Nap Transition Issues

lc&jw · April 2014

I'm struggling with naps right now with my 14 month old twins. DD takes a morning and afternoon nap, falls asleep easily each time, and will sleep from 1.5-2 hours each time despite her brother making lots of noise. DS fights the morning nap, many days will lay or stand in his crib for easily an hour babbling to himself or sometimes angrily protesting. If I rock him to sleep or put him in the swing (yes, by some miracle he still fits, I know it's terrible to rely on this still), he falls asleep almost right away. For his afternoon nap he'll sleep anywhere from 1-2 hours depending on what happened in the morning. He typically falls asleep in his crib after 15-30 minutes.

It seems like DS may be ready to give up his morning nap but DD is nowhere near ready. I don't feel like it's possible to have them on different schedules, and I have no idea how I would get anything done in the AM if DS didn't nap at all while DD is sleeping. I also don't think he would get a long enough stretch of sleep if he only slept in the afternoon. I don't know why he can't fall asleep for the AM nap when he is clearly tired.

How have others handled this when one twin was ready to change nap schedules before the other one was? Or does anyone have any tips on getting DS to fall asleep for the AM nap?

Rachiemoo · April 2014

Most kids do give up the morning nap around now. I would think that your DD will start to give it up in the next month or two, or at least that she can be pushed to do it very soon, so it will only be a little while when they are on a different schedule. When they give up the morning nap then you push the afternoon nap forward because they will get tired earlier. I remember when my older daughter was transitioning, her 1 nap usually started between 11:30 and 12 noon, and I slowly pushed it back as she got older. Best of luck!

MommyWannaB10 · April 2014

I only have a singleton for now. He transitioned to 1 nap around a year because we pushed it (or daycare did). It was tough at first. He'd fall asleep playing, so the activity would have to be changed to hold his interest. He didn't have to wait until his usual 1:00 afternoon nap time, we pushed it forward to 11:30 and now at just over 2, he goes down about 12:30 until 2:30 or 3. I hate that nap is right in the middle of the day and there are many weekends we're out and about. For him, as long as he gets lunch on time he's usually fine. Sometimes he'll even fall asleep on the way home from an activity and I can get him in the house and he'll stay sleeping or fall back asleep. I'm sure it's going to be much different bringing the twins home. Good luck!

pillowass · April 2014

I had a similar situation and I just implemented 1 nap a day instead of waiting for that to develop naturally. My DS was fighting one or both naps and it was making us all miserable. When we started them on 1 nap, DD adjusted well and they both started sleeping longer at night.

lc&jw · April 2014

Hmm...DS took a great nap in the crib this morning. It just so happened that today was dreary and rainy out. Maybe I need to invest in some blackout curtains and that would solve the problem.

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