nap help

it is very frustrating when i have two crying babies that both need to be put down for naps. it is the only time that i lose my mind and have problems with my little angels. lol :girl_devil:

i have tried everything.
1. putting them down when they are drowsy. (they just lay there and after about 20 mins, they whine).
2. i try rubbing their backs when they are in the cribs. (doesn't work)
3. swings
4. swaddle
5. boppies
3. driving around in the car, holding the baby or walking with the stroller is the ONLY thing that works great, lol!!!

please help.
LOL. i know some said it's their age and at some point they should fall asleep on their own or eventually i'll have to try CIO

 

We have struggled some with naptime too. Interested to see the replies!

 

I don't know if I have advice that can help you out but for me, naps did not work out until 6-7 months. Mine at that point went to a 2-3-4 schedule and DH and I had to do CIO at 6 months to help them to nap. Prior to that, naps were so stressful around here :hug:

 

Have you read HSHHC (Healthy sleep habits happy child) ??? Sort of a bible on sleep on this site. At your age of child some recommendations would be:

1. make sure you have a dark room. Buy curtains to darken room or apply something to the windows. (I've heard even cardboard will work)

2. Put them down 2 hours after they wake. The more they sleep the more they want to sleep. If they wake after 45 mins (the 45 mins intruder) you can leave them say another 20 mins and see if they return to sleep or give them a quick, no talking, warm bath and right back to bed.

3. Keep to a schedule and then they will start to get sleep at the same time each day. So if they wake 7 am (nap at 9 am) then again at 12 , then again at 3 pm. See it as a quiet time. They can do what they want for that 45 mins but it is a down time. (remember nap time in school and we were 4-5 yrs old then )

4. write out your schedule for the day. decide EAT-Play- sleep OR Play - EAt- sleep.


5. take a good week and do this without change. It seems an inconvenience at first to "have to" be home at a certain time, but when you get two babies sleeping it really frees you up for so much alone time.

Heather

 

Your ticker says your still BFing. We nursed to sleep at that age and for many more months to come!
We didnt start a solid "routine" of naps/bedtime etc until ours were close to 9 months old and we have great sleepers! We've never done cio.

 

OK. So after they wake from a nap, they go down 2hours later? then 3, then 4? the 2-3-4 schedule?
my problem is getting them asleep. they only want to be held to go to sleep or in a stroller.

 

Yours seem a little young for the 2-3-4 schedule. Mine are just able to do that routine now. At 5 months mine could only do 1.5-2 hours of wake time.

 

Okay, naps are my absolute obsession. I have rehearsed, read, obsessed, and thought about nap tactics for months. And we have practiced, practiced, practiced. Do I sound deranged? Here are my tips. (by the way, if you have not read HSHHC, get it - the original version - not the version for multiples)

Not the case for every baby, but my babies prefer darkness whenever they are sleeping. Napping in the dark has not deterred them from recognizing day from night. Make the room dark with a nightlight and put on white noise - even if it is a fan facing the wall - just use it for the noise, or get one of those little sound machines. At 5 months my LOs were sensitive to outside noises, after months of caring less.

Once my LOs go down (and I have been doing this since your age), they are in their crib for 1 hour, unless there is a real need to take them out. I nurse them right before naptime (I don't rock and nurse them like at night - I feed them in the living room and then put them down), I put them in their sleepsack, lay them down and tell them "it is time to go to sleep", and immediately leave the room and shut the door. For my babes, rubbing them or lingering only makes them mad and want to be picked up. Be efficient, and authoritative, not mean of course, but more of a "friendly, loving, mom-knows-best firm." It took a couple of days of this for them to get the picture. They whined and even screamed a little but never more than 5 mins because they were tired and they just needed help understanding that. I am now at the point where they stay in bed 1 hour from the time they fall asleep. Occasionally, this means they may whine or play for up to 20 mins or so and finally drift off - then they stay in their crib 1 hour. Many times they sleep 90 mins - 2 hours which is awesome. Sometimes they wake up after 45 mins and I hear them but they no longer cry - they just play and babble until time for me to go get them.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you don't have a "natural", naptime takes lots of practice and sometimes you will feel like all you are doing all day is laying them down. But one day the rhythm will click and you will lay them down and they will just go to sleep. I was waiting too late to lay them down. 2 hours is the max mine can stay awake in the first half of the day, usually at 90 mins we are ready. Once they start rubbing their eyes you are on the verge of overtiredness so get them to bed. Better to lay them down once you start seeing that "stare into space" look or sighing. Each baby has their own cues. Sometimes they don't seem tired at all, but say 90 mins have passed, try to lay them down anyway, you may be pleasantly suprised.

My LOs didn't follow a schedule at this age, however, I wrote one out as a guide to give me a goal each day. Alongside it I wrote actual times that things happened...doing this for a couple weeks helped give me direction - because I was really feeling lost.

Now, we nap in separate rooms because I get longer naps, however, we will be merging soon again. So many things to take in consideration, but you will get there. Mine no longer napped in swings at that age and that was hard to swallow. Personally, in experience, trying to hard to get them to sleep made it harder on me. Sounds like you are doing everything - maybe you should set up some goals for your process and just start laying them down. Since they are 35 weekers, I don't know if this is too early or not. They will need practice - we weren't streamlined until closer to 6 months. Once I decided that I was just going to lay them down and deal with it for 1 week things got easily better. It was a long week, don't get me wrong. I still have never done full CIO with naps. If they get upset, which is a rarity, I actually go in there a couple times in a row and tell them it is time to go to sleep, never rubbing or picking them up - just resetting them. They get the picture very quickly and usually give up. Also, if I get one up and they are very cranky and seem tired still, I feed them a little to make sure they are not hungry and put them right back down. This happens occasionally but a poster once said they must get up in a good mood, and I totally agree with this. This is assuming of course their health is fine.

Sorry this was so rambling...I am typing fast. Good luck to you and get that book if you can. There are all kinds of bits of advice in there. It is wonderful. Good luck - it will get easier.

 

thank you for the replies.
right now they are in their cribs and just moving around like crazy and whimerping. generally i pull one out, rock him and then do the same with the other. they sleep separatley, too.