Ask almost any parent of multiples whose children are out of infancy, and they’ll tell you the secret to maintaining their sanity in those early days was getting those babies on the same schedule. Think of it this way: It can take up to an hour for just one feeding, and newborns have to eat every two to four hours. If you feed them one at a time, you’ll be going back-to-back for much of the day (and night). You could probably keep this up for a day or two, but after about a week you’d be a resident of Crazytown.
So, while it seems counterintuitive to wake up a newborn who is sleeping peacefully, the reality is that in order to survive the ensuing chaos that comes with caring for two or more new babies, you need to get them eating and sleeping at approximately the same time. When one baby wakes to eat, it’s time to wake the other. Some families are more regimented than others — waking one or both babies to eat exactly every 2 to 3 hours. Others just let one baby take the lead and follow a more approximate schedule. Once they’re up, feed them (ideally at the same time), burp them, and do a diaper change. By that point, they (and you!) should probably be ready for another nap.
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