Colin’s Story - workshop dad
A year ago our twins weren't quite 1 yet so we came into the sleep training course a little early as they were still at the stage where night-feeding was important. Even though we took your lessons seriously and stuck to them every night. We were very strict with our bedtime routine and always strived to stick to the "be a boring parent" during any sleep disruptions through the night.
Over the past year we've gone through phases of one or both of them sleeping through the night but even up till the start of this year we weren't quite done with some level of comforting being required a few nights of the week. That comforting would sometimes be a small feed but had slowly started turning into being sitting in their room for an hour waiting on them settling in their cots. We never fell into the trap of having to hold them to get them to sleep and trying to put them down without waking... but sometimes it wasn't far off that to get them to sleep.
Come January of this year we knew something needed to change so we went back through the notes from the sleep training course and realised there was still a couple of things you'd taught us which we weren't quite brave enough to try out. The main one was stopping the night feeds - the boys had got used to waking up and getting a bottle of milk. So we took our brave pills and started just giving them water through the night and honestly... within a couple of nights they were both sleeping through the night without issue!
We're now two months on from mixing up the bedtime slightly: no more milk in the middle of the night, pushed back their bedtime slightly, letting them have some quiet play after their bath and now we've two amazing little sleepers. We're actually now at that dangerous point where we've started assuming we're going to get a full night's sleep!
I think the best bit though is even though we weren't sticking to the plan 100% for the past year, what we've instilled are the self-settling skills. Now once I'm done reading them a bedtime story, even if they're still rampaging about in their cots, I can just leave the room and there are no meltdowns. We can hear that sometimes they're still messing around for a while after we leave, but there are no tears. In fact, I can feel the twin who is closest to the bedroom door pushing the door closed behind me as I leave. This has helped massively with lunchtime naps as well as they were really hit or miss for a looooong time.
So thanks again from Aimee and myself for doing a great job teaching that course. Turns out if we just do exactly what you say it all works out great 😁
Oh and as a side note if any parents of twins are wondering if your course varies at all if you've two wains sleeping next to each other I'd say no. Just stick to the plan but be prepared, as with everything with twins, to do everything twice.
If you’d like to join one of our sleep workshops take a look at our calendar to find out when the next one will be: Calendar