Could use some Advice on Napping - Is this a twin thing?

Hello everyone. I was pretty frequent in the first year forum when the boys were little, but things got a little crazy, and I have been gone for a while. Now that I am back, and the boys are 13 months, I am popping in here for some advice on napping.

My boys have always been GREAT sleepers. They always slept more than my friends kids, and I am running in to some issues recently with their naps. They would go to bed around 7, and wake around 7 (sleep through the night). They nap at 9/930 and 1/130. They would usually sleep anywhere from 1-2 hrs at each nap. The boys are used to being put in their cribs, and they go to sleep on their own. Sometimes a little fussing, but mostly playing for anywhere between 10-30 minutes, before they would both quiet down and be asleep. Well, this past week, they began to take up to an hour to quiet down. I don't know if it is a twin thing, and because they are together, they talk and play. But, 2 of my friends suggested I drop their first nap. I have tried it for the past couple of days, and I am not sure if it is the right thing to do. I was told it can take a few days for them to get used to. But it has been hard. First of all, it is more difficult to occupy them for so many hours in a row in the morning. Around 10 they get kind of fussy. Also, not sure if it is a coincidince, but the past few nights, they have been waking between 9 and midnight, when they previously slept throught the night.

After 2 days of skipping the first nap, I did try giving it back. I put them down at 9, they were alseep within 5 minutes, and slept for 45 minutes. But, when I put them down at 1, they took an hour to go down, and slept for an hour. The next day, I went to 1 nap again, because my friend strongly suggested I keep at it. I am so confused!!

Sorry for such a long post, but I am really confused, and looking for some advice. I wish this stuff was black and white, but I know it isn't!

Thanks in advance for any wisdom on this issue!

 

I did not drop my two's nap until they started to completely boycott their morning one. Reading your post, I am wondering if you could try putting them down for their nap 30 min to 60 min later for each nap and see how it goes & how they do. Good luck!

 

the "average" age for kids to drop to one nap is around 15 months. some kids do it quite a bit sooner but others do it quite a bit later.

i agree with Nancy that if may just be that they're ready for a longer awake period between sleeps now. we went through a time where my girls were still doing two naps a day, but their bedtime was getting gradually later & later because their awake periods were getting longer and longer. eventually, we were doing 10.5 - 11 hours of night sleep & they starte boycotting one nap or the other on a regular basis so we made the switch to one nap. when we switched to one nap, we also had to switch the bedtime much earlier than it had been (they were then doing 13 hours of night sleep + 1 nap a day).

if you don't mind switching back & forth between 1 & 2 naps a day, depending on their mood for the day, that can sometimes work well until they finally settle into a solid one nap a day pattern, rather than committing to one schedule or the other.

are they fussing for that hour it takes them to go to sleep or are they just babbling/playing? if they're just babbling/playing, i say keep the schedule you have & don't worry about it. if they're upset though, the schedule probably does need some tweaking.

so my suggestion would be to either go with two naps a day, with longer awake times + a slightly later bedtime or, if you'd like to continue with one nap a day, try an earlier bedtime. GL!

 

I would probably increase their wake time before naps. My two are still on 2 naps a day. We have gradually been increasing their wake time because they weren't tired after 2 hours in the morning anymore. Currently they wake up around 7 or 7:30 a.m. They take their first nap around 10:30 a.m. (3- 3.5 hrs of wake time). Then they take their second nap around 3:30 or 4:00 pm. This nap is usually only 30-60 minutes long. They go to bed around 7:30 p.m. I hope you figure out what works for you. If you Google "transitioning to one nap" or something similar, there are some good articles about how and when to transition.

 

Hmmmm, Just wanted to say I'm right here with you. I'm having the same problems! 1 nap/2 nap, and new night wakings except mine are in the early hours of the morning! Thanks for posting this, and for everyone's responses! Not sure I have the answers, but I guess this is just a difficult time of transistion. It seems like people say this, and boy is it true... "Just when you get your babies figured out and a routine down, they change it on you!"