My nap issue:

Well it is obvious I have two different sleepers… makes since two different people… BUT I need them to be on the same schedule… sorry… I just need it… Seth & Nathan go down for their morning nap at 9:00. Seth and will sleep over an hour mostly about an hour and half. Nathan, sometimes only 45 min, lucky if he hits an hour… because of that… Nathan really is ready for a nap @ 12 (lunchtime)… but Seth is not ready until 1:00... were Seth, again, will sleep an hour and half sometimes a tad over 2 hours… Nathan 45 min to the mark… then that’s the last and biggest problem… Seth is fine not sleeping until we put him down for the night at 6:30 because he took a long nap… Nathan needs a catnap at 4 (I give dinner at 4:30) I will wake Nathan if he sleeps past 5 and he just “skips” dinner… BUT Nathan isn’t ready for bed at 6:30… he would like to stay up till 7:00… we have been putting Nathan down at 6:30 w/ Seth but he complains (doesn’t cry) for a good 30 min… this is going on two weeks… I thought Nathan would “get w/ the program” but it is not happening… Nathan will also sleep longer in the AM, but I go in and feed awake Seth at 7am… and that usually wakes Nathan… WWYD I am getting tired of my tired baby… if he was a singleton this wouldn’t be an issue, but he’s not…

so what would you twin moms do

Thank you,
Elizabeth :crazy:

 

I confess that some days, when my boys are off schedule, I actually enjoy time alone with each baby. To me, it's relaxing not to have my brain wrapped around two babies at the moment. It's a break!

I guess if it were me, I'd probably try to get them on the same schedule. Just keep being patient with them, and yet also, keep consistency. It's helped me, actually, that I can't get out of the house very easily. So we are here at home, no running errands around to mess up their schedules. I think it's just a matter of time. . . lots of time. Wish I could offer helpful hints, but I am just another harried twin mom!

 

That's a really tough question..

Often times I have one that wants to nap longer. If one's still sleeping after the other wakes - I usually wait about 15 mins and then wake the other. I hate doing it, but it keeps them on the same schedule.

During the night is a different story. I'll let them sleep as long as they want - even if I have to wake up an hour later to feed the other [like last night].. unless after I'm done feeding one, the other is shuffling - preparing to wake up.

 

very similar issue here too! if the morning nap gets messed up the whole day is. though i do spend 1 on 1 time with them while the other sleeps and enjoy it, i do need some ME time since dh is hardly home anymore to help out. i dunno how to fix it to be honest. youre right, 2 different people with 2 different sleep needs so i dont force it. i figure if i can get them down for naps at the same time in the morning, and at least get an hour to myself to get things done i'll survive the day. usually the rest of the day their naps overlap and i get 15min if that to myself before someone is awake again. grrrr!

 

I went through the same thing at the same age with Evan and James. James' naps extended to 90 minutes or more while Evan was stuck at 45 minutes. I started sneaking into his room (I separated them for naps at this point) at about 43 minutes and I'd pat his bum, rock him, re-insert his soother, shush him - whatever it took to get him to sleep a little longer. Eventually he was able to get into a new groove where naps lasted more than 45 minutes. On days when I just couldn't extend his nap, I'd let him be cranky leading up the afternoon nap - I knew he needed to go down earlier than his brother, but, like you, I couldn't face having my kids on different schedules. Sometimes we split the difference - if Evan was ready at 12 and James was ready around 1, I'd put them down at 12:30.

I know it's hard but as they age they get into a more regular sleep pattern (at least for phases - until the next hiccup comes along) and you'll see naps become closer to the same length.

My suggestion is to do everything in your power to extend that nap past 45 minutes. It might take a couple of weeks on your part, but he'll learn to sleep longer on his own if you get him into a pattern.

 

my thoughts...
1) have you tried putting nathan down later for his nap so that they wake around the sametime and are ready for the afternoon nap at the same time?

2) when nathan wakes up earlier for the am nap, have you tried to keep him up until seth is ready, so that they both go down at the same time and maybe since nathan has been up longer maybe that will help him sleep longer for the second nap?

good luck!

 

I had similar issues a couple months ago. For awhile they were on the same nap schedule, then they got off of it somewhere between 7.5 - 8 months where they were on two totally different schedules. Very similar to yours in that one baby would sleep 45 minutes tops each time and the other would sleep 1 - 2 hours. There were days that one baby was up at all times. I dealt with it, because at least it worked for them. But then they were fighting their 3rd nap more and more, where my son (the short sleeper) definitely needed it to get from nap #2 to bedtime and my daughter would just whine in her crib keeping him up, probably because she didn't really need it. I decided at this point, around 8 months we were going to adjust our schedule to find a way to drop the 3rd nap completely. The schedule we set has worked great in that they now nap at the same time again, my son usually sleeps longer (ok, we still have some bad days), and I don't have to deal with the stress over fighting with the third nap anymore. I decided to extend the awake time between naps to 3 hours. It seemed hard at first, but they adjusted fine to it and it seems they could probably even go longer at times. I was afraid it would backfire to overtiredness, but it never did. And it helped my son sleep longer stretches. Here's our new schedule.

8:00 wake, let them talk and play in their cribs until 8:30
8:30 bottle
10:00 - 10:30 breakfast
10:30 - 11:00 I let them crawl all over the first floor of the house (if I put them in the play yard they'd whine for sure), but they love exploring and they forget all about being tired. Many times I take them up for their nap because I've had it keeping them out of stuff. But they're still acting awake and happy as can be.
11:00 - 12:30 nap
12:45 bottle
2:30 - 3:00 lunch
3:00 - 3:30 exploration time again
3:30/4:00 - 5:00 nap
5:00 bottle
6:45 dinner
8:00/8:30 bottle/bed