How can I get my 13 month twins to sleep thru the night?

Question

They are approx. 19 lbs and still waking up 1-2 times a night for a bottle. Shouldn't they be able to sleep thru the night at this weight? Any suggestions on ways to break the night time feedings "habit"?

Answer 1

Our kids simply needed more earlier than feeding guidelines routinely provided. On both grandmas' advice, we added rice-flake cereal to their bottles and widened the nipple's opening to avoid clogs. Suddenly, sleeping times jumped a couple hours. Ditto for migrating up thru the rest of the food complexes... I forget the recommended timeline for introducing baby food, veggies, semisolids, proteins, etc, but we quickly learned that a kid that wakes up hungry is probably ready to move forward in the feeding hierarchy.

Timing meals also helped: if you feed at 5 and the child sleeps until 3am, feed two smaller meals: a snack at 5 and the larger meal around 8pm... that'd prime them for a diaper change at 9 or 10pm, and you might get a kid sleeping dry and full until 6am.

And since sometimes nothing works and each kid has a mind of their own, either do like like earlier generations did and don't jump so quickly to serve 'em, or do all your prep work to make overnight tasks as painless and half-asleep-friendly as possible. Mix bottles, prep the changing table, set up indirect lighting or a flannel head pillow so the baby falls asleep ON the changing table. Whatever.

G'luck.

Answer 2

This advice was given to me by my pediatrician when my son was about that same age and was waking up nightly. He asked me what my response was to my son waking up each night. I told him that I would go to him, change his diaper and give him a bottle, hug and kiss him and put him back to bed. My pediatrician said this was why he was still waking up every night. It had become a habit and of course, my son was enjoying the few minutes of attention he got from Mommy every night. He told me to let him cry the next time it happened. His advice was, no matter how long or hard he cried, to ignore it, he told me that he guaranteed that after the third night my son would no longer wake up. I took his advice (which was very, very hard for me to do) but it worked! Just as the pediatrician promised, after 3 nights my son began sleeping throught the entire night from then on! Good luck!

Answer 3

When they wake up are you giving them time to settle back down and go to sleep? Children need to learn to comfort themselves at bedtime. It's okay if they cry for a few minutes. That's where the blanket, pacifier, stuffed toy come in. Of course they must be active during the day so that they are tired at night.
How much do they weigh? Do they need that nourishment at night? An underweight child might. Are they sharing a room and is one waking up the other? There is a system (don't remember the name of it) to train your child to go to and stay asleep (or at least in bed) However, they might be too young for that. Don't give up and make sure that you are getting enough rest so that you are able to meet their needs.....anytime of the day or night.

Answer 4

Yes they should. You acutally have to let them "cry" it out. Babies will wake up during the night - and if they know you'll come in and give them something to eat they will cry. But if they learn that when they wake up and cry no one comes after a few days of this when they wake up they will just roll over and go back to sleep on their own. It will be hard for you to do for the first couple of nights but it will work.

Answer 5

My daughter is 7 months and became slumbering large interior the direction of the night then straight away she all started doing a similar factor. each and every night 2 am crying, we would get her lower back to sleep then lay her down and she or he'd start up screaming lower back. My husband tried retaining her up a a million/2 hour later then she in many cases became (she might get horribly cranky) inspite of the incontrovertible fact that it worked and now shes slumbering interior the direction of the night lower back. stable success

Answer 6

God knew I needed my sleep...my kids all slept through the night by weeks old. But they did start to get up in the night after being sick. When they would catch a cold and get up because they couldn't breathe through their nose or whatever, I would go in and take care of them and suddenly they were still getting up days after they were not sick. Habit. I just let them cry it out. It kills to leave your baby in there by themselves crying for you....BUT the first night they sleep through the night is Heaven! They learn quickly. My daughter is 14 mo. old and is 20 lbs. and she was born more than a month early, and she has no problem sleeping through the night. If you can't bear to let them cry you could try to give them water instead of milk. They may decide it is not worth it to get up for water.

Answer 7

Wear them out during the day
Excercise them roll them around
toss them side to side you no what i mean
not endangering them Have fun use them
for everything you do. I know you don't give
them long naptimes and still want them to go
to bed and sleep through the nite
these simple things will help
them and yourself to
stay fit feell active and sleep well

Answer 8

Shorten up the day time naps or skip them altogether if it is late in the day. Also add a teaspoon or 2 of baby ceral to their night bottle. They could be getting hungary and waking because of it. Worked for my kids.

Answer 9

Theres no weight at which they should be able to sleep through at. Some kids just arent mature enough yet. They will sleep through when they are ready.

Answer 10

I have 3 boys. and the best thing to try is make sure they are very happy and play with them alot during the day, and feed them before they go to sleep with baby cereal, make sure they are dry. if that don't work ! call super nanny...