twin schedules

[gdph630]

i have girl/boy twins 3 months old can anyone give a example of their schedule to help me create my own help thanks

[kholtan]

I only have afew minutes but for us it's pretty easy. My kids get up about 7 am every day and we eat, play, get ready, and go back down about 1.5 hours after they got up. Mine are only good for about 1.5 hours every time they wake up right now. They are 5.5 months old also. We do this all day long and just throw in errands and activities where we can and they get up from the last nap around 6 pm.
Then we give them a bath, feed them their one bottle, book, and bed by 8 pm. It's not set in stone but it works for us. We are pretty easy going with it but they seem to stay on it pretty well. One baby sleeps all night and ones still gets up once or twice.
Hope that helps at all! Good luck to you!
Kimberly

[deepa100]

Kimberly,
Wow! My son does not sleep all that much. He takes one or two naps per day. Usually for 1-1.5 hrs. At night he sleeps for 12 hrs. Wakes up 3 times to bfeed. He is 6 mo. and 3 weeks old. He has always been this way. Wants to play a lot during the day time. I guess each kid is different.

Are you keeping up with the bfeeding? It is being so hard especially when I get a cold which seems to be once a month now..

[kholtan]

Deepa~ Isn't it funny how different all kids are??? Mine are twins and they are still night and day. Mine were also 6 weeks early so their corrected age is just 4 months.
As far as b-feeding, we are keeping up and I love it. THe babies rarely tandem feed anymore bacause they couldn't latch as welll that way but they nurse so quickly that I don't mind. I do give them about 4-6 oz. at night before bed and we just added rice cereal this week. So far. . .so messy!!!!

Take care~
Kimberly

[gdph630]

thanks ladies keep them coming i will take what i need from everyone

thank you

[deepa100]

thanks ladies keep them coming i will take what i need from everyone

thank you

Kimberly,
I love this forum and your posts. I made the mistake of going to the la lache web site because I was also supplementing with 2-3 oz every day and boy! They gave me a hard time about it. One can be so militant only if they don't have twins/ nothing else they need to do other than bfeeding. Anyhow, congratulations on keeping up! I think we are doing great. I just started my son on cereal at 6 mo.

[hopeful-in-LV]

hi there, Kholton has a very similar schedule to mine. i also have 1 that sleeps all through the night until about 7am. the other may sleep anywhere from 3 to 5 hours then wakes to nurse. I'm usually up with him (Hendrix) by 6am, I nurse and change him. Then when Ryden wakes, I nurse and change him. Sometimes Ryden will go right back to sleep for another hour. After breakfast we play and watch a Baby Einstein video. which usually puts Hendrix to sleep. During the day I nurse them every 2.5 to 3.5 hours (per their needs). Diaper change every 3 to 4 hours or when pooped in. At some point in the afternoon we go for a walk. Just started walking lately because it's been warming up. for the most part during the day we can't really set a schedule to the clock. I have been using the itzBeen timer to keep track of when I last changed and nursed them. They each have slightly different timing. Ryden wants to nurse more frequently and Hendrix can go a little longer between feedings. Hendrix takes longer naps and Ryden takes 5 min to 30 min cat naps throughout the day, but sleeps 8 to 10 hours through the night. They both will take a couple of naps in the morning and a couple naps in the afternoon, usually soon after nursing. I try to keep a firm bedtime schedule. 6:30 supplemental bottle, to which I add their vitamins. then I bathe them 1 at time while the other watches a Baby einstein video and plays with a favorite toy. We read a book, then 1 at a time I change diapers, nurse and i rock them to sleep in my arms while playing our favorite lullabies on the ipod (they love it). I made a bedtime mp3 playlist for them, it has 20 minutes of the songs I've been singing to them since they were born and then it plays 3 hours of a peaceful babbling brook sound. they are asleep in bed between 9 and 10. I am trying to get them to bed a little earlier bit by bit as they get older.

deepa, isn't it funny how some women are that way? Every situation is different. Last November I came down with pneumonia and ended up giving the boys 2 to 3 4 oz bottles a day for 3 weeks. I already felt bad and one of the lactation consultants here made me feel like it was a horrible thing. We changed lactation consultants (a better one), she was more understanding and explained that when we are sick or stressed our body produces a hormone called cortisol and that will reduce milk production. Our pediatrician told me I'm doing a good job and that I don't have it easy anyway with twin boys because boys eat more than girls. I feel much better about it now. The important thing is that they are healthy and growing.

