Last updated on August 12th, 2024 at 05:12 pm
Nat chats with Sarah Beth Moreau, mom of infant twins + 2 singletons, about how raising her infant twins on a wiggly schedule has helped her state of mind as a twin parent, plus if Nat should finish the last 2 episodes of Bridgerton.
Today’s podcast is sponsored by Toddleroo by North States. Take 10% off with code TWINS10 at northstatesind.com. Toddleroo by North States makes safe and stylish baby gates, play yards, playmats, and childproofing items that are great for twins!
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Raising Infant Twins on a Wiggly Schedule
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Sarah is a mother to a 6-year-old girl, 4-year-old boy, and 10-month-old boy/girl twins. Sarah and her husband are both optometrists and own Performance Vision, a practice that focuses on neuro-optometric rehabilitation. Sarah also is an assistant high school soccer coach. She and her family enjoy going to Disney and running races together, sometimes both at the same time!
A Consistent But Flexible Schedule for Newborn Twins
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Top 3 Pieces of Advice for Other Parents of Twins
- First and foremost, follow your gut. If you think your babies need something (a rigid schedule, a relaxed schedule, more comforting, self-soothing, etc.), you’re probably right. You know what your baby needs and you should trust yourself.
- Your babies are different people and may need different things. One baby may need more attention, while one may need more food. You’re not being unfair to the other twin. You’re simply giving each child what they need.
- It’s going to be hard, accept it. Raising children is hard and twins are definitely twice as hard. But if you accept that it’s going to be hard (and for a period of time, it will be REALLY hard), then you will probably be more at peace and enjoy it more.
Need some baby safety training? Take the Twiniversity Complete Baby Safety course, offered on-demand. Includes video modules on infant, toddler, and child CPR, first aid, and common medical ailments, plus car seat installation and safety and childproofing your home. Click here to learn more!
Top 3 Things You’d Like Our Listeners to Take away After Listening to Your Story
- The most important thing I want people to know is that you don’t have to live and die by the schedule. When I first found out I was pregnant with twins and began obsessively googling, pretty much everything I found (other than horror stories about twin pregnancies and deliveries), was about the importance of a strict schedule. It talked about rigid feeding schedules and waking one baby up when the other woke up. This terrified me. I already had 2 babies and was pretty relaxed when it came to a schedule. Of course, they ate and slept at certain intervals, but if we wanted to go do something during nap time, we simply adjusted nap time. And if I needed to leave to run an errand, I simply nursed the baby before leaving even if it wasn’t necessarily time for them to eat. I didn’t think I would be able to do that with my twins and that scared me. That is what had worked best for our family for so long and I didn’t know how to be a different kind of mother. Once the twins were born, had gotten good at nursing, and had regained their birth weight, we decided to try and let them set their own schedule. There were a few weeks that were REALLY hard and we didn’t get much sleep, but we felt it was the right thing to do for our babies. And eventually, we learned what each baby needed and we were able to make a loose schedule for our family to follow each day. Our babies are flexible and so are we.
- This brings up the next thing I want listeners to take away from my story and that is: follow your gut. You know what your babies need. If you think one baby needs to sleep more than the other or one baby needs to eat more, you are probably right. And you should listen to that. The first few days when we let them set their own schedule, I felt that my Twin A (boy) needed more sleep than my Twin B (girl). If we woke him up to eat when his sister woke up, he either wouldn’t wake up or be grouchy. If we let him wake up on his own, he was super happy and chill and ate really well. And 10 months later, he is still the same way. Most days he will sleep 1-2 hours more than his sister.
- And the last thing I hope that listeners take away from my story is that every baby and every family is different. There is no one and perfect way to be a parent. I have friends that have very rigid schedules and that works for them. They’re happier that way and their children thrive on routine. Our family is happier with a more relaxed schedule and my husband and I are confident in our roles as their parents. I hope I can give other twin parents the confidence to be the type of parent that feels right to them.
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First Year With Twins
Are your twins in their first year? Check out our free First Year with Twins resource to learn tips, advice, and ideas for getting through your first year with twins!
Baby Safety Course
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Subscribe for FREE to our other podcast, the Twins Tale Podcast, giving you an inside look at feeding schedules, sleep struggles, and all the highs and lows of raising twins from birth to college age.
Take a class! Twiniversity offers online expecting twins classes, a breastfeeding twins class, and a baby safety class including CPR, first aid, car seat safety, and childproofing. Click here to check out our online classes.
