Anyone stagger sleep schedules?

Hi everyone,

We are in a sleep rut like I can't believe. Both babies resist sleep and struggle to go down. We have consent nap and bed routines but it is still a struggle to get both down successfully. I have tried splitting then up but that is also tough to manage at the same time. So today I am trying them staggered so at least I can concentrate on one baby at a time. It means no break or anything but I figure it's worth trying, especially seeing as their internal clocks seem different. Has anyone else done this? How did you do it and stay sane? If you put them down together, how did you manage?

Thanks in advance,

Amy

 

Hmmm. No especially wise advice for you. Mine go down fairly easily, although they are on a slightly staggered nursing schedule (I feed one, then the other, almost always my faster/stronger nurser first.) I've found that putting my heavier sleeper into the crib first and letting her settle down to a still sleep while I nurse the lighter sleep helps the lighter one fall asleep easier, bc she's not next to any shuffling, moving, etc. Have you tried pacifiers? It really helps my babies relax.

 

When mine were young (8 weeks and a bit more) they were on opposite schedules. You are right, it was nice only having to 'deal' with one baby at a time, but you hit the nail on the head.. I got NO break and I needed some. It was much nicer when the kids were on the same schedule, even if it was short naps.

 

I did stagger them BUT only while I was working on their sleeps, put the easier one to settle down first, then the other and I also didn't do it for long (like a few days I think) I found it exhausting.. At one stage, I had one upstAirs, and one down... I was up and down like a yoyo all day!

The only other way that I did stagger their sleeps was when I also staggered their feeds, but of course as pp said you will have no break then but if you reallly need to work on their settling, that's a short-term possible solution. HTH