Getting great sleep with ONE baby can seem hard. Getting great sleep with multiple babies may seem almost impossible. Or totally impossible if we’re talking about more than two babies…. I hear you.
However, before you pack your bags and run away from home, allow me to share with you that there ARE strategies to help make getting great sleep with multiple babies a lot easier!
Although I don’t have twins or multiples of my own, I have worked with many families with multiples and have fine tuned lots of age based tips and tricks to share with you.
In this blog, I will share with you my top 7 strategies:
- Scheduling and Preventing Overtiredness
- White Noise
- Night Feeds
- Scheduling
- The Sleep Learning Process
- By the Clock Scheduling
- Sleep Space for Naps
Bottom line is that all babies can get better sleep, even with they come in multiples of 2 or 3!
Newborns
Scheduling and Preventing Overtiredness
The key to great sleep with newborns (in any number!) is preventing overtiredness. In order to prevent overtiredness we want to watch the clock and watch for sleepy cues.
Watching the clock means keeping wake windows to 60-90 minutes and 1.5 hours before bed.
Watching for sleepy cues means keeping an eye out for signs that your baby is getting close to being tired. These signs include:
- Eyes are staring off into the distance
- A calm, peaceful demeanor
- A subtle yawn
- Reddish hue on their eyebrows and eyelids.
Check out my Instagram Reel on identifying sleepy cues:
Expect bedtime to be around 10-11pm and for your babies to wake to be fed every 2-3 hours.
With this in mind, I recommend keeping your newborns on the same schedule. So if you put them down for a nap at 9am and one wakes up at 10am but the other baby/babies are still sleeping, wake up the other baby/babies.
I know, I know. That sounds painful, but if they are on the same schedule, then it is easier for you to be able to rest or sleep when they are sleeping and you’re not just permanently feeding or doing contact naps.
White Noise
We know that white noise is SUPER effective in helping our newborns sleep! Not only is it a calming and soothing sound but it helps block out external noise.
When you have multiples, white noise is most effective when you use it between your babies so their little noises and grunts don’t wake each other up.
I recommend placing the cribs or bassinets on opposite sides of the room and place the white noise machine between them.
Night Feeds
I’m not going to pretend that I know first hand what it’s like to have to get up in the night to feed more than one baby! However, I totally sympathize with you and have some pieces of advice to maximize your own sleep while still being responsive and feeding on demand.
First of all, in the beginning, follow your babies lead and see how it plays out with timing around when they wake for feedings.
If feeding is all over the place and you want to try and cut down on the number of times you are getting up to feed, consider moving to dream feeds. This means that when it is your bedtime, you go in and “top up” your babies. The theory is that you’ve prevented a feeding wake up that otherwise would have happened an hour or two after you had just gone to bed.
Be aware that this can sometimes not work for two reasons. One being that they may be too drowsy to get a good full feed in, and the other being that this may disrupt their sleep cycle. But definitely worth experimenting with!
For everything you need to know about getting great newborn sleep for any number of babies, check out my newborn course!
4-24 Months
If sleep was a touch disenchanting during the newborn stage, once you hit 4 months, it’s likely now a 2.0 dumpster fire.
This is thanks to the 4 month sleep regression.
The good news is that once your babies are 4 month old, you can teach them independent sleep skills! This means your little ones will learn to put themselves to sleep for naps and bedtime, sleep through the night (except for night feedings of course!) and lengthen their naps.
This is a very exciting time for parents with one baby, and VERY exciting news for parents of multiples.
Scheduling
Just as with newborns, it is super helpful to get your babies on the same sleep schedule. However, unlike with newborns, we don’t want to be waking up our babies from a nap while they are still learning to lengthen their naps.
Learning to lengthen naps is a crucial part of the sleep learning process, and every baby learns at a different pace and often using a different approach. So during this learning period, we want to give all babies the time and opportunity to develop this skill.
The best way to go about this, is to have the same morning wake up time for all your babies, the same start time for nap 1, and the same bedtime. For your other nap start times, it will depend on when they woke up from their previous napttime. Once your babies have developed the skill of independent nap lengthening, then you can get them all on the same “by the clock” schedule (more on this below).
The Sleep Learning Process
During the sleep learning process, there are a few tips and tricks that you can use to make it as easy as possible with more than one baby. And know that sleep regressions are normal and you can work through them!
If you are using timers during the sleep learning process, first, get all babies nice and calm and then start the timer after all babies have been soothed.
If one baby wakes up early, either from a short nap or an early morning wake up, give them some time to try and go back to sleep on their own, however, if you need to, it’s ok to rock them back to sleep so they don’t wake up the other babies.
And don’t forget… it’s never too late for sleep learning!
By The Clock Scheduling
While you are in the process of sleep learning, it’s super beneficial to keep separate sleep logs for all your babies. Since every baby is different, and learns at their own pace, it’s totally normal for one baby to be a “better sleeper” than the other(s).
After two weeks of collecting data, have a look at all the sleep logs and see how you can align their schedules. It may mean slightly shortening or lengthening one baby’s wake window beyond what seems to be natural for them, however most babies adjust if it is close to their optimal sleep schedule and they have independent sleep skills. Plus, it is certainly worth it to have all your babies on the same sleep schedule! (Hello naptime freedom!)
Sleep Space for Naps
During the sleep learning process of nap lengthening, consider putting your babies in their own sleep space, just for naps. Naps can be all over the place for different babies and it makes it tricky for babies to learn to put themselves back to sleep after a short nap when they hear their sibling fussing or crying. Also, if one baby starts fussing or crying, it’s highly likely that it will wake another baby from their nap.
Any well ventilated and safe space will do for naps! Think bathroom, walk in closet, sectioned off corner of your dining room, etc. Just make sure you optimize the sleep environment by ensuring it is nice and dark, quiet, and use a sound machine.
Recap on better sleep with twin babies and multiples
It’s safe to say that getting great sleep is hard when you have one baby, let alone multiple babies! I truly feel for all the rock star parents out there that are crushing parenthood with more than one baby. (And yes, you are crushing it, even if it doesn’t feel like it!)
My goal is always to support parents and help families get the sleep they need and deserve, in a way that aligns with their parenting values, preferences and what they are comfortable with.
I have a newborn course that teaches you everything you need to know to optimize your newborn’s sleep and set the stage for great sleep habits, and a 4-24 month course that walks you through how to teach independent sleep skills. We also have consultation options where you can work one-on-one with one of our amazing sleep consultants and create a holistic individualized sleep plan for your little ones that prioritizes everyone’s sleep!
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