You are either lucky or unlucky when it comes to your child's sleeping patterns. You can expect the night feeds to continue for a month or so. Then, the discipline starts. I guess to a certain extent we were lucky - after the night feeds ended, Emma and Becca went into bed awake and slept until 10 a.m. every day. Then at five months they needed more and more coaxing to go to sleep every night. We eventually cracked it at 11 months and they now sleep all night from 9 p.m. till 9 a.m.!!

How did we do this? We eventually listened to the good advice of our health visitor. It took months for us to believe that the "controlled crying" technique would work. In theory, it's easy, in practice, it's the hardest thing you will ever have to do to your children.

The controlled crying technique has been recommended by lots of health visitors and professionals. You are best to talk to your G.P. before commencing, incase there are any other reasons why your baby wont sleep.

First of all - put your baby to bed awake (try to have a nice relaxing bed time routine - bath, light music etc.) Say goodnight and leave the room. They will inevitably cry - leave them!! Let them cry for a specific length of time (try ten minutes to begin with) Go back in and calm them and leave again (this will let them know that you haven't left the country - although you may be extremely tempted to at this stage!) Leave them again but this time for a slightly longer period (12 to 15 minutes does the job) Continue this until they are asleep (it may be a long night) Each night increase the length of time you are leaving them. If they wake up in the middle of the night, try and leave them to cry themselves back to sleep (this is hard if your twins are sharing a room, but do persist)

Eventually and hopefully they will be in a predictable bed time routine and give you a better nights sleep.

Needless to say, this method may not work or there are problems related to letting them cry! Emma went through a phase of crying so much that she gagged and vomited badly. Once she realised that this got her the attention she needed so much, she started doing it on purpose. As soon as we took her into her room, she would gag a little to try and make herself sick! This is extremely upsetting and disturbing! We had to ignore her vomiting and clean her up quickly and get her back into bed! She soon learned that it was getting her nowhere! Keep tissues, a spare sleepsuit, a sheet and a new blanket to hand. Make cleaning up and changing as quick as possible as not to disturb them too much.

If nothing seems to be working and the sleepless nights continue, get in touch with your doctor and explain how bad things are (especially since you have two or more) In extreme  cases they can prescribe sleeping drugs for the child for a short period. Your local health centre may have a nightline and are only a phone call away. You can also phone TAMBA's twinline for help with sleeping. You can also leave a message on the discussion board or email me.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!