Montessori with 6 Month Twins (what it’s really like)

We made it to and through 6 months with identical twins! What a feat! Our boys are now 7 months old and I wanted to pull together and share some of the things that went on during their 6th month!

Let me preface this by saying that everyday is still very different, but we have settled into some regular rhythms! Each boy is uniquely themselves but have many similarities at the same time (especially their physical appearance).

Physical Milestones in the 6th Month

By 6 months and throughout this month the twins have been getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Augustine is able to pull himself, now quite quickly, across a room. This isn’t your typical cross crawling, but he sure has figured out a way to travel a great distance. They are not yet sitting unassisted, but I do see their core strength continuing to develop!

They love to plank! Augustine does this thing where he will lift one foot off of the ground while he is in a plank position, it seems like quite the workout!

Both boys are rolling in both directions! For a little while, the older twin would get his arm stuck when rolling from back to tummy, but he figured it out! All this movement makes for quite the show when it is time to get ready for bed, they are so quick!

They push themselves up with their arms and hold their head very well. Both boys are able to grasp and hold on to a variety of toys, they bring everything to their mouth to explore! They have begun transferring objects from one hand to the other.

6 month old babies playing on the floor

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Floor Bed Naps with 6 Month Old Twins

With all of the new physical skills that they boys are working on they love to practice and perfect those skills while getting to sleep. Currently their wake window is about 2-2.5 hours. I go based on their cues. They tend to get fussy when they are ready for a nap.

Before nap Time Routine

When they are showing signs that they are tiered I will nurse them if need. Put on a fresh diaper, go upstairs to their bedroom, put on sleep sacks, close the curtains a little bit (not totally dark but not with all of the sunlight coming in) Then I turn on their sound machine, offer their pacifier, say “Goodnight, I love you!” and walk out of the room. Thankfully, they seem to like this time in their room and aren’t usually very sad. They also always have each other which I think brings them a lot of comfort!

Nap Time Environment

The boys now sleep in their room all of the time. We have 2 mattresses on the floor as their Montessori floor beds. Currently Silas is in a crib sized mattress and Augustine has a twin because he has just been a little more mobile and I found that giving him more space encouraged him to stay on his bed more often.

However, most days they both get down off of their floor beds (independently) and move around the room before they fall asleep. They love to go over by their wardrobe and open and close the drawer.

8 out of 10 times they are able to get themselves down to sleep independently, but there are definitely days that I go in their and nurse them again or help them fall asleep by patting their bottom. They will also fall asleep on the floor. I may or may not go back in and move them to their bed, it just depends.

Are you curious about a Montessori nursery? Check out this blog post if you are!

Nap Time Schedule at 6 months

They are napping 3x a day most days. It seems that the first 2 naps of the day are around 1.5 to 2 hours (depending on our level of activity from the previous days) and then they typically do a little cat nap before dinner time. That before dinner nap can be a challenging time because it seems harder for them to fall asleep. But somedays naps are not good at all, and that’s just how it is!

I don’t worry too much about keeping them on the exact same schedule. I definitely don’t wake the other baby if one of them wakes up and the other doesn’t. Most of the time they do wake up at the same time or within 30 minutes of each other. I realized quickly that I can’t control the sleep of two babies, so I just try to hold everything loosely!

The Introduction of Solids

I was so excited for the introduction of solids with the twins! I knew it would be messy but so fun to see them experience all the new flavors and textures. We use our Stokee Tripp Trapp high chairs which bring the boys right up to the kitchen table during meal times.

I found that the principals of baby-led weaning aligned quite well with Montessori. Check out this article about the differences between baby led weaning and the traditional method of spoon feeding purees.

Plate with a quarter of a tomato, a banana spear and a cucumber spear
Tomato, banana and cucumber prepared for blw

Nighttime Sleep with 6 Month Old Twins

Around the 5 month mark, bedtime started to get earlier (between 7 and 8pm). The season of cluster feeding came to an end and we seemed to have a clearer bedtime routine. We determine when bedtime is by the time they wake up from their last nap, so we put them down somewhere between 6:30 and 8pm.

Our Bedtime Routine

We eat dinner as a family, then clean the boys up and they get some time to play with their daddy while I clean up dinner. I nurse the boys 1 more time before bed. We go upstairs to our bedroom and change diapers, put on lotion, get into pajamas and their sleep sack. Then we go into their room, make sure the curtains are shut so that it is nice and dark. Then I sit down and we read “The Going to Bed Book” and say a few bedtime prayers.

Each night my husband and I alternate who lays each boy down. We turn the lights off, sound machine on and lay them down on their bed. We will offer their pacifier to them. We say goodnight and then leave the room. It seems that they know the difference between naps and bedtime and tend to stay on their floor beds more often when going to sleep for the night, but not always.

I have found that on nights that they are over tired it makes falling asleep more difficult and then I may go in and nurse them or sing them a song to help them fall asleep.

Middle of the Night

Let’s just say this, sleep has never been super consistent from night to night with the twins. I let go of all of my expectations of sleep very early on with twins. Each boys wakes between 2-3 times a night…which makes for quite a lot of wakings. We have not done any formal sleep training yet for the middle of the night. When they wake up I will go in their room and nurse them back to sleep. Usually they go right back to sleep, sometimes they don’t and then I may leave but go check on them every 10 minutes or so until they fall back asleep. I have found that sometimes I can be an obstacle to them falling asleep since they have learned to do it on their own so much of the time.

What If they wake up at the sAme time?!

Sometimes they wake up at the same time, sometimes they don’t, it really just depends. If they are both sad and up at the same time during the middle of the night I will still only feed one baby at a time but then my husband will come in and rock the other baby until I am done nursing the other.

Montessori Play at 6 Months

Every month gets more fun! This month they were moving towards objects in their environment, grabbing toys from each others hands and laughing at each other. So much exploring of their environment happened this month!

Some of their favorite toys this month were:

Travel and Overnights with 6 Month Old Twins

It was June while the twins were 6 months old, so we had lots of things on our calendar. We went out of town for a wedding, went to visit friends and stayed up at the cabin. Considering all of this change and variety, I think they did very well. But, traveling with twins is not for the faint of heart! Here are the tips I would give to anyone else traveling with young twins!

  • Pack all of the things you need to keep as much routine and consistency as possible!
  • Give yourself extra time to travel. Allowing for breaks for the babies to feed and move around!
  • Expect that naps will not be as great (unless you have really good sleepers)
  • Keep the day after you get back home free from activity (if possible). I found nap schedules were always unpredictable after being away for a few days and not getting awesome sleep. It takes a few days for them to get back into the rhythm again!
mother holding 6 month old twins reading a book
Bedtime routine while traveling out of town.

I really did enjoy their 6 month. It was full of many new experiences for them and us as a family!

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