How much sleep are you really getting?Baby

Babies are coming soon and Im really worried about the no sleep part!! I have 2 other kids, so sleeping in the day when babies sleep isnt really going to work for me. How do you do it???

 

I don't have older kids, so that's a bit tough, but in the early days I was getting 8 hrs of sleep a day; it just took me about 16 hrs to do it :lol:. What really helped for us was keeping them on the same feeding schedule from day 1... by the time they got out of the hospital they were both being fed/changed/put down every 3-4 hrs. I know that some kids really fight it, but do the best you can to keep them doing the same thing at the same time, even if it means waking a sleeping baby. And of course, having 2 already, you know that the early no-sleep phase does pass!

I have heard from other twin moms that it is really beneficial to get babysitters/family or whatever to take the twins for a few hours while you spend time with the older kids too. Try to arrange as much stuff like that ahead of time as possible.

 

I've got three older ones, but we really focussed on making sure our 20mth (at the time) was settled into a good routine. At the beginning maybe a couple of hours at a time a night with feeds etc in between. I didn't sleep at all during the day. Just my personality, not due to the kids! But nights for us settled fairly quickly. I went into it expecting to have no sleep at all for the first three months but you do. If you're like me your older kids will have trained you to adapt to what you get. My advice is don't panic, set the bar low, get sleep during the day if you can and believe that it gets easier faster than you expect. You could be pleasantly surprised. Good Luck.

 

I wish we would have figured it out sooner, but my DH and I took shifts throughout the night. I would have baby duty until 2am and he would take from 2am on. Getting those few hours of uninterrupted sleep was awesome. In the beginning we were both getting up, and that wasn't necessary and then we were both over tired and not getting any sleep at all.

I never forced a schedule on my girls, and always fed them on demand. If they were hungry, I wasn't willing to make them wait 2-3 hours (or however long) until the next scheduled feeding. A real schedule didn't happen for us until around 6 months, and even then they naturally put themselves on the same schedule so it worked out well.

Definitely take advantage of any help you can get! And as hard as it is, even with 2 other kids, sleep when you can. I struggled with the no sleep, but taking shifts definitely helped!! GL!

 

I also only have the twins so I don't know how differently it would have been had their been older kids in the house but my situation was a little different. DH works for a full 24 hours and is gone at work and when he wasn't working 24 hours he was working an 8am-6pm part time job so it was me all the time but I made it...

When they came home they ate every 4 hours and it would take near an hour to feed them both so that left 3 hours of sleep if I was lucky. I was fortunate in that my Mom and her husband would come over while DH was gone for 24 hours and they would cover 2 of the night feeds so that I could get some sleep.

It's tough, I'm not going to lie but you'll get through it!

Congrats

 

I must have done this wrong, but I had the boys on separate schedule (one was breastfed, the other bottle fed then I had to pump, too) so I did not sleep more than 4-6 hours if I was lucky a day for about 8 weeks. It's true. It was extremely hard, but I made it.
After 8 weeks I gave up b/f-pumping and had the boys on bottles. That's when I started to sleep a little more...
It was hard, but I made it.

 

It helps to get the babies on the same schedule right away. I did 95% of night feedings and was not able to nap during the day either. Dh would help get our 7yo ready and out to school, and then I would get up at 7:30am to take care of our 4yo. He would take over watching the kids and babies when he got home from work at 6pm and I would take a nap at that time if I needed it. I had no outside help. We just took it day by day. I got use to running errands with two babies and my 4yo on only a few hours of sleep. Somehow you adjust to the lack of sleep. There was only one day that I was sooo tired it felt like I was drunk! (I stayed off the road that day, lol)

Good thing is our girls are now sleeping 8-10 hours a night, so it didn't last long! (they will be 11 weeks tomorrow)

 

The boys were our first. Dh and I tried many different things to get sleep. Finally we decided to do shifts, and that worked beautifully for us. I went to bed at 8p until 2a. He woke me up and I pumped(for first five months), and then either went back to sleep until next feed, or did the feed. He slept from 2a-8a and then woke and got ready for work. It worked for us! And then, one they were STTN, we took turns getting up with the boys. MWF, I woke with them. T/Th/S he woke, and we rotated Sundays of who got to sleep in.

When Annabella came along, I got up with her, and he got his rest to take care of the boys. He was home for the first two weeks. Once he went back to work, he still took care of them until 8am, and then woke me up, if I wasn't already, to take over. It's what works for us. You'll find a groove-and don't worry-you will get your sleep! Just do not be afraid to ask for help-even if it's a 30 minute cat nap. It's something. And I found that something is better than nothing.

Congrats!

 

I agree with taking "shifts".. My husband stays home, so he gets the "late" shift.. Midnight feed. The next feed would be around 4am - my normal time getting up for work. I then get them settled, do a few things around, get our daughter (4) up dressed for our neighbor to take to Day care (2 days a week). I try when I get home to give him a break.

The first few weeks are hard though. I was pumping along with everything else and definitely felt it more with the 2 than the 1.

 

We take turns feeding during the night. If DH is home (he works second shift), we both do the first feeding anywhere from 10pm-midnight. Then I usually took the next feeding around 1am-3am, while DH sleep. Then he did the next feeding anywhere from 4am-6am, while I slept. And we did the morning feeding together around 7am-9am. Feeding both by yourself was long at night, but it helped to know that you didn't have to do the next feeding and could sleep instead. We were getting about 4-5 hours of sleep this way. Now the boys are going more like 3.5-4 hours before waking at night, so its become more like 12-4-8 and we still do the 12 and 8 feeding together and one of gets to sleep through the night. I think the biggest thing for us is we always feed them at the same time. If one wakes up, we feed him first, then wake the other baby to feed.

 

I breastfed so we couldn't do shifts, but DH helped as much as he could. I would have him bring me a baby, I would nurse, then he would be in charge of changing, swaddling and rocking to sleep while I nursed the next one. I often found myself dozing while nursing! If I was really tired DH would let me sleep through one feeding and give them a bottle just to let me catch up. The first couple weeks were the hardest because of the nights and days being mixed up, so if you have anyone who can help you with the older ones that would be ideal. Even if it is just taking one or both somewhere fun for a couple hours or someone coming over to watch everyone so you can take a nap. After about 3-4 weeks, mine started sleeping between feedings at night and it got much easier.

 

With both my singleton and my twins I was able to cope much better with lack of sleep then at other times in my life. I think there must be something post-partum that allows you to survive with less sleep. The key for me in the beginning was that I always fed them together when they woke. So when one woke, I also woke the other and fed them together. This also helped get them on similar schedules during the day. I never napped when they were newborns either.

 

I had the same worry during my pregnancy with the twins. My older DS was a nightmare sleeper and I still remember (4 yrs later!)those agonizing nights! I could not imagine how nights with twins would be. I was scared to death about it! I am a person that really needs sleep to be sane.

However, with the twins... it was easier. Could have been a number of things... was harder to set bad habits since there were 2 of them? they were both good sleepers? they weren't our first children? we tried to teach them to fall asleep on their own early on? we hit the "sleep jackpot"?! WHo knows! BUt we had a good experience! For the first several weeks, we were up every 3-4 hours but they would nurse and go right back down. Around 5 or 6 weeks they started sleeping consistent 4-6 hour stretches and would always go right back down after nursing. All of this is definitely manageable!

I hope you have some good luck and use some of the strategies that others posted!