| Hi! I’m Amanda from and I have a Babywise success story with my identical twin boys, Atticus and Rhett.
When I found out I was having twins, my friends all started recommending sleep training books. Only one woman recommended Babywise- and she happened to be the only woman I know with truly well-behaved, happy, confident children (a 2 year old and a 4 year old). The rest of my friends with kids said that Babywise wasn’t “compassionate” enough- these were attachment parenting types, and I knew I wasn’t going to parent like them. Their kids were clingy, insecure, and whiny. So I took the advice of my friend whose children modeled the behavior I hoped my twins would one day have, and I read Babywise in my seventh month of pregnancy. I loved it, and so did my husband. I vowed to implement it from day one.
When the boys were born, they were healthy and had no NICU time (woot woot!). The nurses put them on a 3 hour schedule automatically, which meshed with Babywise. We just modified it slightly by keeping the babies awake during their feedings instead of letting them snooze. This was hard- they were 4 weeks early and just. Wanted. To sleep. But we used all the little tricks the book recommended, and managed to keep them awake long enough to get a full feeding. This was from day 1.
The boys are only 11 weeks old now, and we’ve had nothing but success. Their waketimes gradually lengthened to 45 minutes or an hour, depending on the time of day. So, you know, they can get in all their staring-at-the-ceiling-and-
Whenever we are out, people say that we’re “lucky” or that we just have “good babies.” There’s no such thing as a bad baby- just bad habits developed by parents. Thanks to the book, our babies don’t have them. We’ve been able to handle going from two cats to two newborns without too much stress, and honestly- I’m more rested than most moms of singletons I know. Mostly because my babies don’t sleep in my bed (don’t even get me started…).
A few notes about applying Babywise with twins:
1. Cry-it-out may be a little different with twins. My boys didn’t consistently cry at the same times. One of them would fuss when I put them down for naps, and he would keep the other one awake. The way I dealt with this was to move the fussy one out of the crib and let him CIO in a bouncy chair so he didn’t disturb his brother. Pacifiers really helped us, though I know not everyone is a fan. Also, if you’re not a fan of CIO, just know that you’ll end up doing it anyway. You only have two hands and arms, so you won’t be able to run to one who is crying while you’re changing the other one’s diaper or whatever. It’s ok. The baby will survive- pinky swear.
2. We always, always, always keep them on the same feeding schedule. When I was nursing, I tandem nursed. When we moved to bottles, I just set them in Boppys on either side of me on the sofa and gave them their bottles. If we had fed one, then the other that would have added 30 minutes of feeding time, and meanwhile the other would have fallen asleep and skipped waketime. That’s just too confusing.
3. Waketime was/is a bit of a struggle for me, in that I feel first-time-mom guilt about not being able to give both of them my undivided attention during every waketime. Babywise helped me realize the importance of independent play, so for their first two waketimes they play by themselves in their bouncy seats with the hanging toys, or do tummy time. Their next waketime I play with them. Sometimes I tickle them both or sing to them or whatever. Sometimes I let one do more tummy time while I dance around with the other or do something else that allows me to focus more on him. Then I switch. Their last waketime, daddy comes home and I work (I work from home), and he does story time. He does great voices, so they’re entertained.
I just want moms of twins to know that Babywise isn’t just helpful when you have two babies- it’s essential. Without a consistent schedule, you will be on 24/7 nursing duty. One will invariably wake up just when you put the other one down. You will always have a baby in your arms, whether you want him there or not. If you plan to shower, leave the house, pay attention to your husband again, or catch up on the last season of Mad Men, you NEED NEED NEED this book.
Good luck and God bless 🙂 Amanda |
