How to get them back on the same nap schedule?

TwinMama83

So here's our problem...

They both wake up at 7am.  By 8:30am DD is fussy and rubbing her eyes and ready for a nap.  DS is still *wide* awake and playing.  I put them both down for a nap together.  DD is out like a light in 2 minutes.  DS rolls around and plays in his crib for 40 minutes before falling asleep.  5 or 10 minutes later, DD wakes up... but DS just fell asleep!  So I go play with DD in the living room for the next 1.5hrs while DS takes his nap.  Then its time to eat again so I wake up DS, feed them both and now DD is ready for a nap again... but DS just woke up.  That is the point we are at right now.

So now in 2hrs or so when DD wakes up from her second nap, DS will be ready to go down.  Aaahhh!  I can't get a thing done!  I know they are different people and I can't expect them to be sleepy at the exact same time and stay asleep for the exact same time... but it's starting to get a little nuts around here.  Any advice for how to get them even close to the same schedule again?

carolina1178

My boys do the same thing  :-P some days they nap at same time, other times they don't. BUT they always go to bed at same time, hehe

Right now I am just winging it and being flexible with them until they go down to 2 naps, I think that will be easier to get them to sleep at similiar times or at least within a half of each other.

it is frustrating but this too shall pass :-) hang in there!

parsleyqueen

I went through a very long stage like this b/c my girls sleep needs are COMPLETELY different, and I just didn't feel right forcing them to try to adapt to something that was so opposite of what their natural patterns were.  It was really hard, and it definitely sucked not to get any time to myself.  I just figured it was better than the alternative--dealing with two cranky babies all day!! 

As they started getting older their natural patterns started to even out a little bit though.  Once that happened naturally, I felt fine pushing them to meet in the middle.  I just gradually kept the early napper up longer (about 10 minute increments every few days) before putting her down for a nap.  She started getting used to the later naps.  Meanwhile, I kept putting the late napper down at the same time as the early napper.  She resisted most of the time at first, and I wouldn't force her to stay up in her crib if she was clearly not going to sleep.  Eventually we reached a point where we found a time that worked for both, and they have gone down for naps at the same time pretty much ever since. 

It was a long process, and of course it got thrown off again when one decided before the other that she was ready to drop to just one nap.  But if you hang in there and keep trying, you'll get them back on track!