Tips on Putting your Twins to Sleep

Looking after twins usually means more work for the parents. It also often presents parents with tricky situations. One of these is putting a pair of twins to bed. Here are tips to help parents of twins cope with this situation:

• Maintain fixed bed times: Helping your twins, sleep at the same time everyday will ensure that they will form good sleeping habits. A fixed bedtime will help them fall asleep without fuss as soon as you put them to bed.

• Devise a pre-bed routine: This could be a warm bath, some massage and cuddling, or a story telling or lullaby session. When repeated daily, this will help your twins anticipate and get into the mood for sleep.

• Swaddle your babies: Swaddling or wrapping your twins in a blanket, or sheet will help your twins sleep more snugly. This will make it less likely that they will get up at night.

• Teach your twins to sleep: Help your twins to learn to fall asleep. You can do so by putting them to bed while they are drowsy, but still awake. This way they learn to rely on their own ability to get sleep.

• Let them sleep together: Babies feel more secure when they can enjoy physical contact with their parents or siblings. Twins who sleep together are more likely to enjoy undisturbed sleep through the night. When they grow older and you decide to separate them, ensure that they can still see each other.

• Help the calm baby first: When twins wake up from sleep, parents tend to the one who is crying more. But this often leads to the calmer of the two being neglected. It is better to settle in the quiet baby first and then attend to the one who is fussing.

• Tackle frequent waking: Babies who are excited or stimulated have trouble falling asleep and are more likely to keep waking up at night. You can make them feel restful and ready to sleep by maintaining a calm and quiet atmosphere just before sleep. This may be done by keeping lights dim and keeping noise to a minimum. This helps babies to relax better and they sleep sounder.

Newborn Babies will sleep most of the time during their first few months. At this time, they require all the sleep they can get, so parents need to resist the temptation to wake them up and fondle or hug them. Read more about Dad’s guide on baby sleep.