Please help me with naps!

Oh, the ever recurring question .... If you have a good nap schedule down, what exactly do you do? What time? Where? Do you separate?

Right now I am attempting 2 naps a day. There is usually a lot of crying and drama involved, and they aren't sleeping the full naptime which throws off the whole day. I met a girl at Cosco with 2 year old triplets, and she said her babies napped because they "had" to - she needed the break. Well, I need the break too so my babies "have" to nap too!

Please help me!

 

Oh, the ever recurring question .... If you have a good nap schedule down, what exactly do you do? What time? Where? Do you separate?

Right now I am attempting 2 naps a day. There is usually a lot of crying and drama involved, and they aren't sleeping the full naptime which throws off the whole day. I met a girl at Cosco with 2 year old triplets, and she said her babies napped because they "had" to - she needed the break. Well, I need the break too so my babies "have" to nap too!

Please help me!

 

At that age, mine were in two different rooms swaddled. I think we were still on a 3 naps a day schedule. 2 hours up, then swaddle, nurse & down. I put the 'easy' one down first & then worked on the other. They slept anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

 

At 5m my boys just started to nap in their cribs, before that they would only nap in their bouncers or swing. What we did is, they woke between 5/5:30am I would get them at 6. They would drink a morning bottle and play. I would feed them breakfast at 8am and put them back up at 9am for a nap no matter what. Yes, they would cry sometimes they would not sleep long but I would keep them up there for a good 45mins at least. At 10 we would start the process again, bottle, play, lunch and nap about 1pm. When they woke the process started again until bedtime they would usually take a quickie nap in late afternoon. My boys are still not very good nappers, I can now at one get about an hour out of them in the morning and about 20/30m in the afternoon but I am consistant with naptime. They still fuss and cry for about 5minutes or so but mommy needs to get a shower or just plain have some down time. You should still put them up the same time everyday so at least they will know it's time to rest...alot of times mine will play but it's their quiet time. GL!

 

We wake up around 8 or 830, take naps around 1030 for about an hour. Then I lay them down for a late afternoon nap around 3 for about 1 1/2 hours. I was still swaddling the girls at the age your kiddos are at. Have you tried making the room darker by blocking out the window somehow? That seems to help my girls.

 

Our girls nap swaddled in their infant rockers. They wake at 6:30 and then after eating and stuff go down for a quick nap (about 30-45 minutes) at 8:15. After that I put them down 1 hour after each bottle so that would be 11 and 2:30. For these naps I try to keep them asleep as long as possible so if Mia wakes she goes in the swing (still swaddled) and I will keep rocking Emma each time she begins to stir. Even if I have to rock her at least I can watch a little tv and relax.
I can usually keep them asleep for about 1.5 hours. After the 5:00 bottle they will nap for about 45 minutes.

 

quote:
Originally posted by MNTwinSquared:
At that age, mine were in two different rooms swaddled. I think we were still on a 3 naps a day schedule. 2 hours up, then swaddle, nurse & down. I put the 'easy' one down first & then worked on the other. They slept anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.


We are very similar....Nap around 8:30 - 9:00 am for 30-45 minutes. Another nap around 11:00-11:45 am for another 30-45 minutes then the last nap around 3:00 pm same amount of time. We don't do a nap between the 4:00 pm bottle and the last bottle which is between 6:30-7:00pm because I want them to eat some food, take a bath and go to sleep after the last bottle. BTW, the whole circus starts between 6:30-7:30 am everyday.

If they happen to nap longer during on the rare occasion I don't wake them. I would love for them to nap longer but they just don't. Since they sleep 12 hours or more at night I haven't forced the issue.

 

So, I kept them totally scheduled (one hour in the morning, and 2 hours in the afternoon), plus I put them in their sleepsacks to make them warmer, and I think that made a difference. They went to sleep easier (not as much fussing and crying). They didn't stay asleep for the whole time but I am going to stay with it and hopefully we will develop a good nap habit. Thank you for sharing your schedules.