Sleep Issues with Twins

Updated on July 12, 2008
M.B. asks from Hanover, MD
5 answers

Hi,
My 14 month old twin daughters are having sleep issues in the weee early morning. One wakes up the other at 5:30 a.m. and just sits there and crys. THe one who was woken up normally gets up at 6 a.m. so its pretty impossible for her to go back to bed, especially with her sister sitting there winning and crying. When I separate them for bed they both sleep better. The problem is I do not have enough bedrooms. When we separate them we put one in our room. Each day its seems like it gets earlier and earlier. This all started when the early riser got her ear tubes about five weeks ago. We do have a sound machine in there room and room darkening blindes. Please help, any suggestions?

M.

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So What Happened?

Hi,
Thank you everyone for your advice. Just to follow up on a couple of questions, the girls do have regular naps 9:15-9:30 for their morning nap and 2-2:30 for their afternoon nap. I adjust it a tad bit depending on how well the nap went. We just got back for a week vacation in Bethany Beach and it was miserable sleeping. They both would wake up at 5:15 to 5:30 in the morning. One would do pretty good naps but the second rarely would. They were both miserable, actually my other baby was also miserable because she kept waking up early to wake up the five year old. Anyway, now we're back I needed to get them back on track so I put them down to bed at 6:30 the first day back. They both did great. They both slept till 6:20 a.m. Now we're three days home and overall their doing great. Today they woke up at 6:40 a.m.

Thank you for all your advice. It helps to be reminded that I am doing everything that I can do and I am providing all the opportunity to sleep that I can they just need to decide to take it.

M.

More Answers

Smallavatar-fefd015f3e6a23a79637b7ec8e9ddaa6

S.M.

answers from Washington DC on

This won't help much, but it sounds like you might just have early risers. Have you tried leaving some toys with the 5:30 waker so she can entertain herself in the morning? I have found kids have very strong internal clocks, and she may just be prone to getting up then - which means it is wake-up time for mom too :) IF you want them to stay in their cribs longer, maybe just go in, open the blinds, give them some toys and try to go back to sleep for another 30 minutes. But I don't think there is much to do to keep them sleeping longer.

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R.C.

answers from Richmond on

Sometimes, it helps if she sleeps later she might tend to wake up a lil later... Make sure they sleep on a full tummy they tend to sleep longer when they are full... massage helps alot too, we give our baby a massage every night before she goes to sleep it helps since she has colic it seems I will try just about anything.

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D.S.

answers from Washington DC on

The sound machine may be bothering your little one who has the tubes! I remember when I got them 40 years ago how noises really botttered me. I could hear everything.

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H.W.

answers from Norfolk on

Try to put them to sleep earlier at night. Are they going to bed by around 7:30 at night? Based on some good studies and anecdotal information and a few books including the Baby Whisperer, I found that the earlier they go to bed, the later they sleep in the morning. HOWEVER, that also means that you need to get to bed earlier. They will give you 11 hours of sleep if put to bed early enough, but that still means a 6 or 6:30 wake-up. This means that you need to get to bed early enough to handle an early wake-up. The hours are there, you just have to move them around a bit. This advice is based on the assumption that your twins have two regular naps each day, one around 9:00AM and one around 1:00 pm. If their daytime sleep is not regular, you can't expect their night time sleep to be what you want it to be.

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A.G.

answers from Washington DC on

First things first - a too early waking usually means a too late bed time. I would try moving thier bed time 15 minutes earlier every other day until you find a time that helps them sleep better.

Some Ideas for Twins(mine are almost the same age):

Are they bothered just by hearing each other or is being able to see each other a factor? My twins will go back to sleep if they can't see each other and play - no matter what they can hear. Because of this I built a wall between thier cribs with folding closet doors (I couldn't find one of those wooden screens). If you are interested send me am email and I'll take a picture.

Your kids are well past the SIDS age so you can start giving them quiet toys or activities for thier crib to keep them happy until the whole family is ready to get up. We use board books for our babies and it has worked wonderfully (especially the peekabo kind which target has for $1 right now - no worries if they tear it). They will flip through them before going to sleep and when they get up.

Hope this is helpful!

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