night time feed nightmares

[juz twins]

Hello I have 13 week old twin girls and am following the "Save our Sleep" routines but am having problems with the night time feed (6pm).

for the past 2-3 weeks my girls cry hysterically when i try to give them their night time feed it takes me about an hour or sometimes longer to get 100 - 130 mls into them and then i eventually give up and put them to bed. During all other feeds they drink about 180mls sometimes 200mls. if by some miracle i do manage to get 180mls into them at this night feed then they will sleep through the night.

does anyone know why they are so hysterical at this time?

[becster05]

are they having a good afternoon nap? is it possible that by the time you give them that night time feed they are overtired at all? maybe you could try moving the feed forward just a little and see what happens?? I dont have twins, but I have at times adjusted the feed times a little to the SOS routines because it suited us better. For eg I give DD her solids up to 45 minutes earlier than suggested purely because she gets hungrier earlier than what the books routines suggests and she is also a lot more tired at the end of the day and thus harder to feed if I leave it too late. Maybe this would help?

[JLeesmum]

my DS used to become hysterical at that time and age.. maybe they sense that u r trying to get things done (being near dinner time, and when DP gets home)
any chance of putitng them to bed anyway, just u do akready, but waking them up at 10ish for a dream feed??

[juz twins]

my girls get fed 4 hourly throughout the day but at this time their last feed was at 3pm then they generally go for a nap at 4:30 - 5pm and then i feed them again at 6pm then i bath them then a top up feed and then bed. if i bring the feed 1/2 hour earlier then it will only be 2.5 hours since their last feed do you think it will make a difference??? in the SOS book it says to bath at 5:30 and feed at 6:30 but i have changed it a bit cause they dont drink after the bath. Also after the bath when i dress them they go hysterical also - this is the only time they go nuts when im changing them. do you have any more suggestions???

[juz twins]

yeah i do give them a dream feed at 10:30pm they only drink about 80 - 100mls at this time

[SuperGranny]

hello juztwins, I never read any book about having time frames for feeding bubs. My twins were demand fed but seemed to work on a three hour routine. I would be not wanting to have babies screaming at anytime. I think there is a common thing about the 5pm 6pm hour that does get babies into a tizz. It could be with the extra work you have to do at that time, getting dinner ready, bathing babies, and the babies pickup on the tension. I dont know why it is but it is common from my experience. I have never paid much attention to clocks, I have done what suited my babies when it suited them. At 12 / 13 weeks my babies were still feeding three hourly around the clock, I bathed them whenever through the day, and I made either quick simple dinners, or used a crock pot. I also offered some baby cereal or solids at around four or five in the afternoon to give them a little bit more in their tummies, to help with the dinner time for the rest of us. I hope I have helped, Marie.

[Boobycino]

This probably doesn't help, but Jasper from 3 weeks until about 9 weeks old screamed hysterically, regardless of what I did bang on 9am for about an hour until he fell asleep in my arms exhausted from scream - and then again generally off and on for 3 hours between 5pm and 8pm. And in between the two crying episodes he was just perfect, cheerful, calm and wonderful.

There was no reason for it. Nothing I could do or change about his routine to stop it happened. One day I'd think I'd have the cure (like infants friend or a new burping position) and he'd be perfect for a day and the next day whatever new trick I'd learnt no longer helped.

By around 3 months though he was heaps heaps better (no longer screaming in the mornings) and by 4 months he was a perfect angel (mostly)

Try to take care of yourself I suppose is all I can say, sleep when you can, rest when you can.. I cant imagine doing it all with twins, it must be exhausting :hugs:

[juz twins]

Thanks for all the advise we had a fairly good night last night - i swapped the bath and feed and bathed my girls at 5:30 and fed them at 6:30 and they didnt go as hysterical. only down side is that they woke up during the night but i can live with that as long as they dont go hysterical at their feed cause that is more tiring then anything else.
thanks again everyone - fingers crossed we have another good feed today

[mummy2lilly]

Hi there,

you may not have known either around the 13 week to about 16 week they will cry alot more then normal. Do you use Dummies at all? as that may help them settle a lot better also..
Also they could be both going through a growth spurt which would be making them alot more hungry. I found with dd she had to go on baby cereal at that age also because she was getting up during the night because she was hungry.. the MCHN told me to put her on Farex.
If they still keep doing try a tiny little bit of farex to see if they do take it as they might be alot more hungry so the milk is no long keeping them full..