[Paddles]

I've just come back from the UK with my 13 week old twins and although they adjusted really easily over there, took just 2 nights for them to be ok, since we've been back it's been a real nightmare.

We got back on Thursday and since then the girls haven't slept at all at night. Their daytime routine is the same, naps are the same, feeds are the same but as soon as night time comes they turn into little party girls and just won't sleep, and it just seems to be getting worse. Last night they didn't sleep until 5am. I got them up at 9am but what to do now - put them to bed at 9pm and gradually bring it back to 7pm, their usual bed time or stubbornly stick to normal bedtime and feed times and grin and bear it until it passes?

We're all losing our minds and I have no idea what to do to help them.. i assume lots of people have been away this summer and had similar experiences, anyone got good advice?

[MLBW]

Wow,

I just have to say that if you have twin babies who are usually already sleeping through the night at 13 weeks, you are a blessed woman indeed! Kudos to you and your family! (My son didn't sleep through the night until he was 5 months old--despite many different methods attempted)

Yeah, jet lag stinks! How long have you been back in HK? It took my son a full two weeks to finally adjust to the regular time when we flew from HK to the US. We did quite a few 5 am mornings. And there is really nothing you can do--except what you're already doing--just keep their schedule the same as much as you can. I've heard of parents who "drug" their kids with things like benadryl and stuff to knock them out--but even though I really considered it, I was never brave enough to try it.
My lactation consultant recommended giving a little bit of sweetened chamomile tea to my son when he was a lot younger to help him sleep. Maybe more moms out there have more "home remedy" tips they could share?

Hope the babies decide to start sleeping again soon.

[lolly]

I usually use Melatonin at night.

[LeahH]

Poor you, we had the same problem Europe to HK. It took 5 looooong nights to work it out - then a further week to really get back on track.

She would go down fine, but wake in the night at 12am/1am/2am raring to go, we would let her stay up for 2 hours, give her a milk feed and then put her back down (she would have a little cry then go back to sleep).

Definitely keep to the schedule as far as you can, nap/feed and bed times.

It helps to get them outside in the air and natural sunlight as much as possible in the day time - helps to acclimatize them more rapidly to the new timezone.

Liquid valerian is a natural herbal remedy for sleep that you can get at health food shops in Lyndhurst Tce, for something stronger you'd need to get your Ped to prescribe (phenergan or something with a mild antihistamine).

[mumbloxy]

It took my 18-mths 6 nites to adjust upon returning from 2 weeks in UK. His daytime upto bedtime routine is all normal as pre-trip, then he wakes at 2 a.m. to about 5. If you think about it, 2 a.m is about dinner time in UK and for the first few nites, he was genuinely hungry so we fed him a snack or baby jar food as I didn't want to cook nor did I want to start a milk habit at wee-hours. Then we just played with him and try to tire him as quick as you can. Each nite would improve by 15-20 mins. There's nothing much you can do except wait for the own little bodies to adjust, every baby is different. Hang in there, it will return to normal.

[Paddles]

Thanks everyone for the comments, we had a better night, with one of them sleeping from 7.30pm until 5am. Think she was just so tired after not having a long period of sleep for 3 days, but i hope it bodes well for tonight too - she's never done that before! The other one seems to be changing more slowly.

I might look into the herbal remedies for the next trip.