Naps

vibarra27

O-M-G!

For a few weeks now the boys have been waking early from their  naps, & its driving me crazy. Not because i dont want them up, but because they get fussy, & cranky. They sleep 11 almost 12 hours straight @ night. They usually take 2, 2.5hour naps. Now, their morning nap has cut down to 2 hours(which is NOT that bad). & their afternoon nap is cut down to one hour! Meaning theyre up from 3pm to 8pm & by 645/7 they get super cranky & then get me super cranky cus i have 2 screaming/crying babies. when i try to lay them down around 7(which i dont like to because its a little too early) they cry bloody murder.

Their doctor advised me to lay them down 10-15 min earlier for their naps and it worked for a week & now im back where i started.

So my question here is, is this a phase? Or are my kiddos ready for me to re-adjust their nap schedule? I really dont feel they are ready for their naps to be cut down because they get sleepy WAY before their bedtime. Any suggestions?

Please help, this momma needs an evening with happy calm babies. TIA

jen83mn

What time do your kiddos go to bed, wake up, take their first nap, and take their second nap? How much time is in between their first and second naps?

Our schedule looks like this:

8/8:15 p.m.: Bedtime
6:15-7:30 a.m.: Wake Up
3 hours after waking up (9:15-10:30 a.m.): First Nap (35 minutes - 3 hours)
3 hours after waking up: Second Nap (1-3 hours)
8/8:15 p.m. Bedtime

My kiddo usually will take one long nap and one short nap every day, around 1 hour for the short nap and 2.5-3 hours for the long nap. This usually means he wakes up from his last nap of the day between 3:30-5 p.m.

Maybe you can increase their wake time between naps a bit so they start their afternoon nap later and don't have as long of a stretch before bed? Are they really crabby before their nap times, or are they still in a good mood? The 3 hour wake time has been working great for us. If our little guy does get crabby before bed, we give him a bath which calms him down and occupies him for a bit.

My LO gets about 14 hours of sleep total a day, which is much less than the 17 hours of sleep your LOs were getting though, but he's always been on the lower end of the "sleep requirement" charts I've seen. 

Hope you can find something that works!

vibarra27

.Their schedule is a little close to your LOs.

Their "normal" sleep schedule goes like this
645/7 wake
9-1130 1st nap. 
2pm-430pm 2nd nap
8pm bedtime

Now
645/7 wake
845\9-11 1st nap
145-3p 2nd nap
745/8pm bedtime

Once 630pm hits i know everything is gonna go down hill.  & no they're not crabby when they go down for their naps, theyre usually pretty happy. They just wake up early & ill leave them because before they would just fall back asleep & now they just stay up. 

Ill try putting them down for their 2nd nap a little later. Worth a shot. Thanks!

Livvyloo87

With 12 hours overnight and 4-5 hours during the day, I think you may be expecting a little too much sleep from them.  Our schedule is:

7am - wake
9am - nap (45min max - wake if needed) 
1pm - nap (two hours - wake at 3:30 at the latest)
6:30 - sleep for the night

I spoke with a sleep consultant who said after sleeping such a long time over night, their morning sleep doesn't need to be long as they have enough in their sleep reserves to see them through.  By giving a short morning nap, their afternoon nap should be long and will see them through until bedtime. 

You could give it a go and see if the change results in well rested/happier babies!

vibarra27

@Livvyloo87 it's not that i expect them to sleep so much. It's that they cannot be without it because they get sleepy way before their bed time. I let them wake up from naps when they want. & i put them down for naps when they get fussy &  know that the only thing left for me to do is let them sleep. Im going to try to see how it goes. Thanks

ElleMF728

I also kind of agree with @livyloo0305. I know you aren't making them sleep that long but it might just be the new normal. My only thought would be to cap that first nap at  one hour or 90 minutes so that the second might get a little longer. That might help them get a little more rested in the afternoon. 

vibarra27

@ElleMF728 yeah I'll try that. Their morning wake & bedtime are really close to DDs & keeping it that way works best so they can be up by the time i have to take DD to school. & having them all in bed @ the same time is ideal. So making their afternoon nap later will mess thing's up a beit. So ill just cut their morning nap a little shorter little by little to see how it works. Thanks

booksandcleverness81

My LO just cut his naps down too, he used to take a 2-2 1/2 hour morning nap and now it's down to an hour. He used to nap 1-2 hours in the afternoon too but now he's only down for 30-45 minutes so we're doing two of those instead. It's all messed up. And he just started going down awake instead of nursing to sleep, which I thought would make him sleep better, but no. There's so much development going on right now I feel like he really doesn't want to miss anything. I wish I had my good napper back, I can barely get anything done by the time he wakes up! Good luck with your boys' naps, it's a crazy ride isn't it?! 

vibarra27

@booksandcleverness81 yes it is! I dont mind them cutting down on their naps if they could actually stay awake. On the weekends they do much better staying awake longer..

& your LO will will adjust. & in the long run youll prefer him fslling asleep on his own rather than nursing him..i hope things get better for you as well! Thanks!