UGH, the time change is screwing up our schedule! (long)

I am, admitedly, a strict schedule mom. I have to be. 95% of the time, I work from home, and in order to save on sitter costs and get all my work done, my boys are on a pretty strict scheudule that used to go, before the time change last night, like this:

6:30-7:00 wake up. Eat breakfast
9:00-9:30 nap. I would not let them sleep past 11:00 cuz i needed them to be able to take their second nap in the afternoon.
12:30-1:00 lunch
1:30-2:00 Nap
Wake no later than 3:30 b/c if they sleep one minute past 3:30, they won't sleep at night.
5:30ish dinner
6:45ish sleep

I have been very blessed with boys that have totally adapted to this schedule and for the most part, have stuck to it faithfully...allowing me to do my work and do the stay at home mom thing! BUT, over the last several days my tuffer sleeper has not taken an afternoon nap at all. I figure he does not need it b/c he is fine for the rest of the day. My other little guy is a perfect sleeper so he will sleep whenever i put him down.

SO, my point. With the time change last night, they slept til' 8:00AM (or 7:00 w/o the time change). This would be the PERFECT TIME to transition them to one nap a day, however I am not ready for this to happen. For work purposes, I still need them taking two naps for a couple of more months. AND to add to this, in three weeks we are taking them to Florida for two weeks and this will be their first plane trip. One nap a day would be great for vacation purposes.

So my question to everyone, when did your twins transition to one nap, AND, did the time change help/hurt in that transition?

OOPS, for what it is worth, my boys just turned one on February 17th.

TIA

 

Wow barely a year old and ready for one nap? that is unusual. My boys transitioned from 2-1 naps around 18 months or so. And it took a few weeks to a month or more of chaos too. I think you might need to adjust your schedule to them for a little while until they adjust to the time change.

Just my few cents....

 

Your situation sounds alot like mine except I took K&K to the office. I needed those naps in order to get the major work done. I worked while they were awake (had to answer phones no matter what) but I saved the busy work stuff for when they were napping. At one year mine were not ready for one nap. I had a couple of phases where one child would not sleep during one of the naps (I gave them a couple of books or toys and if they didn't want to sleep that was fine, they played happily) but the regular routine came back rather quickly and they were back to doing two naps. Maybe this is a phase for tougher sleeper?

My experience with the time change was pretty much to ignore it and keep doing things according to the clock, it did take a little time to adjust but I didn't make any major changes to our schedule. In my opinion, I would not change your schedule because of the clock change or because of the upcoming vacation. For me the schedule we had was most important to work nicely with my job and of couse have happy well rested babies. I would probably fly by night with the vacation and not try to adjust what currently works.

 

Can you believe that my little one has been at 1 nap for a few months now? He goes to be btw 9-930 gets up about 830 and naps btw 1-4 and that is it. He is on the move the rest of the time. Sometimes if he gets up extra early he will catnap for 30minutes in the morning, but that rarely happens. As for the time change I can't be more happier. The big boys have been getting up with the sun at 615 the last 2wks or so. I am hoping this will put a stop to that. The time change may through them for a loop for the first couple of days, but stick to your schedule according to the clock. That is how we have always transitioned them. As for the 1 nap, I wouldn't worry about it at this point. When you go on your trip, you may find that they naturally give it up while you are out doing things. When you get back it will be up to you if you think they need it. I had one good napper and one bad napper with the boys for a while too.

 

quote:
My experience with the time change was pretty much to ignore it and keep doing things according to the clock, it did take a little time to adjust but I didn't make any major changes to our schedule.


I agree with this 100%. We don't really make adjustments for the time change either. I did put them down for a nap a bit later today, but that's because they got up later than usual.

 

I know how you feel; I work at home, too, and up until now have been scheduling all my phone work for 10 and 2. I guess with this new schedule, it will be 11 and 3. In a way, I feel like this is good because I did want them sleeping later and going to bed later.

I felt so out of whack all day today because they didn't get up until 7 p.m. old time ... by the time they were finished with their first nap of the day, they had already missed snack and lunch according to our old schedule and the new time. To get things a little back on track, I skipped snack and went directly to lunch when they started signing that they were hungry.

The afternoon was a little longer than usual for me, but I figure it will get better tomorrow and then by the end of the week we'll all be used to it, including me.

Managing a career at home is very hard with two little ones so I commend you for doing it. I try to always be "on" when my girls are awake so I, too, live for those TWO naps. I definitely would try and see if they will continue those for a while longer. They could be in just a phase. I found that mine went through that at the start of 12 months, but then soon napped better than ever right after that. Now they sleep 1.5 hours in morning and afternoon. I have a rule to leave them in there that long regardless. I do separate for afternoon nap and JUST TODAY moved my office onto our third floor. It's a great home office. I'm very excited!

 

I kind of "lucked out" I guess that yesterday they both fell asleep in the car for about 45 min, so since they did not nap well, I put them to bed an hour early. Just so happens it was Spring Forward day, so voila! Today they woke at 7:00am just like normal and we continued on like nothing happened.

About switching to one nap: We switched around 13-14 months. I was NOT ready for it, I also loved having two naps a day. But alas, they no longer would sleep at the first nap. What you could do is keep the first nap as "quiet time" when they are ready for the switch, but you still need the time to yourself. Try giving them some toys, or maybe keep them in a Superyard so you can still work but not have to be on top of them. When we did the switch, at first they couldn't make it past 10:30, so the one nap started at that time. It gradually moved to 12:30. Most people, from the posts I have read, have to gradually move the nap time like that, so you do have to be somewhat flexible. You really do (IMHO) have to do the nap switch when they are ready, or you have some grumpy babies on your hands.

 

We went to one nap at 18 mos. I thought it would be beneficial for vacation purposes to go to one, but that wasn't the reality. They needed two. They would occasionally skip one and that didn't kill us too bad, so we did that on vacation. Just planned days that they would ABSOLUTELY get two.

I, personally, would hold on to the two naps for as long as you can. Some babies can and some can do it earlier and that's fine too.

The time change will mess you up for about a week, but you can transition them back down to "normal" time if you want to over the course of the week.

Sorry it's wreaking havoc on your schedule!