More nap trouble

We have successfully pushed naps back to the afternoon and both kids are pretty consistent with getting at least an hour's worth of sleep. It's not quite enough, but I'll take it. The trouble is that no matter what time I put them down they play in their cribs for over TWO HOURS. Today they've been in their cribs for about 3.5 hrs and they only fell asleep about 20 minutes ago. I usually leave a book in there, but the book gets thrown out and they jump up and down and play and chat forever. I have been progressively moving their naps back by 1/2 hr hoping that helps but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Ideas?

 

You are doing a routine? We go upstairs and do a shortened routine of their bedtime routine. Also, I make sure it is dark in there. DO you have some sort of music box they can fall asleep too? We have the music box from their mobile for them to listen to and it calms them down. Another thing, I would move it back towards right after lunch when their bellies are full and they are more likely to want to sleep. They can get overtired and that revs them up. The No-Cry Toddler sleep solution has a bunch of other things you can do to make them sleepy. I will write a list out tomorrow night when I have the book next to me. Basically at this age, all you can do is make them drowsy and hopefully they will start falling asleep.

 

Hi - i had a similar problem with my little ones at that age and ended up setting up a playpen in a different bedroom and having my son sleep in the playpen in that room, while my daughter stays in her crib in their room. At night they sleep like normal in their room together in their cribs. I don't know why but when I tried to nap them in the same room they just ended up talking to each other and playing - which they don't do at night for longer than 10 min or so. As soon as I separated them for naps they both slept really well. Not sure if that would work for you but may be worth a try. Good luck - I think Mom's of twins really need the naps!! <_<

 

I think the PPs have given you some great ideas: dark, white noise, sleep routine and possibly separating them. I just thought I'd mention that after my guys transitioned to 1 nap we had several weeks of these sorts of shenanigans. <_< We just had to be patient and consistent, and they did start sleeping longer. They were taking naps of less than 1 hour for a while and were super cranky, but then they started to extend their naps. Now they're pretty consistently sleeping 1.5-2 hours at naps, and sometimes even longer!

 

We are down to 1 nap and it's pretty dark in their room... it's not perfect because we're waiting for new blinds, but it's pretty dark. Our routine is to read a story, get tucked into sleep sacks they get a book to read and lights out. It takes about 10 minutes. I think that separating them might be the only solution because they have just decided that naptime = playtime, and that it's super fun to pass stuff back and forth between cribs and throw a party. I have to get my PNP back from my parents house and try separating them for naps this week.

 

That is a fabulous idea. :good: I've often wished I could separate my guys (esp. for naps) because they have really different sleep schedules. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

 

Jen, you got some great ideas from PP's, I just want to wish you good luck! Let us know how you make out!

 

We got a foot of snow here in the last 24 hrs so I won't be driving over to get my PNP any time soon! Today I took all their books and toys away and let them CIO for naps and that worked a bit better.. there was no ammo to play with. They did chat for a while, but afterward they settled down for a good solid 2 hr nap.

 

Oh gosh, I hope our boys don't start acting this way soon. For a few months now its been pretty easy. They wake around 6:30am, eat lunch at 11am, go down for nap at 11:30am (with only 5 minutes of talking/fussing if that). And most days they are zoning out if not nearly falling asleep during lunch time. But if they ever do start delaying naps and feeding off of each other I'm at least glad their cribs are in opposite corners of the room, LOL. In the beginning a lot of people were like "don't you want them to be near each other??" While it is sweet to think of them cooing at each other between their cribs, my main thought was how to keep them from waking each other up! LOL Which is why they napped in separate rooms until they were over a year old! But once their naps became fairly consistent we put them together then too (they've been together in the nursery at night since 6 months).

Anyway, good luck!

 

I was going to say to move the nap UP by 15 or so minutes. They're probably overtired and cannot settle. GL!

 

Separating is working! I have two quiet kids at noon.. and that hasn't happened in weeks!

 

Yahoo!!! It's 1:30 and they've been sleeping for an hour already... this honestly hasn't happened in months. Usually they're just thinking of settling down right now and they might be asleep by 2. This is great.. I don't want to get too hopeful, but this might just work out and then we can reclaim part of our day and actually go somewhere in the afternoons! :banana:

 

We're going onto TWO hours now! This is a small miracle. Sorry for posting updates every 10 minutes, it's just very exciting for me! :lol:

 

:yahoo: that's great to hear Jen!

 

Good for you! Don't you love it when things work out, especially at naptime?

 

I do.. today didn't work out quite as well. Miles didn't go down because he had a dirty diaper. But Austin slept really well and Miles mostly just played in his PNP, so that was good!

 

That's awesome! :yahoo: I really need to see if we can build on an extra bedroom for the boys.... :unsure:

 

I found that even just moving their cribs around in their room, so that they are far enough apart that they can't pass things through helped considerably, this way they are still going to sleep in their usual night time places, and we dont have to worry about sleeping a new place, which might be too exciting to fall asleep in.

 

Moving cribs around is next on my list. We have to get the window replaced in their room, so as soon as they come to install it I am going to reconfigure their whole bedroom. We still have the change table and recliner in their bedroom and it's pretty cramped. I'd like for them to be able to play in there!