I really don't know what else to do here. I am getting less sleep than I ever have, even when Emma or the babies were newborns.
Last night I think I got 3.5 hours total. I was in bed from 7:30pm-6:00am, but awake with babies crying or feeding for all but those 3.5 hours. It was mostly Elsie, too -- she just gets hysterical if she cannot nurse to sleep. Its been 5 days on the new routine and she still cries for upwards of 2 hours at a shot. Patting, singing, cuddling and breathing on her and shushing doesn't do a thing. She does the same thing if I put her in the Amby in our room. Eventually Delia wakes up to the noise, and I break down and feed them both, since its been two hours or more. They feed, sometimes I can get Elsie to sleep again and she'll sleep for 45 minutes, then wake and start over.
Delia, on the other hand, is doing really well. I think she only had 2 wakeups all night (maybe it was just one long one?). Lonnie got her down with a bottle and cuddles, and she slept pretty long until she woke during one of Elsies scream fests and ate. I think after that she cried for 30 min or so until I put her in the Amby, where she fell asleep after 3 minutes and is still sleeping (4 hours later).
I guess I will try a few more days of this, but its really hard to continue without getting more sleep. The only thing I can think of, in my sleep induced fog, is to hire night help. I really didn't want to but I know a lot of twin parents do in the early days, especially. Even if its just the early stretch, from 5:30-8 am or so, when Lonnie is gone and Emma is up, so I could sleep in, though all night would be awesome as well. Maybe if they could learn to go to sleep with someone else, away from me and the milk, they would get to resettling better and sleeping longer? I know a few postpartum doulas, so I guess I am going to see about it. It costs a lot, but at this point I feel like it would be worth it, just to get some sleep.
If not, I think I might have to go back to having Elsie sleep on me again (ridiculous, I know!) because I honestly was getting a lot more sleep then, despite brief wakeups every hour or two.