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Multiples
Colorado Babies 12
member
My twins nap for 15 minutes at a time! HELP
Colorado Babies 12
member
in Multiples
The babies will be 4 months in a few days.
Seriously..I'm going a little crazy. So, I can't really complain about the nights. The babies go down about 8:30 and get up for a feeding about 5:30am. However, in the day time, their naps are just ridiculous. They are fussy and have that eye rolling cry but I can't get them to stay asleep! I have tried having them in the same crib, in seperate cribs, one upstairs/one down. I will read any book or try any advice. Honestly, it make my 2 days at work seem like vacation days!! Please share your nap routine, book or whatever!! Thanks for reading.
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Re: My twins nap for 15 minutes at a time! HELP
I really liked Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins by Marc Weissbluth. I also read Baby Wise to get some help with the EASY method, though some ofthe stuff that guy writes is a little harsh.
What part of Colo are you in? I'm down in Puebs....
Has this always been the case or is the 15 minute thing recent? They are likely going through the 4 month wakeful period, so that could definitely be it.
There were times my babies were overtired that I did whatever to get them a decent chunk of sleep. Sleep begets sleep, so my hope was always that one good nap would lead to another. For my two, swaddling and then laying them across my body and rocking quickly from side to side would calm them enough to get them to fall asleep. But really, whatever trick you think will work for your two.
Do you follow a consistent pattern? EASY? Are you watching their awake times and looking for sleep cues?
Very cool! If you're ever down here for any length of time, we should meet up and swap MoM stories
I followed Health Sleep Habits Happy Child (the twins version was not out yet when my twins were that age) and he suggests a much earlier bedtime when they get to this point. He says that if bedtime is too late they become overtired and it affects their daytime sleep (naps). So I would try shooting for a bedtime of 12 hours after they wake in the morning. So if they wake at say 6am, bedtime should be 6pm. Then make sure you are not letting them be awake more than 2 hours during the day. Some kids can only handle being awake for 90 min. at a time during the day (my smaller twin was this way). So watch for their cues, if they don't show any then follow the clock and put them down before 2 hours is up. If they don't get down before the 2 hour mark they will become overtired and not be able to fall asleep or only sleep for 15-20 min. at a time. Once they start getting more overnight sleep their daytime sleep should get better. Sleep begets sleep. Here is what my schedule looked like at 4 months:
6am - wake up, first bottle of the day, dress for the day, playtime and tummy time.
7:30 - start getting smaller twin down for nap, finish with bigger twin, having them both down asleep by 8am.
9-9:30am - wake up from nap, playtime, go out for walk if weather was nice.
10am - second bottle of the day. Activity mat time, singing, reading to them.
10:30-11am - put down for second nap
1pm - wake up from nap, playtime, tummy time.
2pm - third bottle of the day.
3pm - down for third nap of day
4pm-4:15 wake up from nap, play time with DH when he got home.
5:30 - get ready for bed finishing with 4th bottle of the day, have them in cribs with lights out by 6pm.
The daytime schedule would change day to day based on when they woke from naps and such, but stuck pretty close to this schedule until they were 8 months old and dropped the third nap of the day. Then we started following the 2-3-4 plan.