs because they go to sleep quite a bit earlier than either me or DH. Then, whoever wakes first to nurse comes in bed with me and we nurse and fall asleep. When the other wakes, I swap them out, and I just keep swapping them out all night long. It is exhausting but it is the best solution for us at this point.

 

[TripMom]

We co-slept our triplets together! Until they were just too big to fit in 1 crib - but probably 5 months or so?

After that - I assumed they'd eventually want to be in our bed like DS #1 -- but they really don't like it in there. Everytime someone wakes up and I try to put them in bed with DH and I - they totally object?

 

[sweetpeas]

Haven't read the other responses, but here's what we did. First, instead of getting a crib my dad built us a cosleeper that fits a regular twin mattress. I LOVE this! I think everyone should have one, even for a singleton! The girls have been in their own room for almost 2 yrs now but we still have it up & won't be taking it down anytime soon. It means if one or both happens to wander into our room in the night there's still room for all of us, woo-hoo! Picture of it (probably the only time the bed's been made since the girls were born) here We had a high 4 poster bed pre-kids so decided to drop the mattress/boxspring to the floor to make it easier to build the cosleeper & also to put the whole bed at a safer height for toddlers.

For the first year & a half, we started each night w/ one baby in bed w/ me & dh holding the other one on the sofa. Our sofa has a "recliner" in the end of it & dh determined that the way he felt safest sleeping w/ a baby was to sit in the recliner & have a pillow propping his arm up w/ baby sleeping on that arm. Being in the recliner meant he for sure wouldn't roll, which concerned him. Early on, if the baby he was holding woke he'd bring her to me & take the other baby back w/ him (on good nights the baby that was w/ me would have already nursed again by the time the baby w/ him woke so that she'd then sleep w/ him for a good long stretch). Once they got past the newborn stage, once the baby w/ him woke up he'd just climb in bed w/ all of us & we'd sleep w/ him on the outside edge, then the baby he'd been holding would sleep between us & the baby I started out the night w/ would be in teh cosleeper. I'd roll between the 2 babies as needed & often ended up sleeping on the "crack" between bed & cosleeper, but we survived.

At some point after they were a year old they were just getting too big for dh to hold on the sofa, so we started putting them both down on the cosleeper. We laid them "sideways" from the way you normally sleep in a bed & left room between them for me to lay between them to nurse whoever needed nursing.

Around 19 mo we night weaned, loosely using the method recommended by Dr. Jay Gordon (drjaygordon.com I think). By that age they were verbal enough to understand what we were saying & had gotten into the habit of wanting to sleep w/ a boob in their mouth, which meant I got no sleep. Night nursing jsut wasn't working anymore so we tried night weaning & it went well, so we followed through. If we'd tried it & it had been horrible, we would've muddled through w/ night nursing for another month or two & tried again.

Once we night weaned they were, w/in a few days, sleeping through the night most nights so we moved them each to a mattress on the floor of their room & that's where they still are (sometime we really need to put bedframes under those mattresses LOL). If they wake up in the night, they either fuss & one of us goes & gets the one who's awake & brings her into our bed (so she doesn't bother her sister) or more often, if one wakes up she just comes & crawls in bed w/ us. Alot of the time when this happens, dh & I will ask each other "what time did she get in our bed?" and neither of us have any idea, we don't wake up when they crawl in bed w/ us

 

[nepenthesea]

Since we brought our babies home, they have slept with dh and I in our kin-sized bed. This has worked great for us. I sleep with one girl on either side of me, and roll back and forth all night between the two. Although some nights, they don't eat as much and I don't have to move around all night. I get a good amount of sleep this way, usually about 7 or 8 hours, sometimes more. Usually, though, I am too stiff and sore from being sandwiched tightly between the two to sleep longer than that. That's about the only drawback I have see with co-sleeping, but I'd rather be stiff when I get up than to only get 2 or 3 hours of sleep, which I was LUCKY to get before co-sleeping!

Usually, this works fine. If both babies happen to wake up hungry at the same time, I just sit up to tandem nurse, and they go back to sleep.

Mine are only 7 months old, so we haven't even thought about night weaning yet...

