18 mos. twins giving up naps (longish)?

hgrogers

Here's the deal: My twinDDs have always been great nappers. Up until 1 week ago, they were doing 2 hours a day from 10:30-12:30 ( although I think one twin was moving into afternoon nap, as expected). They used their pacifiers to soothe them to sleep, but did not use them much else during the day. About a week ago, we had to get rid of the pacifier cold turkey per pediatric dentist (it was giving one twin an overbite!!) - so paci is gone cold turkey for both twins. One twin fussed a bit the first day for nap & bedtime, the other twin not at all - went to sleep fine. By the third paci-free day, both were totally adjusted & going to sleep without fussing for the paci. I should also mention they are teething pretty badly (I feel like they have been teething forever).

However, they now refuse to take a nap. I have tried putting them down when they appear tired and at many different nap times, and they just appear to be on some sort of nap strike (or god for bid, giving them up??!! - my older DD gave them up at this age, but she was never a good napper). Is it the paci gone, or teething causing this? They also have recently started to play together a lot more lately, so they are totally raising hell in their cribs in their room at nap time & having a blast (they share a room) - is this part of it?

I am kind of freaking out b/c i feel they need the nap ( they are toast by dinner time) & b/c I admittedly rely on their naptime to accomplish things myself & spend quality time with older DD.

Anyone experience something like this & resolved the problem? Could they really be giving up naps so young? Or will they just suddenly adjust to the new circumstances & resume napping? Do I have to have them nap in separate rooms (although, the sleep habits of one twin have never affected the other even in the same room - if one wakes up crying at night, the other will sleep through it, etc.) - I kind of don't want to start the habit of separating them b/c they are currently on the same schedule & I feel that could mess things up. If this is a nap strike, how long could it last?HELP!!

p.s. apologies to anyone who had to read about my panic on 12-24 board - but I'm wondering if my issue is twin specific b/c they share a room or something else....

janjag

mine share a room at night, no prob.  but naps i separate... one in the nursery and the other in a PNP in my room.  they are on the same schedule, except audrey almost always takes a shorter nap than vivienne... no prob since they're in separate rooms.

my guess is it's a phase... but they may do much better w/out each other to entertain.  also, if they refuse to sleep right now, i'd still make them do quiet time for an hour.  do they have lovies (sp?)? 

erinri02

My boys do this on occasion where they will just fight a nap and then by bedtime they are holy terrors!  We separated our boys for a while when we moved them into toddler beds because they wouldn't nap and bed time would get later and later every night.

Separating them did the trick.  They couldn't feed off each other any longer and I put their toys up so they really had nothing to do but go to sleep.  We moved them back together recently because we are in the middle of remodeling our house and we need our spare bedroom for storage right now.

When they are playing their room will get quiet and I'll go to check on them and they will have literally fallen asleep where ever they were playing last. 

hgrogers

janjag:

when did you start separating for naps & why?

Do you put them down at the same time? What time & how long do they sleep? Do they each sleep in the same room for naps everyday?

If it's a stage, do I wait it out to see if it ends, or just start separating them now?

Yes - they each do have a stuffed animal they sleep with regularly

hgrogers

IT looks like I might have to separate for naps. For those that separated and had one twin sleep in PNP, how did the one adjust to the PNP? Neither of my girls have ever slept in one, thus I wonder if they would actually go to sleep in it, or just think it was really weird, etc.

janjag

hgrogers:

janjag:

when did you start separating for naps & why?

Do you put them down at the same time? What time & how long do they sleep? Do they each sleep in the same room for naps everyday?

If it's a stage, do I wait it out to see if it ends, or just start separating them now?

Yes - they each do have a stuffed animal they sleep with regularly

keep in mind mine are younger than yours. 

we started separating at naps at around 6mos, to ST audrey.   mostly i would nap vivienne (easier sleeper) in the PNP, and audrey in a crib (not necessarily hers).  but then i wanted to make sure audrey would also be able to nap in the PNP, so i started switching it up.  they both do equally fine in the PNP, or in the crib.  we use PNP sheets so it's more cozy.

naps are generally at 9:30 and 2.  they go down at the same time.  i take no more than 30sec putting one down while the other waits in the living room.  sometimes one will take a while to fall asleep.

i have no idea what will happen when we travel though... could be rough putting them back together at naptime.  won't know for a month till we go on a trip

NJLH

My twins have never been great sleepers. I had to separate their rooms at 9 months. And even in separate rooms, they sometimes wake each other thru the walls. Lately, mine have also been fighting naps and I know they're tired. Its frustrating. I'd give the separate rooms a try.

regenab

Mine also had a really hard time adjusting with naps in regards to losing the paci. It took almost 3 weeks before they finally got back into a good napping routine. I took the pacis away at 13 months, which just also happened to be when they starting cutting molars and when they were dropping the morning nap, so this is probably why it took 3 weeks to get back to normal and it was h*ll that whole 3 weeks.

But I didn't seperate them because I wanted them to not get used to being in seperate rooms to nap. I tried it the first couple of days because I had one that would nap pretty good at the time and her sister would wake her up. But after 3 days I realized this was not solving the problem and put them back together to just ride it out.

Also my biggest piece of advice is earlier bedtime. When this happened to me their bedtime was 8PM and since the naps were all over the place, if they happened at all that day, I had to get them to bed earlier to catch up on the missed sleep. If I didn't they started waking up at like 5AM to start the day (normal wake up was 8AM). I had to put them to bed at 6PM for about a whole week until they caught up on the missed sleep and then they finally started taking naps for me again.

hgrogers

regenab:

This gives me hope! Pls. PLs. tell  - How did you get them to start napping again,  or how did they get themselves to start napping again? Any advice? What did you do for their 3 week period of no napping - did you just put them down for a nap everyday regardless of whether they slept or not? My problem is that right now I think they're in transition from one nap at 10:30 to maybe a later nap time, and I have no idea what time to put them down....so sometimes I wonder if they are overtired, etc.

I am putting my girls down slightly earlier when they are not napping, and they are also sleeping later in the morning - to make up for missed nap I guess...

hgrogers

Okay - so today I separated them. The one in their room in the crib went to sleep (after some crying b/c she thought her sistyer was getting away with not aking a nap!). The one in PNP in older DD's room across the hall freaked out and would not go to sleep ( and is presently a cranky zombie). Now what?