Help with sleep/feed patterns!

[Anonymous]

My twins are 3 months old (2 months adjusted) and until this week they’ve been going to bed at 8:30pm or so (whole bath routine, bottle, etc) and sleeping until 2:30AM-ish and then again until 6:30AM-ish. We are trying to move that first 6 hour window a bit so that my husband and I can sleep the 6 hour stretch overnight, so we are trying to give them a bottle at 11pm and then have them go until like 4 or 5AM. My question is whether the bedtime routine of a bath and a story etc should happen at 11PM or if we should do it at closer to 7PM and a dream feed at 11PM? We tried that exact thing the last two nights and they were both still up at 3AM to eat, so it seems like we are just interrupting their big stretch for the dream feed and not getting anywhere but that seems like what is advised based on what I’m reading.. so should we stick with it and see if the 3AM starts pushing later, or just bump the whole bedtime routine to 11PM? I’m exhausted and frustrated so any guidance is appreciated re what worked for you!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My twins are 3 months old (2 months adjusted) and until this week they’ve been going to bed at 8:30pm or so (whole bath routine, bottle, etc) and sleeping until 2:30AM-ish and then again until 6:30AM-ish. We are trying to move that first 6 hour window a bit so that my husband and I can sleep the 6 hour stretch overnight, so we are trying to give them a bottle at 11pm and then have them go until like 4 or 5AM. My question is whether the bedtime routine of a bath and a story etc should happen at 11PM or if we should do it at closer to 7PM and a dream feed at 11PM? We tried that exact thing the last two nights and they were both still up at 3AM to eat, so it seems like we are just interrupting their big stretch for the dream feed and not getting anywhere but that seems like what is advised based on what I’m reading.. so should we stick with it and see if the 3AM starts pushing later, or just bump the whole bedtime routine to 11PM? I’m exhausted and frustrated so any guidance is appreciated re what worked for you!!

Stick with the dream feed at 11pm, keep the bedtime routine earlier in the evening, and give it some time to even out. Two nights is nothing.

Also - make sure that you're feeding at least every three hours from 8am-8pm.

[Anonymous]

Keep he bedtime routine at bedtime. If the dream feed works, great, but each of my three kids completely failed at it.

Bedtime is early for babies - don’t mess up a long sleeping stretch trying to move it where it doesn’t go!

[Anonymous]

Keep bedtime early! My 10 week old is currently bath/eat/sleep at 730. She naturally dropped the dream feed 10 days ago and is sleeping till 530, then eats and wakes at 730-8. You’re almost there.

[Anonymous]

Definitely keep bedtime at 8:30 and it’ll gradually move even earlier. Give the dream feed a solid week to see if it works, but otherwise, maybe just also go to bed at 8:30 when they do so you can get a good chunk of sleep? It sucks to have no personal time but it’s not forever and they will stretch that 2:30/3 feed later and later and you will feel like you can reliably stay up later and still get a good chunk of sleep to start the night, soon enough. I went to bed no later than 9pm until my baby was reliably sleeping through til 5am or all the way to morning bc I am a monster without a good stretch of sleep.

[Anonymous]

I found this part worked best if I shifted my sleep schedule rather than modifying the kids’. In your case, I’d skip the dream feed and go to bed myself at 9, which is an early bedtime but not too crazy.

[Anonymous]

Respectful Sleep Training/Learning group on FB. It has everything you need and so much more.