Nap schedule/sleep help!

2momsinCA

Hi all, I primarily lurk and never post but I have read so much good advice here through my pregnancy and now as a MoM. I have 6 month old twin boys (3.5ish months adjusted due to extreme prematurity). I have been home with them from the beginning and I am going back to work in January. My partner will be home with them for the next 9 months or so. We have a fairly decent nap routine that unfortunately totally relies on nursing to sleep. Many days it feels like I live on the couch in the giant twin nursing pillow (My Brest Friend). I just started to try to wean back the nursing during the day and pump more for them (I also have a freezer stash). They are fine taking bottle but it's been hard for them to learn to nap without nursing. Pacifiers help, but not consistently. Their napping is consequently fragmented and not syncing up and both boys are fussing more which means they are a total handful and my partner will most likely lose her mind. Any advice on establishing a daytime sleep routine with synced up nap times that doesn't involve nursing?

Thanks!!

zazu13

I never nursed to sleep, but our night sleep and naps significantly improved when we sleep trained at 6 months (5 adj) and they learned to go to sleep drowsy, but awake. Prior to that it was bottles and rocking to get them to sleep. There are tons of opinions and approaches on sleep training. We did a stepped soothing approach (also transitioned from RnP to cribs at the same time.) We started by sleep training for night sleep first. It was quick - only a few days, then we tackled the naps which took a few weeks. We use a white noise sound machine, blackout curtains and wubbanub pacifiers.Definitely start now and best of luck!

2momsinCA

Oddly enough night sleep is not a big issue for us. I'm a big fan of white noise... But I think I've used nursing to sleep as the big soother though and now I'm trying to find a way for them to learn to self soothe. It seems like laying them down drowsy but awake is where I need to do more work. I feel like they so quickly go from awake to overtired.

carrotcake06

Are you always around when you try to not nurse to sleep? I noticed w all my kids - I nursed all of them - that the caregiver and babies get into their own routine and habits when you're not there. If boobs aren't available, then thry figure it out.

Also, my kids' naps were always all over the place until 8-9mo, when they settled into a consistent 2 nap schedule. Before that it was a looser 3 nap schedule but it's hard to get 3 naps to coincide than it is 2, you know.

If they take bottles fine, I wouldn't stress. Let your partner find her groove while caring for the babies while you're at work. It may take a week or two, but everyone will adjust.

LittleLady77

Where are you in CA?  There are a few of us on here in the bay area  

I just posted something simular on the sleep training question but I'll state it again:

Helping your child learn to self sooth is the key.  It's a huge issue that all mom's face at one point or another.  We tackled it right around 6 months too.  There are various techniques and strategies that range from CIO to no-cry methods.  The more intense the method you choose the faster and more efficient it is so it's up to you where you land on the topic.  Here is an article that outlines the most popular avenues: https://sleeplady.com/baby-sleep/sleep-training-methods-demystified/ 

Personally we started with no cry methods and it worked great for my daughter.  In a few weeks she was totally sleep trained.  My son was and continues to be a terrible sleeper.  He fights all sleep like a wild animal. For him we did Ferber and then full CIO.  It's much better now. 

Good luck!