Hello moms!
I am a mother of 10.5 month old twin boys. They eat three meals a day of table food or baby food and a snack in the afternoon. They get three eight oz bottles of milk during their naps and before bed. There was one time when one baby gave me one week of sleeping through the entre night and the other baby will do it on some occasins. I know should not compare but but my 2 yr old daughter started sleeping the entire night at 9 months. It can be rough b/c the times they wake up are different. One can get up at 1am and then the other at 3am. Latley they get up 30mins apart so it is not too bad. And sometmes my husband will feed the one baby so i can sleep more.
So, my question is...should I stop giving them their milk at night so they will sleep the enitire night? My pedi said i shoul not do that. That they will naturally do it themselves, which my daughter did. I did not have to have her CIO or give her water so she would sleep the entore night. When they do they the bottle of milk they do drink it all....so I am assiming they are really hungry.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thank you!
My twins are a year and a half, and they were sleeping through the night by now, but they were also very large babies to start with. If the doctor feels they still need the nutrition at night, then my only suggestion is to feed them at the same time. If they are both still waking each night, when one wakes up, wake the other up and feed him. This saved my sanity, and I'd rather spend one time feeding my boys than doing double the work.
If I were you I would cut out the night feedings as long as they are healthy. By age 6 mos babies stop waking because they are hungry and wake up out of habit. My kids were sleeping through the night on their own at 3 mos, and 6 weeks, and were exclusively breastfed. I know we were lucky, but I also think that the babies who do need to eat at night beyond the first 3 or 4 mos. tend to wake up beyond the age when they truly need it due to it becoming a habit/comfort, where the real little babies that start sleeping through the night early don't form the habit yet. My daughter did go through a growth spurt at around 6 mos. and starting waking a lot earlier. We started giving her more at night before bed and it seemed to work. When she continued to wake early, we would let her cry and she would often go back to sleep for a while. As long as you are sure they are well fed before bed, try letting them cry for a little while... it may be that they will be able to fall back to sleep on their own very quickly. Or, you may need to let them cry more, but just be consistant and don't give in and they will sleep through.
Twins & Trips have a tendancy to grow fast (since they had a smaller start)... and thus tend to be eating around the clock for a lot longer than singletons. The best way to get them to sleep IS to keep feeding them. OTW, they'll not only wake for the feeding, but if they can even get back to sleep, they keep waking and waking and waking from that point on because they're starvin'o'the'hunger.
I had a singleton (multiples run in my fam), but he is/was a VERY fast grower. Once he was using bottles I'd just keep a couple on the door of the fridge already made... so when he woke up I could zap it and feed him superquick & half asleep. Quite frankly, at a certain age (somewhere between 10-18mo), I could just nuke it... hand him his baba... change his diaper while he drank (still in his crib) pat his back for a minute... and crawl back into bed. 3 minute total elapsed time. He'd wake just long enough to eat, down the bottle, and pass right back out. When he was older (18mo-4years) I'd keep a meal ready to be zapped next to his sippy... but at that point, I actually had to stay awake, because he actually had to get up to eat (and that took 15-30 minutes).
Some of my relatives with multiples, when the first woke... would zap/heat all 2-4 bottles... bring them into the room... and wake the others (I know, waking a sleeping baby, oy! The terror of it!) for their bottles and change. But it's not for the faint hearted as it can backfire until you learn which ones will wake starvin'o'the'hunger as soon as your head hits the pillow... and which ones will sleep through.
I have twin boys who are almost 5 now. When they were about 3 months old, I started letting them cry themselves to sleep with no music, no rocking, no mobiles, etc... They slept through the night around 13 or 14 weeks (my single daughter had slept through the night at 10 weeks). At 10 months, your boys don't need any formula in the middle of the night (unless they are very underweight, but I assume that is not the case since you didn't mention that). They just get up in the middle of the night because they want to be with you and suck on the bottle and they know if they cry, you will give it to them.
Obviously, your pediatrician knows best, although not sure why he is recommending still giving them a bottle in the middle of the night. And, by the way, when one gets up and if you are going to feed them, you should wake them both up and feed them. If you know the other twin will get up 30 mins later, just deal with it at once.
I feel for you.... it's hard with twins...
They can definitely sleep through the night. You know how if you wake up hungry in the middle of the night you know you are not going to starve before bfast? Same with them.
I always fed and changed my twin girls at the same time at night. If I had to wake one I did, as i did not want to have to get up in another hour for the other. It is much easier in the long run.
They should not be waking up to eat at this point. I would give them
water when they wake up. Hopefully they will get bored and not bother
waking up. Good luck.
Formula fed babies really don't need a bottle feeding in the middle on the night at 10+ months. They will keep waking up if you continue to offer the bottle. I am not a proponent of CIO, but perhaps they will not cry if you don't give them milk. I would leave them a spillproof sippy or bottle of water, babies will often stop waking if they know they will only get water.
