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4 month schedule

4-month-old twins sample schedule.  See how real twins utilized an eat play sleep schedule at 4 months of age. #twins #4monthsold #4months #eatplaysleep #eatwakesleep #schedule #sample #babywise Team-Cartwright.com

I know I’ve only done this baby thing twice, but each time four months has been a bit of a challenge.  The frenzy of the newborn time has passed.  The baby starts to spend more time awake and no longer just sleeps anywhere and everywhere.  Wake times get longer and suddenly we have more time to fill.  This is where I think the schedule gets serious.  And just when I am really wanting to get our routine even more solid, we are hit with sleep regressions, growth spurts, mental leaps, teething…  You get the gist.  It’s a busy time!  I remember this being the time with Ben when I was frantically googling sample schedules to figure out what to do with all of this.  I am so happy I have more experience this go around as the girls were already on a decent routine.  It isn’t completely perfect.  Babies change and grow so fast at this age it can be hard to keep up!  But it is working for us.  So I thought I would toss my current four month old schedule out there into the interwebs and I hope it helps at least one other mom out!

Sammy and Ali- 4 months old!

(I want to note this is just for the girls.  Ben’s schedule weaves around in there too, but that isn’t my focus today.)

7:30 am: The girls wake up.  Either I let them finally get up, or I wake them up.  They have their first nursing of the day.  After they eat I get them dressed.  Sometimes we head out shortly after they get up, for playgroup, to go to the park, or some other errand.  Otherwise they get to play with their mobile.

8:50-9am: They head up to their first nap of the day.  It varies in exact time based on what I am doing and how tired the girls seem.  They nap for about two hours.

11am: I wake the girls up.  If they are already awake they can get up as early as 10:45, but I try to keep them in bed til 11.  The girls nurse, and we get ready to head out for our activity of the day.

11:30-1:30pm:  This middle of the daytime is where we have the biggest variance.  It is the one time of day we consistently get out and about.  So while the girls could do another set nap during this time, we don’t.  If we are home, they get a catnap in their cribs or bouncers.  (And by catnap I mean about half an hour or so.)  If we are out they doze in the car and on the go.  This middle of the day nap is one of the early ones to not be needed anymore, so I have chosen not to stress on it.  It happens if and where it will.  I do try to pay attention to their sleepy cues and give them the chance to rest as they need it.  Beyond that this is when we play, practice sitting up, have tummy time, that sort of thing.

1:30-2pm: More playtime.  If we are out I aim to get home between these times.  This is usually when the girls chill in their bouncers while I get Ben into nap time.

2pm: Another nursing session. The time between feedings gets shorter and shorter as the day goes on.  This is in part because babies tend to just do that.  It also happens so that it works into the rest of the family’s activities better.  I have found it easier to feed the girls a little earlier than try to stretch it out and have them fussy from hunger.

2:30-4:30pm: Afternoon nap.  This is my time.  All three kids are in naps.  We don’t have a proper eat, play, sleep cycle before this nap, but my goal is to have a time in which all three kiddos are napping.  The timing just didn’t work out any other way for this to happen than to feed the girls both before and after this nap.

4:30pm: The girls get up.  They eat again. It is only two and a half hours after they ate, but it works better to feed them early, rather than have them hungry during dinner time.

5-6:45pm: More playing.  The rest of us have dinner.  In the nicer weather we try to get outside a little if we have time.  Otherwise it just family time.  The girls may practice sitting up more and have more tummy time.  This is also a more laid back time where we get to just cuddle them more.

6:45-7pm: Get ready for bed.  The whole family heads upstairs and I nurse the girls while Pat gets Ben through his bedtime routine.  Then we all do prayers together on the big bed and say goodnight.  The exact bedtime varies depending on how long the girls eat.  Usually they are in bed by 7:30, but if they are still eating I’m not going to stop them at a certain time.

9:30pm: Dream feed and back to bed.  We dropped this feed at 19 weeks.

After the girls go to bed they are pretty good at sleeping through til morning.  We are still dealing with the early wake a little bit, between 5 and 6.  They babble to themselves and each other.  They eventually fall back asleep until the desired wake time, but for a while, it was getting to be too much.  Dropping the dream feed seems to have really helped them sleep better during this early morning period.  They still wake up once or twice, but they are much better now.  They are quieter and fall back asleep faster.  I think they just need a little time to get all the way past that early wake.

