Schedule Question

Thanks everyone for your responses to our nap question, this now leads us to a question about schedules. How do you get both babies on the same schedule? They seem to be at extreme opposites right now and it's pretty maddening. One will be sleeping while the other is up. Then we'll get that one down, and the other will wake up. We want to instill good sleep habits, but we also want them to be on the same time schedule for feedings and sleep to make things easier for us. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Some days there is just no way to get around them being on different schedules, but I still try to keep them the same most days. The way I do it is 1.) by not going in their room at the first sign of someone being awake in the mornings. That way by the time I go in to get them they are both awake. That way they will most likely be sleepy at the same time for naps.

Have yours been getting up at the same time each morning? I think that is the most important thing toward getting them to nap at the same time.

 

Has this been happening since they were born? I remember mine going through a phase at about 4/5 months were they would be opposite. It worked itself out, but I agree it is helpful for them to wake up in the morning together. I would do the same at naptime, though most days, Jake would sleep through Ryan's crying and it didn't work. I just came to terms with the fact that Jake needed an extra hour. This didn't keep him from going down for the next nap at all, so it worked for us. It's such a tricky science!

 

QUOTE(aimeethomp @ Mar 10 2009, 11:47 AM) [snapback]1221716[/snapback]
Some days there is just no way to get around them being on different schedules, but I still try to keep them the same most days. The way I do it is 1.) by not going in their room at the first sign of someone being awake in the mornings. That way by the time I go in to get them they are both awake. That way they will most likely be sleepy at the same time for naps.

Have yours been getting up at the same time each morning? I think that is the most important thing toward getting them to nap at the same time.


This morning they awoke about 40 mins apart. We weren't sure what to do since HSHHC recommends never to wake a sleeping baby. It sounds like we shouldv'e in this instance.

Thanks for the tip! We'll be sure to do that moving forward in the mornings.

It's so hard to find a good balance between what's recommended in various books versus what's been working prior for us.

 

QUOTE(mommymeg @ Mar 10 2009, 11:58 AM) [snapback]1221727[/snapback]
Has this been happening since they were born? I remember mine going through a phase at about 4/5 months were they would be opposite. It worked itself out, but I agree it is helpful for them to wake up in the morning together. I would do the same at naptime, though most days, Jake would sleep through Ryan's crying and it didn't work. I just came to terms with the fact that Jake needed an extra hour. This didn't keep him from going down for the next nap at all, so it worked for us. It's such a tricky science!


Good question! This has been a recent occurence for us over the past couple weeks.

Prior to now, we've been pretty lax about schedules for the girls. It's only been the last couple weeks that we've been 100% consistent with nap times and bedtimes. We did have a family visit at the end of the first week that seemed to set us back to square one.

Are we just in the thick of it? How long does it take for consistent scheduling to help them become better sleepers at naptime and bedtime? We're going to stick to it no matter what it takes.

 

We didn't have a consistent sleep schedule until they were between 6 and 7 months. I'm sorry if that is bad news for you, but I just wanted to warn you. At 4ish months the morning nap was starting to be consistent (just like HSHHC says!), but after that the rest of the day was just following their cues. They'd nap anywhere, anytime. In a bouncy, in a swing, in a boppy, on the play mat, etc etc. It was hard because they wouldn't necessarily nap at the same time, but by 6 months they were starting to have predictable nap times (3-4 times a day) in their cribs mostly, and usually at the same time. GL and hang in there.

 

i would agree with PPs about waking them up at the same time, in the morning especially. in the multiples section at the back of HSHHC, he actually recommends waking multiples in the morning together as that helps set their clock for the day. i also think that it's in that section that he says something to the effect of "with multiples, sometimes you just have to compromise" - in other words, to keep them on schedule with each other, sometimes you have to wake one up, or sometimes you have to keep one up a little longer, etc. one thing that i did was if one woke up & the other was still sleeping, i would feed whoever was up, but then when they were done i'd go wake my sleeper, if she hadn't woken already. just little compromises like that. it pays off in the long run - they do eventually synch to each other. do you know if your LOs are IDs or FRAT? that can make a difference as well - it's a bit easier to keep IDs on schedule with each other. GL!

 

I would agree with waking them up at the same time in the morning, it might be a little rough adjustment for the one having to be woken up but if you get them on pattern where they are eating and sleeping at the same time, eventually they will. I have frat twins and they've been pretty much on the same schedule, it took a lot of work to get them there but they are.

 

I didn't read everyone's posts... but I've seen in a couple of books where they recommend starting your day at the same time... we try for 7am. I always figure that sort of erases yesterday's issues and lets us start over... sort of.

And I thought that it was HSHHB that mentioned waking from one nap to protect the next nap... and making sure that you put down before 3pm for the afternoon nap. I just barely made it in for the 3pm start on their nap today, and there was some fussing around 4:15p... but they went back to sleep and I had to go in after 5pm to WAKE them up... in hopes that they will be ready for bedtime later....

We are trying to get back to sttn and I really think that I was allowing too many naps and such, so I'm trying to be observant of their naps and how long it takes to get down and stay down etc.

I hope you get them on the same schedule... We get off sometimes, but mostly that's when we're out and about and then one falls alseep in the car... its hard to prevent when you can't keep them up...

Good luck.

 

I would agree with pp, wake them up together in the morning. My DS gets up around 6:45 and usually wakes up a bit earlier than my DD. In the morning I wake her within 15 min of him and the same with naps. I will turn off the white noise and sometimes leave him in there for 10 min and his babbling usually wakes her up.

GL!!