Sleep & Schedules
Got a question on sleeping thru the night. At 6 months old, or possibly even older(?), is it unfair for me to expect them to be sleeping through the night? I think they were being fed thru the night at the orphanage because Quynh wakes up like clockwork at 1a and 5a and will take a bottle (all of it at 1a and some of it at 5a). Audrey sometimes makes it all the way until 5a, but it isn't predictable. Then after about an hour of being wide awake, both of them go down again for about 45 minutes. I am not liking the schedule they are used to!
I am feeding them solids only morning and night and sometimes they eat like pigs and other times they just aren't that interested. I don't think they are hungry at 1am, just used to being fed I think. Should I let them cry it out to get back to sleep in the middle of the night? (I know, cry it out method is frowned upon with adopted children, but with 2 of them and 1 of me, it is almost impossible to rock them both to sleep!) Should I be feeding them 3 times a day? They are also wanting to go to bed for the night very early, like around 6:30ish. I have been trying to push it back, but they get very crabby and cranky.
I know a lot of this will iron itself out once I get home and in a quasi-routine, but until then, any ideas?? Remember, I need to start my routine now because I don't make it back to my home in HK for a while given all the travel I have to do.
7 comments:
That is almost the exact same schedule my two were on at 5 months. When we got home it did get better, though they still sometimes (at 10 mo) wake for a bottle. Mine are little enough that the dr says if they will take it feed it to them.
Try the extra meal during the day and see what they do. You never know, they might sleep longer at night. Another idea is to have them take an evening nap (if they will take a quick one, it'll help keep them up a bit later, and therefor be up to take a later bottle and hence you will get more sleep at night.)
Other than that, just go with it and be thankfull they are on a similar schedule! Mine got onto different schedules once after an illness and oh my goodness was that ever worse than being up a couple times at night. It was rocking, feeding, burping, cuddling, washing 24 hours a day with little time in the for sleep as they were not sleeping at the same times.
Well how about that...I was going to tell you to talk to Jenn but it looks like she beat me to it! It has been so long since I have had a baby around I am sorry to say I really dont have a clue! good luck:)
HI Brandi,
You know I have absolutely no practical experience (Poor Dong) but from all my reading, it appears that the 6 month marker is when most babies can make it through the night without a feeding. Perhaps you can try a pacifier to see if it's just habit, needing to suck or if she's really hungry? Sorry. You've been so helpful to me, if nothing else, you can get a good laugh my total inexperienced resonse! I wish our travel had coincided with yours so I could be there to help you.
Becca
I do think it may be unrealistic to expect them to sleep through the night without a feeding--of course the problem is you have 2, and I have no idea what practical advice to give about how to deal with that. I can tell you that my bio. daughter was not ready to sleep through the night until she was 1 yr. old--we tried CIO at 9 months and it absolutely didn't work and was traumatic for her. (At 1 yr. she was ready, and started sleeping 12 hrs.) I would think if there is any way to avoid CIO at this point, and hopefully some more experienced twin moms can give advice on that, I think it would be to their benefit and yours in terms of attachment. Sorry I am really no help here.
OH, and also wanted to add about the early bed time--there is a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child--he has great info. about how much sleep kids need etc., and I know lots of people found there kids slept better and longer if they went to bed earlier (i.e. 6:30-7:00)--it might be worth a try to see what would happen if they went down then. Until recently my almost 4 year old went to bed at 7:15 every night. Might be worth to check out the book--personally I don't like his CIO advice (especially with an adopted child) but the sleep info. was very helpful.
My advice would be to try to dream feed them - for now - if they really do need that night time feeding.
Anticipate when they will need it, and before they wake up, gently pick them up, feed them the bottle with no light, eye contact, noise, talking - nothing, and lay them back down (one after the other). Might save you the whole hullabuloo of two awake babes anyway.
I like the pacifier idea too - but that might lead to crying, etc, and if first you just need some sleep - I'd recommend this.
Brandi--one thing I found that helped with Hannah was taking her outside first thing in the morning into the sunshine. This helped with jetlag too--which will be crucial when you start your around the world tour. Make sure you're in the bright sun for at least twenty minutes. I think this helps with melatonin or seratonin or some other -tonin---at any rate it works to help reset their inner clocks--and yours too! Luci
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