The trial and error of getting 3 babies on a consistent sleep schedule

Every time I share sleeping videos of the triplets in my Instastories, I get a lot of really kind words and messages asking how the heck I get 3 babies sleeping all at the same time. Like everything kid related, there’s no magical solution - and it helps I have “good babies” - but I figured I’d share a few tips (nothing revolutionary) on what I did.⁣

To start, these babies were born at 34.4 weeks and spent the first month of their life in the NICU. It’s bright, noisy, and they were constantly being poked and prodded for monitoring. This isn’t the sole reason my babies are good sleepers, but I have always assumed it helped. ⁣
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Other than that, Jay and I were very adamant about eliminating any sleep crutches (minus a white noise machine) as soon as we brought them home. We rather one or two weeks of hell trying to get them safely sleeping on a schedule than months of dealing with the aftermath of transitions and breaking habits over and over. ⁣
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Right away we eliminated swaddling. We would still swaddle for our very inconsistent naps the first few weeks, but never once routinely swaddled them at night. They went right into sleep sacks, which are safe to use into toddlerhood. The AAP states swaddling should stop at 8 weeks or at the first signs of rolling, whichever comes first, so we felt it was silly to do it for only another 4 weeks anyway. ⁣
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Because of the limited space in our previous 500sqft house, we could only fit one crib in our bedroom (or anywhere really) and had the babies separated by Mumbellis so they still had their own sleep space. We later learned the Mumbellis were NOT a recommended safe sleep space, but at the very least they still helped the babies learn how to sleep independently in preparation for their transition to their own cribs in the new house. We never once bed-shared with them, as the AAP’s stance on this is that it’s unsafe, so only giving them one option - their crib - ensured that they knew there wasn’t something “better” to them. I’m a firm believer in consistency, and made sure we tended to their needs/cries without breaking routine. Unless in severe distress, we never picked up, but instead replaced their pacis and talked/put a hand on them to let them know we were there. ⁣

By 3 months old, we had a bedtime routine that consisted of bath, PJs, bottle, bed at the same time every night. This routine evolved to include solid foods once we introduced those, and to this day they are in bed by 7PM. ⁣
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By 4 months old, we were able to get them on a nap schedule. We used the Huckleberry app to track their sleeping/wake habits for a few weeks and then used their recommendations on what times to put them down for a nap. With some light tweaking to get everyone on the same schedule, we perfected the times and remained strict about sticking to them every day. ⁣
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They naturally had pretty similar wake times, but there were definitely days where I’d be soothing a crying baby who wanted to get up an hour earlier than their siblings. Combatting this meant slowly pushing that baby’s wake times further out in small increments, or shortening naps they would take so they’d be a bit more tired and willing to go down when the next nap time approached. Combine that with keeping awake babies in their cribs until nap time was over (as long as no one was in distress) and it wasn’t long before they were all on the same schedule.⁣
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As some have noticed, our triplets nap in complete daylight without the need for blackout curtains. This was just another thing we attempted to do without first - another sleep crutch eliminated - and to our surprise it was never an issue we came back to. Similar to never bed-sharing, not giving them an alternative meant that it was the only thing they’ve ever really known and learned to adjust accordingly (kinda like how we were never given the option to parent with less than 3 babies at the same time 😂). ⁣
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Long story short? Consistency, patience, and a routine is key! Not every night or nap was (or is) always perfect. There have been plenty of times where I’ve replaced a paci 100 times and wanted nothing more than to give in and take an easier way out, but I knew doing so would undo all the hard work and amazing progress we’ve made. One hard instance is so worth the multiple days or even weeks of pretty predictable nights and naps. ⁣
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It’s been a crazy learning curve diving into parenthood, being so inexperienced, and having to do it with 3, but I’m so proud of what we have accomplished thus far! ⁣