Scheduling meals and naptime

Hi everyone. This is my first post. I am the mom of 5-month old boy/girl twins.

I am struggling with when to schedule the twins' naptime and feeding time. I usually feed my babies four times a day (not sure if I should be feeding them more, but it seems to satisfy them): at 7:00 am, 11:00 am, 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm. I try to put them down for naps twice a day.

At what times should I be putting them down for their naps, and for how long? Their naps, more often than not, happen at about 9:30 am and then again at about 1:00 pm or so. Their morning nap normally lasts about hour-and-a-half to two hours, and their afternoon nap lasts about one to one-and-a-half hours (if I'm lucky). My girl gets very fussy every day at around 3:30 - 4:00 pm. Am I supposed to squeeze in a 3rd nap between their 3:00 and 7:00 pm feedings?

Sorry if I'm rambling. I hope that made sense. HELP!

 

Mine were still doing three naps a day most of the time at that point, and they weren't really on a "schedule" as I am breast feeding as so I was nursing on demand which makes it a little bit different to schedule.

Sounds like they are taking two GREAT naps and maybe just need a third little cat nap to get through to their bedtime? I would try it (maybe around 4 or 4:30 pm?)and see if it helps

 

my girls also were still taking 3 naps a day at that age - the 3rd nap was usually really short, only 30 - 45 minutes (on the odd day it went long, i would wake them after an hour to protect bedtime). you could try putting her down for a nap & see how it goes.

 

Ditto that my babies were taking three naps at that age. Go for it and see what happens.

 

We were doing 3 naps a day too. That last nap would start btwn 330 and 4 depending how how the rest of the naps went prior to the 3rd. We would do solids at 315, so was sure to get them in. We bottled fed at 630/7, 1030, 230 and 630..... We are starting to phase out the 3rd nap. If I want to get out of the house, I do it in the later part of the day, this way they can grab 30 mins or so in a car ride.

Good luck!

 

Mine were still taking three naps at that age. The third nap was more of a catnap but it was pretty important! There is no set time you should be putting them down but as I recall they still weren't staying awake for much longer than an hour and a half-two hours at a time.

 

Hi, sounds great to me..how did you get yours to eat at 7pm and then not again til 7am??? please help...mine are 10 weeks old but were 6 weeks early and they ar on the 7, 11, 3, 7, 11, 3 schedule and i am dyig to drop the 3 am and then the 11 pm...how much do yours eat at each feeding?

 

Dude there is no way you can drop the night time feedings for babies that small. you're just gonna have to get used to not sleeping all night, like the rest of us. :fool:

 

ya i that 3 am feeding might be there for a while. It will pass though! My babies are 6 months, and my daughter started sleeping through the night at about 3 months and my son at about 3 1/2 months. I would always top them off at 10pm and then feed again at 2 (sometimes 1) but then i noticed i was always having to wake up my daughter to eat so i just stopped waking her and she was sleeping through the night. Then with my son i would just try soothing him back to sleep and he started just goin back to sleep and then sleeping through the night. A lot of babies don't sleep through the night because of habit. they get into a routine of everytime they wake up they are supposed to eat, but a lot of the time they wake up and just dont know how to go back to sleep so they cry and then momma or daddy figures they are hungry. But maybe in a couple weeks just try soothing them back to sleep for 10 minutes and if all else fails then feed them. But they may just not know how to go back to sleep. does that make sense? haha sorry im really bad at explaining things lol also, when i was feeding them 4 oz during the day i was feeding them 6 ounces at night and in the morning. Then when i got to 6 ounces i started feeding them 8 oz at night and the morning. that seemed to help a lot.

to the original question, YES! add a nap! haha my babies are 6 months and they still need to sleep 3 times a day or im going to have some cranky babies for the last part of the day!

 

also i dont know if this helps but this is my schedule for my 6 month olds.

7am-wake up feed 8 ounces

830-nap for about an hour

1030-oatmeal and a fruit for each

1130-nap for about an hour to 2 hours if im lucky (sometimes 3! which is really long but sometimes it really helps haha and it doesnt seem to mess up the rest of their schedule)

130 or 2-fruit and a veggie

3ish-nap for about an hour or 2

530 or 6-meat and a veggie

730-8 ounce bottle and bedtime!

i went to the doctors yesterday and he said they really only need 16 ounces of formula. That completely against everything i read on the internet but so far it seems to be working. I will still sneak in a 4 oz bottle here and their if they dont seem satisfied but for the most part this is our schedule! hope it helps! good luck!

 

haha! i like this response! lol

 

Hi
Congrats on having great nappers! We have three naps as well. The third nap is a cat nap (45 min between 3-4:15). They usually go to bed at 6:00 because they are usually only awake for about 90 minutes to 2 hours.

 

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions and comments. I am going to try putting in the third short nap and see how they do. My girl just gets so fussy every afternoon -- hopefully she'll "agree" to a short nap.

As for the nighttime feedings: I didn't eliminate the "3 am" feeding until they were almost three months. For a few weeks, I continued the "dreamfeed" at 11 am, and then finally dropped that one at about the four month mark, I think. At each feeding, I tandem breastfeed them for about 20 minutes and then supplement them with 4 oz of formula. Just last week I also started them on rice cereal twice a day.

 

I think it sounds like you are doing great! My little guys need that late afternoon catnap too. My DD was also the same way.

It's funny because they sleep all night, wake up for an hour or so and then nap again for like two hours! I want that life! HA