Hi - I'm sure hoping to get some help with sleeping during the night, we are trying to stretch out the amount of time they sleep overnight.

We have BBG triplets born 3/24/10. They will be 12 weeks on Wednesday (6 weeks adjusted).

We currently have the following routine.

9am eat, awake, sleep
1pm eat, awake, sleep
5pm eat, awake - this is the stretch they are awake for the longest. They would get EXTREMELY fussy around 8:00, so we started feeding them around 8:30. Sometimes they sleep until the 1am feeding, sometimes they don't.
8:30, eat, awake, in bed around 10:00 and like I said - sometimes sleep until 1:00, more often than not we have at least 1 fussy one.
1am eat, right back to sleep - most of the time they sleep well during this stretch, I may have to get up and put a pacifier in someone's mouth.
5am eat, right back to sleep - they usually sleep well during this period too, but start waking up around 8:00.

I'm trying to figure out how we stretch out the overnight sleep time to be longer. I tried stack feeding them one night last week - feeding at 5, 8, and 11 and they did well, but only slept until 4am. So I figured we had finally gained an hour. Last night, I tried feeding them at 5, 8, and splitting the 1am feeding volume at 10 and midnight to see if they would sleep until 5:00. I put them down and one slept well until 5:00. The other 2 were crying EVERY 30 minutes. I thought I was going to lose my mind.

Does anyone have any advice to help with stretching out their sleep time at night? I'm afraid the 2 that were fussy last night are just not ready to have that volume so close together in time. They are eating anywhere from 4-4.5oz at each feeding. They are about 11, 9, and 8 lbs.

Thank you to anyone that can help!!!

You are expecting too much, too soon. At only 6 weeks adjusted it is too early to force them to do anything. Generally speaking, around 8 weeks adjusted is when they might be biologically capable of sleeping longer stretches but many kids aren't ready that early.

I would consider the 8:30pm feeding to be their bedtime feeding. Don't keep them up until 10. Put them to bed after they eat. Don't wake them up for the next feeding. When the first baby wakes up around feeding time, feed them all. Do the same for the other overnight feeding. Start your day again at 9:00 am no matter what time they ate overnight.

You really can't force this at this point. It is too soon and they are too young. You will know they are ready to drop a feeding when they sleep for longer stretches. You are probably not far away from dropping one night feeding but at 6 weeks adjusted you are going to have to wait until they are ready.

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/

Thank You for the advice. I just didn't know what to do during the overnight hours to know when they would be ready. I figured if I didn't try something different, then it would never change. I also thought they might not be ready. Thanks so much!

Dianne

In addition to what Lori said, why not feed them at 8pm if that's when they're fussy? We had ours on a strict 4-hour schedule, but they were just SO crabby while waiting for their bedtime bottle, so we just started feeding them earlier. They still ate just as much as if they'd waited that extra hour. It was one of their first steps toward sleeping longer at night and they still do it at 10.5 months: bottle and solids at 3pm and their bedtime bottle at 6pm. It feels like all you do is feed them those last few hours, but it's much more peaceful when they're not crying for food.

Good luck and hang in there - it won't be much longer until they're sleeping longer stretches at night!

Mom to GBG born in July 2009 at 30w6d: 3#10oz, 3#12oz, 3#2oz

Thank You for the advice! We started feeding them earlier when they started to get fussy and they have been sleeping well. They were waking up again at midnight to eat and then sleeping until 5am. (With one waking up needing comfort and a pacifier around 3am). Last night they slept from 9-1am. My girl woke up a little fussy and I assumed she was hungry. I had to wake the boys up to eat. Once I got them all out of bed and started to feed them, I realized that they were eating really slowly and weren't really all that interested. I'm wondering what would have happened if I could have just pacified my daughter. I fed them for about 30 minutes and put them back in bed.

I guess my question is this - when they are ready to start sleeping longer, will they still wake up in the middle of the night? Their bedtime feeding is at 8:30 and they are in bed around 9:00. Will they just skip the feeding at midnight/1am and sleep through until 5:00? - I guess I'm thinking that there is no way they will make it that long and they will be up around 3am hungry.

Just wondering what happened with you guys during your experience.

I'm realizing that when I think I can't do this any longer that we start to have major breakthroughs. I'm glad because the exhaustion wore me out last week until I was finally given a break so I could sleep.

Thanks for any help,

Dianne

When they are ready to start sleeping longer, they'll just start sleeping longer. Mine slept through at different times. After maybe a week of one daughter falling asleep during the 4 am feeding - she'd fall asleep while I changed her sister, I had to keep tapping her and jiggling the bottle during feeding to wake her up - I figured she was ready to sleep through it. So the night I decided to let her go, as soon as I heard her sister wake up I rushed in there (wasn't sure if the crying would wake her up) and took the crying one out. She slept straight through until the normal 9 am wake up. She did the exact same thing when I dropped her midnight bottle - the first night I skipped it, she slept straight through until morning.

Amy

Mom to Julia, ^Caitlin^ & Gabrielle



http://onealaskanmom.wordpress.com