When you first bring your twins home and have to feed them once every three hours, it may be hard to believe that one day (possibly even one day soon) you may be able to get a full night’s sleep again. There are no magic tricks and you don’t have to be a super crafty parent to get your twins sleeping through the night.

Getting your twins to sleep the whole night through will allow you to get a good nights sleep and get your babies on a regular night time schedule.

In this article, we share 5 simple steps to getting your twins to sleep all night long, finally reuniting you with a good night’s rest.

What is sleep training?

Sleep training your baby is the act of allowing your twins to fall asleep naturally at night and allowing them to soothe themselves back to sleep when they wake throughout the night.

Should you sleep train your twins?

Many parents choose to sleep train their babies because it helps the babies develop a night time routine and begin sleeping through the night, allowing the parent to sleep and better tend to babies many needs throughout the day after a good night’s rest.

How To Sleep Train Your Twins

1. Feed both twins a larger bottle.

A slightly larger bottle before bed will help keep babies full throughout the night so they won’t wake up early for an additional feeding. This is important as they’ll be coming from a phase of eating every 3-4 hours and sleeping through the night will require a change to their feeding schedule.

The larger bottle doesn’t have to be huge, just one or two ounces more than they’d get during a typical feeding.

2. Do tummy time with the babies right before bed.

Tummy time is when you place baby on their tummy and allow them to practice lifting their head. It’s important to do tummy time with baby a few times throughout the day.

Even a few minutes of tummy time can help tire your baby out and get them ready for bed. Tummy time is exercise for your child so making sure they’ve gotten at least a few minutes of exercise will help them fall asleep faster.

3. Wrap both babies in a swaddle.

When you lay babies down to sleep the act of placing them in the bassinet or crib can feel like they’re falling out of parent’s comfy arms and on to a cold pad. Wrapping baby in a swaddle helps keep baby’s arms close to their body as if they’re embraced in a warm hug and keeps them comfortable throughout the night.

You don’t have to spend money on an expensive swaddle, especially in the early days. It’s easy to wrap the babies in a thin baby blanket folded into a triangle and wrapped around the babies body.

4. Place twins in separate bassinets.

Sleep training twins can seem like a difficult experience. Wouldn’t one baby wake the other throughout the night? Placing your babies in two separate basinets will keep the movements of one baby from interfering with the other baby’s sleep.

5. Turn on a white noise machine.

A white noise machine can serve two purposes. First, it signals to your baby that it’s time to fall asleep by giving them some soothing sounds to fall asleep to. Second, the white noise in the room will muffle the sounds of one baby crying so the other baby can continue to sleep.

This white noise machine was recommended to us by friends to add to our registry and we’re so glad we added it! You can control the volume from a loud white noise to a whisper, change up the sounds to play lullaby or rain and even turn on a dim night light to make it easier to navigate the room without putting a light on at night.

6. Leave twins unattended until they fall asleep.

It’s important to leave your babies alone while they fall asleep. When the baby sees you they will cry out to you to pick them up, but when they know that it’s bedtime and no one is coming for them, they’ll get used to falling asleep when placed in their bed.

Leaving twins unattended doesn’t mean that you never look at them. If they’re crying after you put them to bed, you can watch them with a baby monitor . This is our favorite baby monitor because we can watch both babies at night time with the nigh vision lens and we can hear them from our bedroom. We purchased right after the babies were born and it’s lasted us 7 months and counting.

7. Maintain the same night time schedule every night.

It’s important your baby develops a daily routine so you know what to expect from your baby and your twins know exactly what’s coming next. Over time, they’ll begin to fall asleep around the same time each day. They’ll know it’s bed time when they’re placed in their bassinet or crib. They’ll also learn how to soothe themselves to sleep faster with less crying because they realize it’s bedtime once they enter their bedroom and the white noise machine is playing the same sleep sounds they’ve become accustomed to.