This book is especially good if you twins are fraternal (which are more difficult, because their sleep patterns will be different) and if they are premature (one of my kids spent 1 month in the NICU, while the other spent 6 months, and was woken up every 3 hours). We thought we might never get them on a schedule to be able to share a room! Dr. W had them sharing a room and sleeping 12 hours a night within 6 weeks!

I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone with multiples, along with his other book. My twins are now 2 years old and continue to take one nap a day and sleep 12 hours at night. Because of his sound recommendations, my twins are easier than any child I have ever seen. No tantrums, no fighting bed time, and I am so grateful!

Barbara

12/26/09

I had a singleton first, and we used the Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book to sleep train her. (Sleep train is a harsh description as it invokes images of a screaming baby and stressed parents but this is NOT how I’d describe this method) Because I had previous experience with the Weissbluth method we had an advantage in sleep training our twins. I found while the twins’ book offered some practical detail about twinfants, and dealing with common concerns related to prematurity, it lacked the detail of its predecessor, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.

The Weissbluth method focuses almost entirely on the premise that rested babies sleep better. You need to toss out the age old notion that if you keep your baby up, they will sleep longer and better at night. This simply is an old wives tale not unlike putting cereal in your infant’s bottle. Weissbluth focuses on preventing bad habits from starting and getting your baby down in their crib sleepy but awake and allowing them to drift off to sleep by themselves. I was skeptical at first, particularly because he says that babies can’t comfortably stay awake for more than 90 minutes. BUT ITS TRUE, after 90 minutes all of my children reach a state of irritability, where they seem to want to nurse and be cuddled. With my first child I mistook this cue to mean that she was hungry. I was nursing her every 90 minutes when I should have been napping her.

All in all I HIGHLY recommend the Healthy Sleep Habits method, but I suggest the parent of multiples buy the original book, Happy Child, and skip Happy Twins. It just didn’t have the detail and step by step instructions like Happy Child had and I still use my Happy Child book as quick reference when one of the kids hits a funny sleeping stage.

FAQ’s about being a mom of multiples.

- Yes, my twins shared a crib until they started moving around. They tended to snuggle close together so I had to put a barrier between them in the crib to reduce the risk of SIDS and them accidentally smothering each other.

- I put them in separate cribs in the same room at 5 months.

- They really do ignore each other. One does not wake the other when they cry in the middle of the night

- When one wakes for a night feeding we always woke up the other one and fed them too to keep them on the same schedule.

- We keep their room at about 65 degrees

- We give them a bath every night before bed but instead of trying to wrangle the baby tub we bought the 2 of the spongy things and put them in the regular bath tub. It is faster and they like the water.