My beautiful Twinkles — where has the time gone? It seems like yesterday that we were being taken down to the delivery suite, to welcome you to the world and now you are very nearly half a year old and we’re trying a new 6 month routine.
I can’t believe half a year has almost passed; they say ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ but this is ridiculous!
I feel as though my life is suddenly on fast forward.
So much has been happening…I —finally!—changed the routine again and got rid of the 4 o’clock feed! We’ve been doing the new 6 month routine for about 4 weeks now.
The twins took to it really quickly and are happy with their ‘6 month schedule’ :)
The new timings are:
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The Twinkles 6 Month Routine
7am — wake and feed
8.30am — back to bed
10am — wake
11.00am — feed
12.00am — back to bed
2.00pm — wake
2.30pm — feed
4pm — back to bed
5pm — wake (play or a bath a couple of times a week)
6.00pm — feed
7pm — bed
Until 10.30 for the last feed….
Basic Instinct
I’m annoyed with myself that I tried to change their routine on the advice of a book/health visitor/website, when the babies — or I — weren’t ready.
Ultimately, I guess you’ve got to try things out to find out whether they’ll work, or not, but my gut feeling was that it was too early when I tried to change it before.
I think the moral of that story is to always go with your instinct.
Books etc are helpful, but I think we sometimes forget that babies do not go by the book. They are individual little humans and one size does not fit all in a lot of cases!
Also, there’s a lot to be said for maternal instinct. I now feel confident enough to listen to my gut feeling — initially I was convinced that the books/health visitors/websites knew best, but now I’m pretty sure that I know what’s best for them :)
The Curse of Overtiredness
The one thing I’ve noticed more and more though is that they are less and less accommodating about going for a nap during the day! Half of me thinks that they don’t need it but the other half knows that they do need their daytime sleep and on the odd occasion that they’ve missed out on it, they have not coped well at all.
I would rather deal with a baby who is protesting about going to sleep — for all of 10 minutes — than deal with one who is massively overtired.
Over-tiredness is one of the causes for the Twinkles to have a major meltdown! If we happen to miss the slot to get them to bed — at the right time — there is hell to pay!!! It’s so difficult trying to explain to a 5 month old baby that the only way they will feel better is to let go and fall asleep…
Sleep Signals
When they are overtired, they just can’t seem to switch off and are often so overstimulated they find it impossible to just close their eyes and nod off. They fight it, and get crosser and more agitated until the crying reaches fever pitch and they go to sleep. Not a great way to get them to go for a nap! Much better to catch it before this point and put them down as soon as you see the first signs of tiredness.
The Twinkles are hilarious — it’s as though they’ve both read a book of sleep signals. They rub their eyes in a cartoon-like way and start yawning in an exaggerated fashion.
We don’t let them get past the second yawn either. As soon as we see these signs, we whisk them off to their cots. Since they were born, we’ve never waited for them to be ‘almost asleep’ to put them down for a nap.
We put them down when they are still wide awake and they settle themselves… no rocking, no singing, no cuddling.
Might seem a bit harsh but, much as I love them, I do not want to be rocking them to sleep every time they go for a nap!
It works for us anyway and that’s all that matters :)
Solid Food
I think I am going to start them on some solid food in the next week or so.
They’ve been very interested in watching us eat for the last couple of weeks and I remember a health visitor saying that we could begin to start weaning when this happened.
Part of me feels a little nervous. The milk is so easy!!!
No thought required there at all!!
Weaning involves activating my brain and trying to get out of this baby induced fug that I’ve been in for the last year.
People aren’t joking when they use the term ‘baby brain’!!
It started when I was about 5 months pregnant and is still hampering my head even now! I have forgotten half of the vocabulary that I’ve learnt over the years. My head often feels as though it’s full of porridge.
Which is what I’ll give to the babies when we start weaning. Baby rice or porridge. Think that will be a good introduction to solid food!
Until next time x
Caro Davies is a former art-director turned writer and content-creator, and editor behind UK lifestyle blog The Listed Home. She writes about home-related topics, from interiors and DIY to food and craft. The Listed Home has been featured in various publications, including Ideal Home, Grazia, and Homes & Antiques magazines.
Hi Caro! You are so organised – I’m massively impressed by your great routine. I totally agree about the over tiredness thing. Overtired twins are not easy to deal with and bedtime and nap time are crucial times of the day. Plus nap times have the added bonus of giving you a small bit of a break! I’ll never forget the day our guys dropped their nap altogether – I missed those nap times!
I also agree that you should totally work out a routine that works for you when you are ready for it and not listen too much to anyone who tells you otherwise!
Love the post, best of luck with the porridge and baby rice – something tells me you’ll be grand!
Aah thanks Tracey — this was an old post! The boys are two now! And definitely past the porridge and baby rice stage! ;) That said, they are still in a really great routine. They’ve dropped all naps apart from the lunchtime 1 until 3.30pm sleep now. It will be really weird when they drop that one! The baby/toddler stage will definitely be over! x
Ps forgot again to say….#multiple madness!