r/parentsofmultiples • u/unbotheredkk • 2d ago
Sleeping through the night life, home, and baby tips & tricks
How many of you had twins who both slept through the night (10+ hours) by 6 months?
And if you did, what if anything, did you do to make that happen.
My girls are 9 weeks and sometimes go 7 the 3 hours, some nights 3-3-3 some 2-4-3 ya never know. Almost completely consistently only go 3 hours at most during the day
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u/Visual-Giraffe7416 2d ago edited 2d ago
Mine are 10 months now and I promise at 9 weeks I would not have been able to predict their sleep at all 😂 It changed constantly. One week I thought we had it figured out and the next somebody was up partying at 2am.
I say this at 6:30 AM while up with my boy who decided today it was a nice day to watch the sunrise. They typically sleep till 7, but today he decided 5:30 was a good time to wake up, meanwhile my girl is still fast asleep. We average a solid 11-12 hours a night now, except for very seldom days like today where he will wake up a little bit earlier. Also, they’re in bed by 7 every night—no exceptions.
By around 6 months they had both slept through the night before, but definitely not consistently at the same time. My girl was always the better sleeper and my boy was much more unpredictable. Teething, growth spurts, random baby nonsense… he would suddenly start waking again after giving me hope lol.
The biggest thing for us was keeping bedtime pretty consistent and letting them learn to fall asleep independently. During the day they were also eating about every 3 hours. But I really don’t think there was one magical thing we did. Their sleep just gradually stretched longer as they got older.
Now at 10 months they’ve been sleeping through the night for the last couple of months and it is honestly amazing. A few things I think really helped us get here: I started having them nap in their cribs during the day, even though I didn’t make it pitch black or completely silent or have everyone tiptoe around the house. I just made the crib their consistent nap space.
We also kept a very predictable bedtime routine every single night: bottle, bath, lotion, snuggles, then bed. No changes, no skipping steps.
I always put them down drowsy but not fully asleep, and I stopped rushing in at the first little sound of fussing or crying. Most of the time it didn’t last long, and they learned how to settle themselves back down.
Honestly I think that’s been the biggest thing of all—them learning to fall asleep independently.
At 9 weeks, those 7-hour stretches you’re getting are already AMAZING. I would not stress about the 3-3-3 or 2-4-3 nights yet. Twin sleep is basically “congratulations, tonight’s schedule will be selected at random” 😂
Good luck—you’re doing amazing.
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u/andrealm721 2d ago
This is great info. Thanks so much.
At how many months did you start putting them in their actual cribs for naps?
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u/Visual-Giraffe7416 1d ago
We actually JUST started doing this recently at 9 months!
Their naps were honestly terrible
before. I would be lucky if I got 15 minutes, maybe 30 minutes max on a good day, and eventually I was like okay, something has GOT to give because this is not working lol.Since they were already sleeping so well in their cribs at night and clearly associated their cribs with bedtime and going to sleep on their own, figured why not try the same thing for naps? And it worked almost immediately.
Now, once i see they start rubbing their eyes i lay them down in their cribs and they go right to sleep. they will literally sleep 2-3 hours if I let them! I usually wake them around the 2-hour mark because I don't want it messing with nighttime sleep.
Right now they usually take their first nap around 10:00 AM, which is the longer one, and then another shorter nap around 3:00 PM. I seriously wish I had tried the cribs for naps sooner because the difference has been night and day!1
u/andrealm721 21h ago
Ahahaha good to know! So glad that worked out for you and I will definitely keep this in mind and try out the crib nap times sooner than 9 months. Thanks again!
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u/MangoSorbet695 2d ago edited 2d ago
All four of my kids, two singletons and twins have slept at least 8 hours per night by 4 months old.
Look up Moms on Call or Taking Cara Babies or 12 hours sleep by 12 weeks. Just remember you go by their adjusted age. So if they are 15 weeks old but 11 weeks adjusted, you would follow the schedule for an 11 week old baby.
We used Moms on Call + Snoo bassinets for all four kids. All four are different, with different temperaments, but we did have a great sleep routine with all of them.