[deepa100]

deepa, isn't it funny how some women are that way? Every situation is different. Last November I came down with pneumonia and ended up giving the boys 2 to 3 4 oz bottles a day for 3 weeks. I already felt bad and one of the lactation consultants here made me feel like it was a horrible thing. We changed lactation consultants (a better one), she was more understanding and explained that when we are sick or stressed our body produces a hormone called cortisol and that will reduce milk production. Our pediatrician told me I'm doing a good job and that I don't have it easy anyway with twin boys because boys eat more than girls. I feel much better about it now. The important thing is that they are healthy and growing.

Absolutely. Sounds like you are doing great with the twins. Last thing you need is criticism...

[LauraLou]

I am trying to remember back to when they were 3 months. Seems like a lifetime ago!!!

5:00 am - bottle
Nap
8:00 am - bottle
Nap
11:00 am - bottle
Nap
2:00 pm - bottle
Nap
5:00 pm - bottle
Colic time! Screamed for 3 hours every evening! Oh what fun that was!
8:00 pm - bottle
Bedtime

I didn't always lay them down in their cribs for naps, sometimes they fell asleep in their bouncie seat or swing. Except between 5:00 and 8:00 am, their naps usually weren't for very long, maybe 45 minutes.

I didn't stop feeding them every 3 hrs during the day until they were close to 6 months. I think that helped them sleep through the night.

Remember, the first 3 months are the hardest! It starts getting easier from now on.

[gdph630]

thank you for the great advice, i took a little bit from everyone.
like not always looking at the clock to figure out what they want. it has helped with them sleeping through the night a little longer.

thanks again i feel sane again

[hhb]

My b/g twins will be 5 months on the 17th (4 months adjusted) and I've been following the same schedule/routine with the 1.5 hours awake, 1.5 hours of naptime (they just don't stay up longer than that usually, but lately it seems like they might be ready to start). It usually works great until that third nap around 4:30-5:00pm, when all hell breaks loose. They will NOT sleep longer than 35-40 minutes, and last night it was 10 minutes before the scream-fest began (I actually started crying it was so bad). I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's so frustrating because I know they need the sleep but they just won't last. We ended up feeding them early (usually they don't want to eat but last night they did) and then they were pleasant for about 15 minutes before getting tired and cranky so we let them fall asleep in their swings.

Does anyone else have this problem? It seems like it's the only time that they feed off of each other. Usually when one wakes up crying the other sleeps through it, except for at that time of night.

Oh yah, THEY SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT LAST NIGHT!!! Yippee! Last bottle was at 8pm and they woke around 6:00ish and didn't eat until about 7AM (they're usually happy for a good 30-45 minutes in the AM before they're bottle, but I was surprised that they went that long and still waited to eat). I never advertised my birthday but it's today and I'm thinking this was their present to me! Now that I know they can go this long, I feel like I can start looking forward to more sleep myself. (My husband thinks it's because they were so tired from all the screaming last night...I hope that's not the case!)

[kholtan]

hhb~ Your babies sound so much like mine! They cannot stay awake more than 1.5 hours and take about the same for a nap. Sometimes longer but rarely. Also, the last nap of the day is hard to get in w/o a melt down! We started solids a few weeks ago and it seems to help because it's a new activity to do when they are waiting for a bath or their only bottle of the day. Annelise LOVES her bottle and Bodie hates it so one is cryin to get it and the other is crying not to! Go figure!

Hope they keep up sleeping so well!!!!!
Take care!
Kimberly

[gdph630]

i have been doing much better with a shedule i am having trouble at the last feeding i feel like i am waiting to the last minute because i want them to slleep through the night. and sometimes i wait to long and they are flipping out for the cereal, and want to go tothe bottle.

here is my sorta shedule
6ish or the first morning feeding could be 5 ish to but not any earlier
bottles
nap
play
about 4 hrs later could be 3 3 1/2 its whenever they get up from the first feeding
cereal/ then bottle
naps play
4 hrs or so later
bottle/ nap/play
4hrs or so later
the time is usaually 4 or 5 ish pm
bottle
then i hope to get them to 8pm is but this is when the 4 hrs rule doesn't apply cause they are freaking out
cereal/bottle bed for i hope the night

any suggestion if anyone made any sense i made with this

thanks