This sounds ridiculous but how do you get your twins down for naps at the same time? My 9 month olds still need to be rocked or nursed to sleep for naps (they go down awake at night) and I can't do both at once. I try leaving one in a safe place by themselves downstairs but they scream so much the other can't fall asleep.
You can tell I'm not a SAHM! On weekends Dh and I each put one down and it's great but sometimes one of us is home alone (like today) and its torture. I often resort to a car nap which makes me feel ridiculous!
Any tips? If the answer is to nap train so they can go down awAke I'm open to suggestions on how people have done it. Thanks!
Re: Getting two down for naps
Babies don't sleep as deeply during the day as they do at night, so we keep our twins in separate rooms for naps, otherwise they wake each other up. Also, we try to put them down as soon as we see the first signs of sleepiness, before they get fussy, and put down the easier sleeper first before the fussy one riles him up. We also have room darkening curtains up to help cut daylight and play a white noise CD to drown out sounds from the rest of the house.
Have you asked your care provider how they get them down for naps during the week? I think that using tricks every once in a while (like the stroller or swings) isn't necessarily a bad thing, so don't be so hard on yourself. For me, weekends and holidays are so short, it's not worth spending the extra time on getting the babies to nap "the right way". It's more important that they get their sleep. Whatever works, works.
I know this is not super helpful, but it just took consistency. When I started, I would sometimes go in every five minutes to soothe someone, just to get them to sleep for 20 minutes. Now, they take less than five minutes total to go down, and sleep for 1.5-2 hours about 2-3 times a day.