There you go, an average day in the life of a four-month-old.  Pretty exciting, huh?  😉  Of course, not every day goes perfectly.  Some days we have things like playgroup or appointments that mean we are out during designated nap times.  I love being a second-time mom because those things don’t throw me as much.  I still try to protect nap times as much as possible.  (Protecting feedings is easy- the girls don’t let me miss their meals. :P) I really think consistent eating and sleeping times are so important.  And even at this young age, I can see a difference in behavior when the girls are well rested compared to when they haven’t had good naps.  They are such happy girls when they have had a chance to sleep!!  It is worth the sacrifices to put their sleep first.  Being a second-time mom I also have the benefit of seeing Ben thrive with a consistent routine.  All the work to get naps sorted out it worth it!

4-month-old twin sample schedule. Here is a day in the life of baby twins. #babywise #sampleschedule #infanttwins #twins #twinschedule Team-Cartwright.com

I hope this helps some other mom out there, frantically googling like I was a couple of years ago. 🙂

Kim

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Renae

Sunday 22nd of September 2019

Hi! This is a great resource thanks! One question: we follow the eat,play,sleep method as well and it seems like my twins have caught on quickly and do great helping themselves fall asleep without a feed. My girls are just 4 months and they still seem to need to wake up between 1 and 3 for another 5 oz bottle. But could this be just a little fuss and not any need for more food? When did you drop your nighttime feed or did it just happen naturally?

Kim

Sunday 22nd of September 2019

Good question! A few possibilities here. 1) If your twins are consistently waking at the same time every night, it could be because of habit, not a real need for food. The easiest way to test this is, of course, to not feed them and see if they go back to sleep. If they have had healthy weight gain and are on their growth curve, you can reasonably assume if they are truly hungry they will let you know. So one option is to soothe them with other methods first, and if that doesn't work try a feeding. 2) I would also look at how much they are eating during the day. Does it seem like they are getting enough? If not then it makes sense they will want to eat at night, so you could check your day time schedule and see if additional feedings are needed to get the calories they need. 3) Are you using or have you considered trying a dream feed? A dream feed could help extend how long your babies sleep. 4) You could taper down the amount you feed your twins in the middle of the night. If they are taking 5 ounces it could be because they are that hungry, or just because that is available. So you could try only feeding 4 ounces. If that soothes them enough to sleep til morning go with that for a few days. Then try 3 ounces, etc. until you aren't feeding at all. This can gently wean them off of needing that feeding as well.

I hope some of this helps. It can be tricky to determine if your twins are waking from habit or hunger. Habit we want to stop but real hunger we of course want to feed. See which of these options sounds like it will work best and give it a go. Let me know how it works! You got this!

Cara

Thursday 22nd of August 2019

I’ve been scouring the internet for twin Babywise info... your site is very helpful! I have twins who are just turning four months and what was a predictable, wonderful, Babywise routine, is shot to bits! I know they are they are transitioning schedules, but it's anything but smooth. I'm fighting to keep them on the same schedule now and unsure of what they need for awake times. It seems to be about an hour but it makes. 3-3.5 hour schedule challenging, especially since I have to have a 6:15 awake time and cannot put them to bed earlier than 7:30.... I know it's been a few years since you first posted this, but if you have any advice, I'm desperate not to have everything fall apart that I've worked so hard for.

Kim

Thursday 22nd of August 2019

Oh man, 4 months. I'm not going to sugar coat it, 4 months is tough. It was the hardest month for my twins and my singleton. But I say that with a good twist. If this is the hard, you know the end is in sight. 5 months was great for all 3 of my kids. But we need to get there first.

Are they having trouble with nap time or just overnight sleep? If it is short naps, it is probably the 45-minute intruder. This is big at 4 months when their sleep cycle is changing to the 90 minute cycle. So I would work really hard on keeping your anchor naps the most consistent you can. The main anchor is your afternoon nap and the secondary is your morning nap. Do what you need to do to get your twins to nap in their beds during that time as much as possible. Shush pat, pacifiers, whatever you need to do. They will still need other naps during the day, but I wouldn't worry as much about them. I know that is hard for us babywise moms, but if the good habits are in place for the sleep times that stick around for a long time, you won't find a problem with bad habits.

