Daytime naps/patterns/routines

Hi
I have 2 twins (B and G) who are around 12 weeks of age. I am just wondering when I should be diligent about day naps in regards to where they are sleeping. In the beginning when they were between 1 month and 2 months I let them sleep where ever (couch, bed, swing, car seat etc..).

Now, from 2.5 months onward I want them to sleep in their crib for day time naps. Night time sleep is fine and they both go down b/w 8-830 pm and wake up around 8 am with one feeding at night.

My struggles are with day naps. DS usually goes down in the crib for day naps with some "chirping" but eventually falls asleep- I try to put him down drowsy or else get him to sleep while I hold him and transfer him to the crib at which point he wakes up a bit and it's a 50/50 if he falls asleep or starts to cry (at which point I start the soothe to sleep routine again).

DD, on the other hand, has a wicked hard time falling asleep and staying asleep in the crib- simply b/c I believe she's over tired. I actually believe she gets tired after 45 min to an hour of waking while DS gets tired around 1.5 hours of waking. With her I either have to hold her and soothe her to sleep and let her sleep while I'm holding her for a good 5-10 min before putting her in the crib. About 80% of the time she wakes up instantly crying or within a half hour crying- I either try again or put her in the swing where she can nap for hours.

So having them nap in the swing is a concern for me but am wondering if I should be breaking that habit or let it be since they are sleeping more. I have tried stopping the swing or lowering the motion but they wake up within minutes.

 

Hi! My babes (boy and girl as well) are 12 weeks too so yay for us for making it this far!

I have them napping in their beds now, mostly because my 4 yr old was waking them up downstairs. I basically just do what we would do at bedtime with them to get them settled for naps, minus the bath (close the blinds, turn on the sound machine, brief snuggle and swaddle and into bed. Sometimes I have to go in once or twice to pop a pacifier back in but not usually. The time we run into the most trouble is if they're overtired and mine too seem to need different amounts of sleep. We try meet in the middle and put them both down after about 1 - 1.25 hours.

If having them in the swing, etc works though I'm all for not rocking the boat, especially when it comes to sleep! I think it is true though that the longer they nap out of their cribs the harder its going to bw to get them in there. Good luck with whatever you decide!

Lindsay

 

I don't remember exactly how old they were but I followed their lead as to when i started putting them in their cribs to sleep. At some point I found they slept better in their cribs. It was about that time that they stopped falling asleep just anywhere but needed 'cues' that it was time for nap. I did the drowsy but awake thing also and it took a while but in the end it was well worth it. Both my kids now self-sooth and are good sleepers. (knock on wood

I also dealt with one needing more sleep than the other. A couple of things worked well for me. I always put DS (who needed more sleep) to bed first and sometimes I would let DD stay up a few (~15) minutes longer. As they got older I also had days (maybe once every 10 days) where i would break the rule about keeping them on the same schedule and just put him down every time he looked at all sleepy. It mades for a difficult day for mom but it is worth it to have two happy babies again. I think they were a little older when i started that.

My LOs never liked the swing so I can't speak to that. I found for them, with any movement, it seemed like they took a good nap but they were crabby and tired afterward.

If you haven't read 'Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child' by Marc Weissbluth it is worth the read. My SIL told me about that book and I have no doubt it is largely responsible for how much I enjoy my kids.

ETA- I know at that age my little ones HAD to be back down for a nap within one hour of waking for the day! that first nap was critical. It is almost a continuation of night sleep and therefore more restorative. after that i could stretch the awake time longer than one hour but not the first nap.

 

We tried to sync up naps as much as we could, but there were periods where one kid required longer naps/slightly different timing than the other. It's frustrating, because you are a little more house bound, but definitely workable. It sounds like your daughter is getting overtired, so I would try putting her down much earlier than you are now. You will probably find that by putting her down earlier she'll get longer more restful naps.

Also, as far as I am concerned if the swing works, just go with it! Sleep is super important and they're too young to really be developing bad habits of any kind. Longer term as you start to drop naps you can think about changing over to cribs, but for now I say don't frustrate yourself.