I do prefer my twins to share the same schedule as the rest of the family, but it took us awhile to get everyone on the same page. At first the girls got to take charge, eating and sleeping whenever they felt it was best, but that just really didn't work very good since my husband and I never got ANY sleep. We went with it for the first few months and then decided things had to change. We started with bedtime and worked our way thru the rest of the day backwards. Once we could get them to go to sleep areound 9pm and not wake up again until the next morning when everyone else was ready to get up; things started working out a lot better. We were happier because we were getting more sleep and our son was starting to get happier because we had the energy to interact with him again.
Once we had the bedtime routine worked out, it seemed like everything else just kinda fell into place. Now we all get up around the same time, eat at the same time, and all the kids go to bed a the same time as well. It is great to be able to share meal times, though eating and feeding two kids at once can be a challenge. My husband usually takes care of encouraging our 3 year old son to eat his meals and I usually feed the twin girls while I eat my meal. In our household we have found that eating, playing, and going to sleep are the only times that we try to make our children do the same things at the same time. We have tried giving the girls a bath at the same time (and that day will come) but, for right now they are just a little too big to both fit in the baby bathtub together and a little to small to put them in the big bathtub. We also try to change diapers at the same times, but as the twins get bigger they don't seem to potty at the same time as much anymore. At naptime, even though they go to sleep at the same time, they do not always sleep the same ammount of time. We have decided not to insist that they share the same exact schedule, but we do want their schedule to be fairly close just so we can keep some semblence of sanity in our household.
What have you found works best for your family?
Once we had the bedtime routine worked out, it seemed like everything else just kinda fell into place. Now we all get up around the same time, eat at the same time, and all the kids go to bed a the same time as well. It is great to be able to share meal times, though eating and feeding two kids at once can be a challenge. My husband usually takes care of encouraging our 3 year old son to eat his meals and I usually feed the twin girls while I eat my meal. In our household we have found that eating, playing, and going to sleep are the only times that we try to make our children do the same things at the same time. We have tried giving the girls a bath at the same time (and that day will come) but, for right now they are just a little too big to both fit in the baby bathtub together and a little to small to put them in the big bathtub. We also try to change diapers at the same times, but as the twins get bigger they don't seem to potty at the same time as much anymore. At naptime, even though they go to sleep at the same time, they do not always sleep the same ammount of time. We have decided not to insist that they share the same exact schedule, but we do want their schedule to be fairly close just so we can keep some semblence of sanity in our household.
What have you found works best for your family?
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