Nap schedule

We have not been really set on a nap schedule during the day. I would like to now try and get them on more of a routine – napping at some sort of same time frame each day and if possible both napping at the same time. One is more of a power napper and the other will take pretty good naps. What steps can I take to attempt to get them on more of a schedule together or is it too late to try and make these changes?
Thanks!

 

QUOTE(Shelly @ May 21 2009, 05:02 PM) [snapback]1323453[/snapback]
We have not been really set on a nap schedule during the day. I would like to now try and get them on more of a routine – napping at some sort of same time frame each day and if possible both napping at the same time. One is more of a power napper and the other will take pretty good naps. What steps can I take to attempt to get them on more of a schedule together or is it too late to try and make these changes?
Thanks!


I started implementing so called 2-3-4 sleeping schedule around 8 month but mine is a little bit adjusted:

700-up
930 1st nap(meaning 2&1/2 hrs after they get up they take their first nap)
11 up from nap
230 2nd nap( 3 &1/2 hrs after wake up)
4 up
830 to bed.(4 &1/2 hrs after wake up)

It worked very well for us for few months now.
Good luck

 

The thing that helps us the most is to wake both babies at the same time in the morning. We used to let them sleep as long as they wanted and when one was up way before the other their day of sleep/wake time was way off. Now that we wake them together, their morning nap is at the same time. We don't have an afternoon nap yet in our schedule - the girls tend to sleep a little between each feeding (every three hours)...which is what we'll be working on soon.

 

The 2-3-4 schedule helped us out with naptime (I did not realize that was schedule until the babies put themselves on it and I read about it here).As others have suggested, I did get them up at the same time, put them down for nap 1, 2 hours after waking, nap 2, 3 hours after waking from the 1st nap, bedtime was 4 hours after waking from nap 2. Our nap schedule did not get on track until they were 6 months. I see your ticker says 8 months and I don't think it is too late to try to get them on the same nap schedule. Good luck!

 

The first step is getting them up together in the morning and starting them on the same feeding schedule. We were very fortunate that the NICU had them on the same schedule for feeding and we were able to keep that and naptimes the same. Jake always slept an hour longer (sometimes 30 mins longer) but they went down at the same time. You may have to do some kind of sleep training like CIO to get them an the same schedule.

 

At 9 months I believe our nap schedule was 930 and 130, with a 630 bedtime. I would just consistently put them down at the same time every single day, and they will get the hang of the new routine.

 

[SIZE=18pt]Let me piggy back off of this question and ask this. . .
How do you get your LOs to sleep for more than 20-30 minutes for naptime!! I going a little insane here and feel like I spend our entire weekend trying to get them to sleep![/SIZE]

 

I never heard of the 2-3-4 schedule... but as its expained above, its about what we did and it worked for us.

woke at 7a, nap at 9a for 2 hrs. up at 11, back down for nap by 2pm and bed around 7:30p to 8pm.

as for helping to get them to sleep longer... around 6 months I would just try to stick their pacifiers back in to soothe them back to sleep...

 

Two questions:

1) Are you into CIO?
2) How's nighttime sleeping going?

I was desperate about Matty being such a horrendous napper, but then I read (and had told to me many times) that you need to get the nighttime sleep under control before you can try to get a routine for naps. This was around 7 months for us. We did CIO with him at night and then moved on to naps. Mine have always needed a fairly early morning nap - 1.5-2 hrs after they get up. I would follow HSHHC's advice to leave them in their napping spots (Crib for Matthew, p-n-p in our room for Sarah) for an hour whether or not they'd go to sleep*. It took a while, but now they are pretty damn good nappers. (I am so screwed now!) Anyway, they go down at 9 (give or take 30 min) and 1 (this one is almost always right on schedule). Naps are anywhere from 60-120 min, and every once in a while Sarah will go 2.5 hrs.

I'm a big proponent of CIO. It's horrible during, but it doesn't last forever and now? My kids go down for their naps and bedtime awake and happy as clams and I don't hear from them until they're done.

OMG - I am really jinxing myself here! Hope this helps!

*You can't be too beholden to this. If Matthew fell asleep 10 minutes in and then woke up at minute 50 or 55, I would totally go get him. He did his job. On the other hand, if you have one decent sleeper who wakes up at :50/:55, see if he or she will fall back to sleep. Sarah is my good sleeper and when she wakes up at the hour(ish) mark, I always try to make sure she's really up, b/c a lot of times she'll go back down w/in 5-10 minutes for another hour!

 

Thanks ladies - this is really helping me come up with a plan.

They both go down at the same time - between 6-7 and get up at the same time 6-7. Sleeping through the night - almost. There are times when they both sleep till about 4 am - other times around 1 am they are hungry. Lately though W has been waking every 2 hours or so since he has 2 teeth coming in

We do let them CIO here and there - they were sick for about a month and now teething so I tend to let up a bit under those circumstances. G was fighting going down at his normal time so we did a lot of CIO last week. Not sure if it is because it is light out later or what but he just wanted to stay up.

I am trying to balance out having a schedule and not being so structured that there is no flexibility to do things during the day - make sense? Should I structure the amount of time they nap? Sometimes it is 20 minutes - sometimes they lay there and play quietly - sometimes it is 2 hours????

Thanks again!!