Non-anchor naps can be however you need them to be. Bouncer, in the car or stroller as you are on the go, it works. What this does is get the necessary sleep into your babies so they aren't overtired, but it means you aren't spending your entire life fighting for sleep. Evenings might still be cat naps and off and on dozing. That worked just fine for us as long as I woke my twins up for bedtime routine.

Are you doing a dream feed? With needing to go to bed 'late' for their early wake-up, a dream feed could be great. You can make your last daytime feeding session a little earlier so you don't have to push bedtime back at all, but still get enough food into them.

Let me know if these seem like things you could implement, or if you have already tried it and need more ideas. Let me know how it is going too! Good luck, you got this. :)

Jane

Monday 13th of November 2017

Thank you for posting all your twin schedules...they have been so helpful for me!

I wanted to ask you, how did you deal with the early morning waking? My 4.5 month old girls are struggling to make it to 7. They go to bed at 7pm, dream feed and 10, and then have been waking at 5:30. Sometimes they fall back asleep on their own but usually after battling pacifiers and trying to keep them asleep we are barely making it to 6:30...so that's when we get up. I would love nothing more than to get them past this!

Thanks for any advice you may have:)

Jane

kimcartwright

Monday 13th of November 2017

I'm so glad the schedules are helpful! That four month time is a tough one. Fortunately, five months was awesome with all three of my kiddos. I have a few initial ideas. At 4.5 months you could try dropping the dream feed. It sounds counterproductive, but not waking them up then could actually extend their sleep. Of course, you need to take into account if they actually need that feed or if they can go without it.

Are your girls still getting an evening cat nap? How is that going? Ours was very casual. It was not worth it to me to try to put them to bed, so we just put the girls in their bouncers. They could doze as needed, but it wasn't a deep enough sleep to make bedtime harder. You could try that and inch bedtime back a tiny bit.

What time do you feed your girls for the first feed? If you think they are actually hungry then you can treat it as a middle of the night feed, but try giving a smaller amount if their first meal of the day is at like 7 or 7:30. Over time as they get bigger they will be able to last until the goal wake time.

Another option is to just keep doing what you are doing. I know, that is an annoying answer to hear. This is a good time to replace the pacifier as needed. At 4.5 months they probably aren't doing much. But you could try unswaddling and giving them a safe soft toy to look at or touch. If you don't mind popping in and out you could add a short tummy time. This doesn't help them sleep longer, but it does teach them to be happy and calm in their beds when they wake up. So not the primary goal of sleep, but an important secondary aim.

Let me know if any of this helps. I'll keep thinking for you. Keep up the good work!!

Kimberly Cartwright

Tuesday 7th of June 2016

Hi Cole! I'm so glad this might be helpful for you! I have not noticed any drop in supply with the girls going twelve hours between feedings. I didn't pump at all during those hours because, like you, I don't like pumping. I also wanted to be ready in case the girls woke up and wanted to eat at the dream feed time. They have seemed satisfied with their eating even with the twelve hour break. I do plan to add a pumping session back in to maintain a freezer stash, but I haven't yet and haven't had supply issues. I will note it took my body longer to adjust when we dropped feedings this go around. Nothing major, but it took took an extra day to not be uncomfortable. Good luck! All the work to get them in a routine is so worth it when we get the 7-7 going. I love it! :)

Cole

Tuesday 7th of June 2016

Hi- thank you for posting this! I have 1mo old twins so we're a few months behind, but you're right - the frantic search for twin babywise schedules sometimes comes up dry, so I'm glad you posted this for my future reference. Anyway, I do have a question: do you pump at all between their 7pm and 7:30am feeds? I am NOT a fan of pumping, and did not have a problem with supply when my two other (singleton) children started STTN 12hrs, but I wasn't sure if it worked the same way with twins. I've been hoping that when the glorious day comes that they sleep 7-7 I won't have to pump at 9/10pm before I go to bed, but I also worry that perhaps the twin supply couldn't hold up going that long between feeds. What is your experience?

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