My triplets are 3 months old and eating every 4 hours on a schedule, day and night (we continued the schedule they were on in the NICU). I'm going back to work soon so I need to start getting them to sleep longer at night. I'm looking for advice on the best way to do it. The way I see it, there are 3 options:

a) spread out the feedings to every 5 hours, day and night
b) keep the current schedule but drop one of the night feedings
c) compress the schedule during the day and spread it out at night, so they still eat 6 times a day.

I don't know what's healthiest/easiest for them to do, and I'm hoping there's someone out there that had been through this and can offer some advice.

You can't do anything until they are ready. Never feed more than 4 hours apart during the day, for starters. I don't know your kids gestational age, but it is very likely they just aren't ready to sleep longer at night. The general rule of thumb is kids may be biologically capable of sleeping longer stretches at 8 weeks adjusted. Not that they will for sure then, but don't expect it before then.

Some people feed every 3 hours during the day so their kids take in more calories then. I personally thought a 3 hour schedule was torture and wouldn't change if you already have a 4 hour one. I would stop waking them up at night to eat. Let them sleep as long as they want. When the first child wakes up at or after feeding time, feed everyone. Hopefully soon they will sleep longer and drop at least one night feeding. You don't replace that feeding during the day. The ultimate goal on a 4 hour schedule is to get to 4 feedings a day.

Their night feeding schedule won't be at set times this way. Since you are going back to work you probably will want to keep their daytime feedings on schedule. Just start your day and feedings at the same time every day, no matter what happened at night. That may mean bottles closer together than 4 hours but that is ok. As they drop night feedings, remember to add that formula to the daytime bottles so they are still eating the same amount.

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the advice! Right now they're only 2 weeks adjusted. They'll be 5 weeks when I go back to work.

Sometimes one will wake up and cry about 30 min before feeding time, but will fall back asleep with a pacifier, so I end up waking her up when it's time to eat. Should I try using pacifiers to get them to sleep longer, or should I feed them as soon as they cry?

Deb

I would not feed them if they wake up 30 minutes before feeding time. What you are doing seems fine. If she goes back to sleep I would let her sleep until she or the next child wakes up again. I personally was not a big pacifier person but did use them in a situation like you describe.

Lori

http://yesidohavemyhandsfull.blogspot.com/

I agree with pp, do not go any longer during the day than 4 hours. I strictly fed every 4 hours during the day (I would wake them up during the day to eat if they were sleeping). At night I did demand feeding but no less than 4 hours. If they woke up early I tried to sooth them back to sleep until 4 hours, but I would let them sleep as long as they wanted. They are probably too young (adjusted age to really sleep too long at night). I had one (my bigeest) who slept longer than the other two and eventually was the first one to sleep through the night. I did TRY at that point to get them on some sort of a schedule during the day so even if they woke up at 5 to eat I still woke them up for the day at 7 and did their first feeding. I know it's hard, I went back to work when they were three months (and only 2 weeks adjusted) too and only really had 1 month home with all 3. It was exhausting but it does get better. They just need time. My best advice is to try and get them on a schedule during the day and make bedtime the same time everynight and do some sort of bedtime routing. I would put lotion on, put them in PJ's and sleepsacks and then put the same CD on every night.

Good luck and Hang in there!

JILL MOM TO
KOURTNEY 3 LBS 1 OZ
KEEGAN 2 LBS 1 OZ
KARVER 1 LB 10 OZ
10/4/08 @ 29 weeks

When I NEEDED more sleep to survive we put some DHA enriched rice cereal in their bedtime bottle with either pumped breastmilk or formula. Now they each only wake up once a night between 7 pm and 6 am, and it's not crying just kind of fussing. I feed them when they wake, but if I let them fuss themselves back to sleep they would probably start sleeping all night, which would give me 11 hours. (I'm a major sucker, obviously).

Thanks for all the advice. Last night I gave all 3 baths, put them in nightgowns, fed them, and put them to bed with dim lights and a lullaby CD (I've been using this CD at bedtime for awhile now). One of them slept 7 hours, but the other two only made it 5 hours.

I've been reading the posts regarding feeding/sleep schedules. My triplet granddaughters were born 9/5/09 but due date was 11/4/09. So they are a little over 2 months actual age but only about two weeks adjusted if I am figuring that correctly. They are on a three hour feeding schedule and sleep well during the day but they are very hard to get to sleep at night. Their last feeding before bed is 8:00 pm after baths at 7:00 pm. Their room is dim and music is playing. One or more won't go down until after the 11:00 pm feeding and sometimes are fussy and crying (wailing!) between 2:00 am feeding and 5:00 am feeding. My daughter is so sleep deprived I'm worried about her. Her husband helps as much as he can but he has to go to work during the day. How much should she expect them to be awake during the day at this point and how can she get them to sleep at night. Getting up every three hours to feed wouldn't be so bad if they would go back to sleep in between. Any help?

My trips are 12 weeks old. We did a 3 hour schedule through the day (and like the pp said its hard!) But after they were about 4 weeks old they only woke up once through the night and then when they were 10.5 weeks old (6.5 weeks adjusted) they started sleeping 8-9 at night, most every night.

When they started sleeping better at night they were taking a full 4oz at every feeding (and I had to push them to take it or they would only eat 2 or 3oz each feeding) and started taking less and less at night, finally the night after it took me an hour just to get them to eat 1 oz when they woke up in middle of the night, they slept straight through.

There have only been about 2 or 3 times in the last 2 weeks or so that I have had to feed them in middle of the night and I only give them a couple of ounces to hold them over till the first feeding of the day at 7:30am. After they started sleeping longer at night, I went ahead and moved them to a 3.5 hour schedule, so they are getting 5 feedings a day instead of the 6 feedings on the 3 hr schedule and they are still doing fine. I still think its a bit too soon (for us) to go to a 4 hour schedule just yet because they only get 4 feedings a day on a 4hr schedule and I am afraid they will start waking up hungry at night again.

I have decided we are going to start rolling back the time of the last feeding (10:30pm) slowly to make them stretch the night time sleep out until we can drop that last feeding completely and THEN we will go to a 4 hour schedule.

Shely~ Mom to 1+bbg

From reading these posts, it sounds like we are expecting to much to early. Since our triplets are only 2 weeks adjusted (2 months actual), they probably won't start sleeping longer at night for a few more weeks. We may try pushing their bedtime routine back an hour or so to try and get them to sleep by 10:00 pm

The girls are now almost 3 1/2 months old (1 month adjusted). I gave up on the nighttime baths (takes WAY too much time), but I put them in pajamas and put Johnson's sleeptime lotion on them and give them the bottle. When I finish all 3 I dim the lights and put on the lullaby CD. They have been gradually sleeping longer and longer, and last night they each went more than 8 hours! It was the first time since they got home that I got to go to sleep at night and wake up in the morning, just like a normal person. The only problem now is that the last feeding before bed takes FOREVER because we want them to eat a lot so they sleep longer.

They are now eating every 3 1/2 hours. They eat 6 times per day but the first time is only an hour and a half before the scheduled morning feeding, so once they can sleep 10 hours I'll cut that one out.