One of the hardest things about having a new baby in the house is the fact that the parents really don’t get enough sleep. This effect is multiplied when you have twins. You then have to deal with two erratic schedules rather than just one. However, there are some things you can do to make the process easier for everyone, parents and babies included.

The first thing you might want to do is try swaddling the twins before putting them down to sleep. This will help to more closely mimic the environment of the womb, as well as keep the babies from flailing around and accidentally waking themselves up. There are a number of videos and books that can teach you how to do this technique, which basically involves wrapping them up like a burrito.

It is also a good idea to try to make it clear to your twins the difference between day and night. Keep the bedroom dark at night and keep things quiet and low key whenever you have to go in to feed or change them. Using white noise to help minimize the other sounds in the room can also be helpful. This will help them to figure out that daytime is for being awake and nighttime is for sleeping.

Although some people might try to take turns when the babies wake at night, this isn’t always the best approach as it tends to mean that neither person really gets much sleep. Try setting it up so that each parent is scheduled to take care of the babies for a number of hours in a row so that the other will get a stretch of uninterrupted sleep. This way neither will end up being quite so sleep deprived.

Whenever possible, get people to help you out. This could mean hiring a nurse to take care of the babies at night, or taking advantage of the offers of friends and relatives to watch them for a night or the weekend. Having people help you out will help you to keep your sanity since you will get more of the rest that you really need.

Since you are aiming for more sleep, you need to remember the importance of taking advantage of any available opportunity. This means that you will want to sleep whenever the babies do, no matter how tempted you might be to get other things done. You can let the housework slide, and take advantage of any offers of help in this area. Raising twins will be much easier if you get as much sleep as possible.

There are a number of different tasks involved in raising twins that are routine. You do them over and over and over again. You will have a lot more time for other things (including more sleep for yourself), if you streamline these tasks and make them quick and easy to complete. You want to have the diapers and wipes handy near where you change the babies. Prepare the bottles for the night in advance to make it so that you don’t have to spend as much time awake at night. You can shorten the process even more if you have the babies sleep in the same room with you, at least until they start sleeping through the night.

Although many people like the idea of feeding their babies whenever they ask for it, or on demand, once you have multiples this can be really difficult. It is much easier to try to feed them at the same time, otherwise they might end up with alternating schedules that don’t give you any break at all for yourself. This is easiest to do if the babies are about the same size and have similar needs in terms of how often they eat.

Speaking of schedules, babies really do like to have at least some routine and structure in their lives. They like to know what is coming next, and this is particularly important with major transitions like bedtime. If you set up a relaxing and comforting routine it will help get the twins to sleep easier. Try a bath, and then some cuddling with a story.

Rather than rushing to your babies whenever they make any sound, you should also try to learn which sounds actually require your presence and which do not. You can use a baby monitor so you can hear the babies should they need you, but resist the urge to run whenever they make a sound. They need to learn to soothe themselves back to sleep.

Content guidance provided by Amy Hall, M.O.M (Mom of Multiples)