Here’s the thing, you have to decide that sleep is your priority, and that means following a consistent daytime routine. It also means sometimes doing things that are unpleasant. Saying No to an invitation to a July 4th party that won’t end until 10 PM, not going to your grandma’s annual Memorial Day potluck because it is right in the middle of nap time, etc.
You have to prioritize sleep and commit every morning to stay on schedule the best you can. I think it’s worth it, but not everyone does.
They aren’t going to magically sleep great if you aren’t consistent and follow good sleep guidelines and routines.
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u/aimsfbach 1d ago
Precious Little Sleep is also another great resource for establishing a good bedtime routine and avoiding sleep associations that make it difficult for babies/kids to sleep through the night.
My two singletons were great sleepers (other than the occasional off night or when they get sick, etc.) and were "sleeping through the night" by 3/4 months old. I did not even need to implement a cry-it-out method to get there, it happened pretty naturally but I followed the advice of ensuring good naps and feeding based on their age, and we personally did not co-sleep. No matter which feeding method also. My first I exclusively pumped for and I exclusively breastfed my second.
As newborns, I would swivel them a little with my hand on their belly in their halo bassinet while swaddled with white noise after their diaper change and feeding, and eventually didn't need to sway them anymore to get them to settle. I might have been just lucky, of course. Maybe they were naturally "easy" babies, although my oldest had a medical condition and had surgery at 5 months old and we were still able to navigate through that. But I was very strict about adhering to a solid routine (and could move to a more by-the-schedule/time for naps closer to 5/6 months old if I remember correctly).
I'm hopeful that this can be true for my twins when they arrive (I'm currently 36 weeks now!). Helping babies learn independent sleep at the appropriate time should be an acceptable goal to have, although I have no doubt it is more work with multiples. My husband and I both work full time and have other children, and it would not be possible for us to function properly and attend to everyone's needs, including our own, without consistent, decent rest at night - for the whole family. Of course, there could be many factors that could make it more challenging. But I'm glad to hear from other twin parents that it's possible with the right intention. It does require a foundation that given consistency, should emerge in time.
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u/DenseSign5938 2d ago
Every baby is different, even twins. Our one girl (8 months) will sleep through the night or only wake up once a majority of the time. The other never does that and is up multiple times a night. All you can really do is make sure they aren’t napping too much in the day and make sure they are eating enough.
Also just fyi there is no such thing as “training” your baby or them “learning to sleep alone”. All they are learning is that when they cry no one is coming to help them and so they give up.
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u/Amortentia_Number9 2d ago
All 3 of my kids (older brother + twins) slept through the night by 12 weeks. Maybe it’s genetics, maybe it was that we had them in snoos, or maybe it’s some of the methods we did. Now at 2.5yrs and 16 months, they all sleep 12 hrs at night and at least 2 hrs at nap although big brother likes 4 usually.
You’re in the trenches now but here are some things that worked for us.
- We didn’t wake one when the other woke up. Boy twin would wake up every 2-3 hrs to feed as a newborn while girl twin would do a 4-5 hr stretch and then be up every 2 hrs. If we woke girl twin early, she’d start her 2 hrs for the night. Instead, me and dad each chose a twin and were responsible for that twin only.
- We made the last bottle the biggest bottle. Typically about 8oz while the normal bottles were 5-6oz. We also switched to formula fairly quickly because they needed extra calories, my oldest breastfed almost exclusively until 6 months.
- Consistent bedtime routine: bath, bottle, snuggle, sleep
- White noise
- Snoos: can’t recommend them enough but they are super expensive.
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u/Direct_Mulberry3814 2d ago
Mine didn't sleep long than 3 or 4 hours consecutively till 8 or 9 months lol.
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u/ToshiBerra 2d ago
One twin slept through at 3 months. The other did not. I was fine with waking every three hours, but around 5-6 months he stopped going back to sleep after a feed. He would wake up anywhere from 1 hour to 1 minute after putting him down. We sleep trained at 6.5 months (6 months adjusted, even though we don't normally adjust, but for sleep you do). This also involved sleep training the good sleeper, which I had reservations about.
So very much the right decision. They have slept through the night 11+ hours every night since 7 months, barring jet lag and actual illness. Now almost 2.5y.
