This post builds on my previous post. I have made an observation that I think may be easier to make with fraternal twins as opposed to a singleton - all babies are unique.
Duh, you say, right?
But as a first-time parent, it's easy to get caught up in the hype of "I must be doing it wrong". For example, comparing yourself to the people whose babies are sleeping through the night at six weeks, or those who can lay their "drowsy but awake" baby down and he/she drifts happily off to sleep, and you are still zombie-walking your way through multiple night wakings at 8 months.
Here's what I've discovered - it depends on the kid. Although parents of singletons may have already figured this out, I think it's more obvious with twins, because you're doing (almost) the same thing at the same time. Obviously, there are variables. But, we had a good sleeper and a bad sleeper. I followed the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins" - which was wonderful, since it says the first 4 months are all about survival, and you should put your twins to sleep any way you can. Which I did. Nursed them to sleep, rocked them to sleep, put them in a rocking swing a few desperate nights...However, we did start working on the whole drowsy but awake thing. SB? would totally crane her neck back at a funny angle and pass out almost immediately most of the time. BW? Not having it. I'll post more about sleep trials in a later post, but we did the same exact thing with their nighttime routine - and we had one good sleeper and one poor sleeper (of course, now that we are 18 months in, they have completely flip-flopped and BW is the better sleeper at the moment).
We had a similar experience with eating. We started solids at about 6.5 months. We skipped rice cereal because I was having a crunchy mom time period, and started with avocado. BW? Loved it. SB - hated it with the fire of a thousand suns, complete with coughing and whole-body shudders. We continued to offer both girls the same foods at the same meals - egg yolk, beans, veggies - with much the same result. BW will eat pretty much everything in sight as quickly as she possibly can, and SB eats likes a bird, refuses to taste foods randomly but will often like something if you can just get her to open her mouth and try it for a second...she also has a strong preference for complex flavors. Buttered noodles? Won't touch them. A boston sushi roll with some soy sauce? More, pease.
So, takeaway? Do what works for you, and what you believe is best for your kid. If it doesn't work like it worked for your friend, or your mom, or your mother-in-law - it's probably not because you failed, or your kid failed. It's because your kid is an individual, with an individual personality and quirks.
Here's what I've discovered - it depends on the kid. Although parents of singletons may have already figured this out, I think it's more obvious with twins, because you're doing (almost) the same thing at the same time. Obviously, there are variables. But, we had a good sleeper and a bad sleeper. I followed the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins" - which was wonderful, since it says the first 4 months are all about survival, and you should put your twins to sleep any way you can. Which I did. Nursed them to sleep, rocked them to sleep, put them in a rocking swing a few desperate nights...However, we did start working on the whole drowsy but awake thing. SB? would totally crane her neck back at a funny angle and pass out almost immediately most of the time. BW? Not having it. I'll post more about sleep trials in a later post, but we did the same exact thing with their nighttime routine - and we had one good sleeper and one poor sleeper (of course, now that we are 18 months in, they have completely flip-flopped and BW is the better sleeper at the moment).
We had a similar experience with eating. We started solids at about 6.5 months. We skipped rice cereal because I was having a crunchy mom time period, and started with avocado. BW? Loved it. SB - hated it with the fire of a thousand suns, complete with coughing and whole-body shudders. We continued to offer both girls the same foods at the same meals - egg yolk, beans, veggies - with much the same result. BW will eat pretty much everything in sight as quickly as she possibly can, and SB eats likes a bird, refuses to taste foods randomly but will often like something if you can just get her to open her mouth and try it for a second...she also has a strong preference for complex flavors. Buttered noodles? Won't touch them. A boston sushi roll with some soy sauce? More, pease.
So, takeaway? Do what works for you, and what you believe is best for your kid. If it doesn't work like it worked for your friend, or your mom, or your mother-in-law - it's probably not because you failed, or your kid failed. It's because your kid is an individual, with an individual personality and quirks.
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