 

[tikva18]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stacyann_1 Hi Everyone.. My b/g twins are 8 months. My daughter is currently co-sleeping with me, and my son is sleeping in his crib. He wakes up 2-3 times to nurse and she wakes up more than that. We have a small apt and my husband sleeps on the couch. I really don't mind co-sleeping with one, but I can't do both. I'd love for them to naturally sleep through (in their crib), but it doesn't seem to be in the cards. Just wondering what everyone else does, and when did your babies night wean.. my guys, don't even seem close. Thanks, Tired Mommy - Stacy.

We are almost just like you. My dd likes to sleep in her crib and sleeps waaaay better inthere than with me

andwhen she does co-sleep then I nurse all night. My ds sleeps in the crib until I go to bed and when he wakes then (mayve for the 3rd or 4th time ) then he comes to my bed where i nurse him all night. My dd wakes around 3 or 4 am to nurse and i put her back in the crib after.

Oh, and we are 11 mo.

 

[reid's mom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nepenthesea Usually, this works fine. If both babies happen to wake up hungry at the same time, I just sit up to tandem nurse, and they go back to sleep.

nepenthesea - how do you tandem nurse sitting up in bed? do you use a nursing pillow? my boys are 6.5 months old and i haven't really gotten the hang of nursing them tandem w/o the pillow sitting up. with the pillow i need bolsters under each wing or they are slinding off the end, lol. i am only able to comfortably tandem nurse with the pillow and when sitting on the sofa...

here to learn!

 

[MyCalling]

Mine are 16 months and cosleep in their crib together. When they wake at night I nurse and put them back in the crib. They sleep better out of my bed. Mine didn't naturally learn to sleep through the night. I have to have DH rock them when they wake without me nursing or they will never give up night waking. They only rarely wake at night now unless sick.

 

[twinvillageiowa]

Mine start out the night ideally in their crib together. Usually we end up having one in the crib in their room and one in our room in the bassinet. When one wakes up, my boyfriend changes her diaper and brings her to me to feed. I usually fall asleep nursing while laying down, so she just stays in bed with us. Then I wake up again when the other one cries and we switch them out. Although sometimes we do end up with both... which is a real problem because we only have a double bed and my boyfriend is 6'6"!

:

 

[stacyann_1]

Thanks so much for everyones response. My DH and I don't really agree on the approach unfortunately. He gets so stressed by any activity at night that I try if possible to keep him out of it. He thinks they should have been sleeping through the night months ago. I recently agreed that we could move the 2nd crib back in our room and we could try to get my daughter in their for part of the night (as long as their is no crying). she's been sleeping in the crib for about 30 min to an hour and which point she wakes up and refuses anything else besdies being nursed to sleep in bed and not being moved. I'd really like them to be in the same room so they could wake up in the morning happy and 'play'.. at least that's what I hear a lot of twins do. My son who sleeps on his stomach, doesn't roll to his back as easily and always wakes up crying in the morning. (alone since my daughter is with me) Maybe it's my fault their not as bonded as some twins.

As much as I'm dedicated to a no cry solution... I'm a little jealous of all those moms that have babies that get plopped in their cribs for naps and plopped in their cribs at bedtime and don't object..

Stacy

 

[nepenthesea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by reid's mom nepenthesea - how do you tandem nurse sitting up in bed? do you use a nursing pillow? my boys are 6.5 months old and i haven't really gotten the hang of nursing them tandem w/o the pillow sitting up. with the pillow i need bolsters under each wing or they are slinding off the end, lol. i am only able to comfortably tandem nurse with the pillow and when sitting on the sofa... here to learn!

Yeah, I have to use my boppy pillow to nurse them that way, so I have to haul it to the bedroom every night. It's getting harder to pull off, with them getting bigger, but I have yet to figure out how to tandem nurse without pillows. It IS hard to tandem nurse in the bed, much easier on the couch, so I only do it when necessary.

 

[tikva18]

I tandem nurse the babies - if needed at night - by lying on my side nursing one baby lying down (s/he gets the closest breast) and I drape the other baby over my side and s/he gets the upper breast. It works.
Or, I tandem nurse the babies with one laying in my lap and the other baby's head goes on the first baby's stomach. I do not always use pillows.

 

[nathansmom]

We cosleep with all 5 of us in a queen bed. It's a tight fit but it works for us. The twins sleep between my husband and me. Our toddler sleeps on my pillow. Our twins are 20 months today and one still wakes for feedings at night. The other does sometimes but is mostly weaned at night.