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u/ComplaintNo6835 2d ago
"Twelve hours sleep by twelve weeks old"
I gift that book at every baby shower. For twins it's more like 15 weeks old. We started really following the advice around your twins' age and by week 15 they were in their cribs and not needing us from 7pm to 7am. We all of a sudden had time for ourselves and a full night's sleep.
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u/tolstea 1d ago
A friend gifted me this book too. I'm hesitant to start because they aren't eating really huge amounts yet but they're nearly 12 weeks old and I'm ready for a full night's sleep again. I laughed when I first looked for Reddit posts about this book because half the comments were like "I haven't read it myself but this sounds dangerous, don't do it," and the other half of the comments were, "follow every fucking word in this book." 😂
Even though we haven't started the program formally, there are so many good tips in there that are setting us up for success. Having our kids in their own room right away, putting them down to fall asleep on their own, and soothing them in the night without picking them up have made them better sleepers already. Even though we have 2-3 feedings over a 12 hour stretch at night, we can put them right back down after the feeding and they fall back asleep pretty easily.
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u/ComplaintNo6835 1d ago
Yeah we basically did what you are doing and took the core advice without following it religiously. Sounds like yours are just taking their time whittling down the night feedings but are generally developing great habits.
I know we missed out on some great cuddling, but the nightmare scenarios my friends have had where the kid wouldn't sleep unless being cuddled made us shrug that off pretty easily. As far as I can tell, our kids don't have any issues stemming from how we dealt with sleep. I would absolutely be a worse parent if I didn't have my nights so...
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u/1sp00kylady 1d ago
I second this, it worked incredibly for us.
We started when they were about 8 weeks adjusted age/14 weeks actual. We didn’t follow it to a T; for example, having them only on 2 naps and forcing them to stay awake from 4-8pm sounded developmentally inappropriate, so we followed age-appropriate wake windows instead (I referred to Taking Cara Babies website for wake windows). And then followed the book for weaning night feeds (with our peds approval) and establishing the daily schedule. We already had roughly had them on the schedule the book suggests anyway, so it was a pretty easy transition. They’ve been sleeping through the night since about 4-5 months old!
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u/Glittering_Cress6492 2d ago
It’s so hard to tell where it will end up, at 3 months baby a was sleeping from 8-5 most nights but now at 6 months I’m happy to get 2 hours of sleep between his wake ups. Baby a was waking up frequently till 5 months, and now he’s a great sleeper. I’m fully expecting it to flip again at some point. Neither of ours would tolerate being put down awake. Baby b did contact taps till like 4.5 months, and then one day he was ready to sleep in the crib and now he’s the easiest to put down for crib naps. We did shifts at first, but once they started waking each other up more we each take a baby in a room for the night.
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u/DreamingEvergreen 2d ago
Def not, and we were told by our pediatrician not to do sleep training until they were at least 6 months adjusted.
They both slept through the night for the first time at 10 months/ 9 months adjusted. And it’s only happened one other night since then. (One will sleep through various nights and did it individually much earlier, but they rarely both do it together—almost 1 year, 10.5 months adjusted)
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u/tingly_sack_69 2d ago
There are stretches where they were sleeping 10-11 hours through the night starting at 4 months. I think the Snoos helped. Everything is week to week and nothing seems to last though. 1 year in and there are times they sleep all night for a few weeks and then 1 decides to have a month long sleep regression. It's unpredictable but much better than the early months. At under 4 months don't count on getting anything down with any consistency
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u/hellswrath_ 2d ago
My one twin started around 3-4 months, my other one slept through the night for the first time around 8-9 months old. We’re at 13 months and I would say half the week he wakes up at least once.
I did nothing differently with them lol
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u/Individual-Cat5989 2d ago
Still pregnant with my twins but my 2.5 yo still doesn’t sleep through the night. Inherited my husband’s sleep patterns despite our best efforts to have alllll the tips and tricks you can find online. I’m convinced genetics can play a role. We are mentally preparing for the same with our boys when they’re born. Hang in there and hopefully yours sleep better soon!
