Okay,
Please help! Or tell me that this is something that I have to live with...
I have twin girls approaching 3 months, next week. They are both on a pretty good schedule as it relates to eating. I feed them @ different times so I can employ the sleep strategies that are suggested - which creates a pretty busy day, however I feel it's well worth it if all goes well (im still waiting to see of that happens.)
Here is the issue, one of the girls hates napping. She naps okay in the morning, but as the day goes on her naps get progressively shorter and this makes her progressively crabbier. When she wakes early from her nap (Anywhere from 20-50 minutes) I go in and resettle her with some shh pat or a paci. Sometimes it works - sometimes it doesn't. Often after a 45 minute or so nap, she wakes up pretty happy so I just give in and play with her, but then 30 min or so later she gets really crabby and it is not feeding time yet, so sometimes I feed her early or try to have her catnap b4 the next fed. But then when I try to put her down for her next nap she is extremely resistant and crabby. You can tell she is soooo tired but can not find her way...
i shh pat her for 30 plus minutes and she still wakes up and starts crying. I have let her CIO a little and it exhausts her with little positive results. I have shortened her activity time, lengthened her activity time. I have given her food (Thinking it is a growth spurt) and sometimes I have just held her as she stares at me with these tired little eyes. This happens all day long from about 4p.m. - 10p.m. Usually by her dream feed she is so exhausted she gives in (with the help of a paci.) The upside to her is she sleeps longer than her sister @ night (6 hours) which, as you can imagine, is wonderful. So I struggle with this issue - is it an issue if the return is a 6 hour stretch @ night?
Her schedule:
7:30 Feed (it takes her 30 min to eat)
8:00 activity for about 25 min.
8:30 sleep for approx 2 hours with maybe one wake up)
10:30 feed
11:00 Activity
11:30 Sleep for approx. 2 hours with a couple of wake ups)
1:30 Feed
2:00 Activity
2:30 Sleep for approx. 1 -1 & 1/2 hours with a couple of wake ups)
4:30 Feed (@ this point she has been prob. up already for 30 min and is falling asleep during her feed.)
5:00 activity (maybe 5-15 min because she looks so tired)
5:10 Try to nap, but doesn't. MAybe 20 min.
6:30 Cluster feed - (again sleep through feed)
7:00 (maybe 5-15 min, if any, because she looks so tired)
7:15 Sleep (this sleep is the worst because at this state she is so out of sorts with fatigue. I shhh pat her to sleep and give her paci and she will start to fall asleep and then jolt awakw and cry. I resettle her and do this for 2.5 hours until her next feed)
9:00 Feed
9:20 same as above
11:00 dream feed
11:15 can usually go to sleep by herself or i shh pat for about 15/20 min.
She then sleeps until 5 a.m.
Suggestions? Anyone? Please...
~Jazmine
