How to get them to nap for more than 30 min.

I would love to get the girls on a good nap schedule. They are all over the place with naps. We have their feeding and bedtime schedule figured out. Sometimes, they'll nap great and other times not. Ellie loves to take catnaps all day long. She gets extremely fussy because she's so tired. I'd love to get a good morning and afternoon nap going. I put them down around 2 hours after they get up. Abby slept for 2 hours this morning and Ellie only slept for 30 min. Is this normal at this age. When do naps become more pretictable?

Thanks,
Christie

 

I would try putting Ellie down a little bit earlier (15 mins?) Sometimes they are over tired and do not get into a good sleep pattern.

I think at that age my girls were still only about to stay awake about 1.5 hours if that after wake up. Drove me crazy!

 

QUOTE(Kellytwinmom @ Nov 10 2008, 11:15 AM) [snapback]1064163[/snapback]
I would try putting Ellie down a little bit earlier (15 mins?) Sometimes they are over tired and do not get into a good sleep pattern.

I think at that age my girls were still only about to stay awake about 1.5 hours if that after wake up. Drove me crazy!


I agree with pp. Also, my DD went through this phase of catnaps all day for 4-6 weeks beginning at 4 months. It was just a phase and something she quickly grew out of.

 

Wish I had some help to offer, mine are doing the same thing.
Ugh!

Hope you get an answer.

 

I dont have an answer for you either. Mine are doing the same thing, neither of them nap. When I do get them to sleep (which takes about 45 or longer sometimes of soothing) they may only sleep for 30 minutes. Sometimes they wont go down at all, I keep trying, trying, trying and they wake up when I am trying to put them down or something.... it just gets frustrating beyond belief. I know they are tired so I keep trying. I was able to sooth them to sleep a week or so ago but now that really doesnt work without great effort! Nursing them to sleep sometimes works, sometimes they wake up when I put them down. I know that people and diffferent books say, dont nurse them to sleep. At this point, whatever works.

For the last couple of days, I have begun to feel like I just can't sooth them, cant make them happy. It seems to be spiraling downwards.

I hope this is a phase. Good luck!

 

QUOTE
I dont have an answer for you either. Mine are doing the same thing, neither of them nap. When I do get them to sleep (which takes about 45 or longer sometimes of soothing) they may only sleep for 30 minutes. Sometimes they wont go down at all, I keep trying, trying, trying and they wake up when I am trying to put them down or something.... it just gets frustrating beyond belief. I know they are tired so I keep trying. I was able to sooth them to sleep a week or so ago but now that really doesnt work without great effort! Nursing them to sleep sometimes works, sometimes they wake up when I put them down. I know that people and diffferent books say, dont nurse them to sleep. At this point, whatever works

You may benefit from using a heating pad. I figured out that my babies were used to sleeping next/on top of someone. I used a heating pad to heat the surface they were going to nap on and that made it so they didn't wake up right away. I just can't get mine to stay asleep for any length of time when they are home for me. They sleep/nap fine for the sitter. She says she doesn't do anything special.

Maybe she is lying to me... Hmmmm. LOL

 

At that age I put them down every 1.5 hour for a nap too... no matter how long they slept. They usually got at least one decent nap in the mix.

Naps are still all over the place now though, so who knows.

Edit : I used the swing a lot until they were 7 months or so just for those times they woke up after 30-45 minutes... I'd put them in the swing and often they would sleep another 30 minutes until the other one woke up. Worked great to keep them on the same schedule.

 

ITA about getting them down about 1.5 hours after they wake from the morning. The morning nap for us was the first one and then the afternoon nap fell into place about 6 months. We took 3 naps a day until 9 months.