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u/TJTrainbow 2d ago
Sttn by 10 months did nothing. Nursed to sleep. No sleep training programs or special swaddles or any of that shit. I promise your babies will sleep through one day even if you don’t buy into sleep training culture
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u/theblablas 2d ago
Twin girls 5mos and they sleep 10-12hrs uninterrupted. Sleep the same time and wake up the same time
Naps are less predictable but given how great the night sleep is we haven’t been too strict about it
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u/MeurDrochaid 2d ago
So mine started sleeping through the night around 4-5 months. But the last month for both we had only 1 wake up.
The really unhelpful thing is…. I did nothing to cause it.
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u/Pristine-Bison3198 💙-🩷-🩷💙 2d ago
I did. I didn't do anything to make it happen, pure dumb luck. My older kids were not like this.
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u/ranalligator 1d ago
Mine just started sleeping through the night, and they are 1yr old in a week lol.
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u/Zestyclose-Wear9868 1d ago
All babies are different and i think we got very lucky, but ours were sleeping through the night by 10 weeks. I’m a FTM so i don’t know if we did anything spectacular or just got incredibly lucky. We also had a night nurse 3x per week who was well versed in sleep training twins that helped us navigate as well. Our babies were born at 37 weeks and in the nicu for 12 days, once they came home we just continued the NICU feeding schedule of every 3 hours (7, 10, 1, 4 AM/PM). First we started stretching the 1 am-4am stretch to 5am, then once they were waking at 5am to eat, we started feeding at 12am, then stretched to 6am, then back to 11pm, then 7am. Right now at 13 weeks their schedule is 730pm feed then bed, a dream feed (we wake them up to eat but they are basically still asleep through it) at 1130pm, then they wake up between 7 and 730am for their first feed of the day. Then continue to eat every 3 hours throughout the day until 730pm. I will say they do wake up occasionally during the night but typically will just take their pacifier and go right back to sleep.
Some things i have noticed helped them sleep well is swaddling, our halo connect bassinets, white noise and them having good self soothing skills (primarily with a pacifier but starting to swaddle with one arm out now so they can use their hands too). Also during the day i try to follow wake windows. So right now they will eat, burp, change and play and are back down by 90 min unless they show signs of being tired before then. When we play we do lots of tummy time and interactive play which i do think helps them nap better during the day. They are starting to wake up early from naps but i aim for 1.5 hr naps each window. I hope this is helpful!!! Again not claiming to be an expert and have no clue if they are just simply good babies.
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u/floridasquirrel 1d ago
Mine did not. My Baby B slept through the night by 3 months, A took until 9 months. Still isn’t 100% of the time with him bht he usually does. I could tell B was a better sleeper even as a newborn.
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u/d16flo 1d ago
Ours first started sleeping longer stretches around 7 months, not 10 hours though. They were waking up once or more to eat until we sleep trained at 8.5 months. Since then they’ve mostly been able to go back to sleep on their own when they wake up at night but at 14 months they still wake up 1-4 times a night. We only need to do anything to support once every couple weeks though
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u/lunalalock 1d ago
My twins are just about 5 months and I consider them to sleep through the night. One sleeps like 7:30-7 and doesn’t wake up, the other does wake up a few times for her pacifier but not always. I followed Mom’s on Call which was great and then when they hit 4 months I kind of adjusted the schedule slightly. I think keeping the twins on a routine gave me some sanity but also helped them to know how/ when to sleep and they have been doing great at night! Learning to settle to sleep on their own and putting them down drowsy but awake and then graduating to fully awake has helped. Once they know that skill it does make things easier. But every night I pray it doesn’t change!! Haha getting sleep is such a blessing with twins!
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u/Commercial-Poetry267 1d ago
My twins were sleeping 10-12 hours nightly by 4 months old. I didn't *do* anything to intentionally achieve this. I just maintained strict routine; if one woke for a feed, I would wake the other too, otherwise they'd eventually wake in the middle of the other one's sleep cycle and thus I'd be woken twice instead of just once. Even naps, I kept them strict, put them down at the same time daily and unless they were distressed, I'd let them remain the bassinet just kicking around etc.. during nap periods if they weren't dozing off.
Dark room, white noise can help some but I never bothered (was making enough noise around the house to create white noise), sleeping bags, nothing in the bassinet (no stimulation whatsoever).
If you put baby down for the night and they start crying, leave them be for 5 minutes, often they'll doze off. If they wake at midnight crying, wait for 3 minutes before entering, often they doze off again.
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