Sleep.
Oh sleeeeeeep.
I didn’t realize how much I loved it until I wasn’t getting it.
And the saying “sleep when the baby sleeps” ONLY is helpful when the BABY. IS. SLEEPING.
I get SO many questions about the twins and one of the main questions is about SLEEPING.
I am happy to report (and terrified to type) that they are usually sleeping 7:30 PM to 7 AM every night and WE have to wake THEM up in the morning.

they sleep in a dark room,
I brightened this up for the sake of showing them sleeping in their little suits 🙂

A few things before I share anything: This is just what works for ME and MY twins. You are a mom and you know what’s best for you and your baby.  Every baby is different.   Don’t listen to anyones advice or any book if it isn’t what you want to do or if it isn’t working for you.  No one knows your baby better than you do!

Probably the biggest questions is : Do they wake each other up?
They DO NOT wake each other up.  It’s crazy.
One may be a better sleeper or napper than the other (Collins) but the other will learn to adjust (Hadley…. well…. she’s trying to adjust haha. Collins is just THE BEST sleeper so I don’t think Hadley will ever quite get there.  She has FOMO like me and knows I’m watching some goooooood trash TV while she’s sleeping and wants to join).
Even our doctor confirmed what I’d been told over and over by twin moms: You can’t accommodate both babies and let them sleep whenever they feel like it or eat whenever they feel like it because you will end up with one baby awake at all times and NEVER SLEEP.  So we’ve been on a shesshhhule since the beginning.  (As in, even in the NICU, the girls were on a feeding schedule, so I just kept it going when we came home at 1 month).

simmer down, they don’t share a crib.
this was post nap snuggles after their evening catnap. 

I honestly think having a schedule and having well slept babies is why I have such “easy” happy babies. And luck.  And, like, because I’m the greatest mom ever…. totally not luck or a schedule…. it’s just me being PERFECT, right?!
I jest…… if only I had a free hand to record when sheyite is hitting the fan over here.

but I digress…….

I follow Moms on Call and will share more of the girls FULL schedule next week, but in summary : I recommend Moms on Call.  Or SOME kind of schedule.  I’ve heard 12 hours by 12 weeks is great, too!
A key thing is not letting naps go longer than they should, and the book is great and telling you “no nap longer than (x) hours in daytime” or “only a catnap before bedtime bottles”, etc.
The girls room has shutters but I did not do the blackout curtains because if we are ever not sleeping at home or napping on the go I wanted them to still be able to sleep with some light.
(whoever is reading this that knows me is laughing at napping on the go because I am home about 95% of the time…. ha…..SOS).
The shutters are closed for all naps during the day but I think it helps regulate day versus night to still have a little light coming in.
I use the hatch sound machine and night light and always have the white noise going.

Now, I will say something possibly controversial :
I WAKE SLEEPING BABIES.

Every morning at 6:50 AM, they are ASLEEP. And I wake them up for that 7 AM bottle.
Is it tempting to sleep in because the babies are asleep?

But I know that I’ll pay for it later that day and ESPECIALLY later that night.
Wake. The. Baby.
Because hopefully the baby just slept
ALL NIGHT LONG.

Stare at that sweet sleeping baby and then pick. them. up.

Hadley is not my best napper, but Collins is a dream sleeper.  I have to wake her at every nap because she is almost always still completely asleep.

Another thing I have done for a LONG time that I know most people do not do is sleeping in their nursery in their cribs for almost every nap and at night time. I am going to share something shocking: The babies never really slept in our bedroom.  Except Collins when she was the only one home from the NICU.  In the early days one of us slept on the couch next to them in the living room at night while the other parent slept in the bedroom. Then we transferred to sleeping in the guest bedroom right next to the nursery with the monitor 2 inches from my face even though I could practically hear them breathing with them in their cribs while the other person slept in our bedroom, and then finally BOTH of us in our bedroom with them in their cribs.
You do you.
I will say I think putting them in their cribs early has made for great sleepers.  But I also know if I had only one I’m sure EVERYTHING I do would be completely different.
I also will say we live in A RANCH.  It is a dream come true for babies and especially twins.  I am SO close to them that having them do all naps and everything in their cribs is really just the easiest option.  I don’t have to carry anyone up a flight of stairs for every nap, etc.

We feed every 3 hours and always have (since the NICU days).  As they started drinking more and getting bigger, we dropped one middle of the night feeding at a time and would stretch the other two and let them wake up on their own and we’d feed until we finally made it to that 7 AM bottle.  I wish I had some dream secret, but the secret for dropping those middle of the night feedings is really just following Moms on Call and letting the baby call the shots WHEN they are on a schedule.  Luckily it was really seamless for us.
When we were down to one middle of the night feeding we were having to wake them up every time.  Our pediatrician told us at the 4 month visit that they were big enough and as long as they were getting X amount of ounces per day, if they weren’t awake, we could wait.  It went from 4 AM to 5 AM to 6 AM and then finally made it all the way to 7 AM with no bottle at night.

A few things for helping ensure sleep :

• try to stick to a schedule, at least for start of day and end of day. it’s my #1 if you can’t tell….
• make sure there aren’t too many hours or napping during the day (for the current schedule we’re on it’s 1.5 hour naps, it used to be 2, and eventually when we drop a nap I think one nap goes back to 2 hours)
• follow the same bedtime routine. We wind down with music, bath, jammies, etc. We do bedtime bottles in the living room (again, I feel like most people do it in the nursery but we don’t have two chairs in there to do that) so I close the blinds and make the room dark and we feed at the same time every night: 7 PM. We give the bottle and then burp and snuggle and then zip them up in their magic sleep suit for the night.

Now, onto the KEY for them sleeping through the night:  THE MAGIC SLEEP SUIT.
If you follow me on instagram you know that I was VERY stressed out when Collins starting flipping over in her swaddle, and then Hadley soon after.
The girls were JUST starting to sleep through the night at a little over 4 months and I was NOT ready to do arms out and have to start all over again.  I had registered for the Baby Merlin Magic Sleep Suits and pulled them out after so many of you messaged me to tell me to go that route and I am SO THANKFUL that I did.
It has been a SLEEP FILLED GODSEND.
And basically every photo I post to my instagram stories features these adorable pink Michelin-man-esque suits.  They crack me up.   They’re AMAZING.  They can’t flip over like they could in their swaddles but still get the snug and cozy feeling the swaddle provided them.

I gifted one to a friend on a 95 degree day and her husband looked at me like I was nuts – “oh, I guess that will be good in winter time?”  If you are having your baby nap outside of the house when you’re out and about, then OF COURSE don’t put them in this if they will overheat.  But EVERY nap and bedtime at our house in IN. THE. SUIT.  Every single one (…….can you tell I’m regimented?!)

The girls sleep at bedtime in footie pajamas, but for naps they are usually in onesies with bare feet and do just fine.

Something else: Do as I SAY not as I DO.  I have two, and I cannot be in two places at once and cannot put two in the crib at once and reach with paci’s and soothing,etc.  SO. My method is that I zip them up on the boppy pillow and can pop paci back in or stroke their eyebrows and head for a minute or two while they fall asleep right next to each other.  Then, once they are asleep (less than 5 minutes), I transfer each one safely into their crib for their nap.
At night when I have my husband to help, we each take a baby and rock them to sleep and can put them into the crib without the use of my little “staging area” in the living room.

I TRULY could not love these suits more.
I honestly think they are the KEY for how we’ve had babies sleeping through the night since 4-4.5 months old.
We haven’t had to have any Bethenny Frankel meltdowns and I owe it all to these suits.

I will be using these as my go-to gift for all new mom friends and baby showers, and have already gifted 2 to friends!

And now for the really exciting part!
A GIVEAWAY!
I reached out to the wonderful people at the Baby Merlin Company after sharing probably DOZENS of photos on my instgram stories of the girls in their suits and got so many questions from all of you.
Iwant your baby or babies to sleep as well as MINE ARE. (I always feel like typing it or saying it out loud will jinx me, haha!)
You can use code TAYLOR15 for 15% off your Merlin Suit AND you can head to my INSTAGRAM to win a FREE Magic Merlin Suit of your own.