Twin nap troubles

[SammyNik]

A few weeks ago I had a post going as we were getting short naps and ews from my 17mo twin boys, well that all sorted itself out and we had been having the best amount of sleep in a long time But (why is there always a but ) we are now having nap problems again and it is def a twin thing.

F has always needed less sleep than T, T is touchy so he needs just the right amount of sleep or he is just beside himself, F is angel so doesn't really mind if he sleeps or not I have been putting them down in seperate rooms for naps for a while now as F was waking early and disturbing T and in the last few days I have been putting T down about 20 mins earlier that F as F is taking longer to settle so i thought he needed a bit more A time. The thing is I don't really want much more time between them going to sleep as i NEED them to nap at roughly the same time or I will get no alone time with DS1 and quite probably go insane by the end of the day My big problem now is that F is so noisy going to sleep that he is waking T after about 45mins and then that is it for sleep for T, although once asleep F will sleep 1.5-2hrs Given the right conditions T will easily sleep 2.5hrs and he really needs at least 2hrs to be a happy boy till bedtime.

So what do I do? Go back to putting them down at the same time so F is less likely to disturb T mid sleep? Keep F up even longer and have them napping at different times? Any other ideas?

Here is their routine for the last few weeks

Wake 6.30am
Nap 12-2/2.30
Bedtime 7pm

the last few days F has looked more like this
wake 6.30am
nap 1-2.30 (in bed at 12.30ish but chattering loudly until 1)
bedtime 7pm

Have to go get poor T up now after hoping he would go back to sleep for last 30mins, hope someone has some good ideas

TIA Niki

[twinmum1]

Hi I know the trouble of a noisy twin only too well.  My two are in different rooms because DD is so loud at settling and often yells out between sleep cycles waking everyone else up at night, but not herself!   I have had to use white noise to help DS to get decent naps so wondered if you have tried this?  When DD is in a less noisy phase I lower the volume right down but when she is in a loud phase (like at the moment) I higher the volume and DS still gets good sleep.  I would be lost without it. I hate it when they wake each other up.  DS is so quiet compared to his sister, I sometimes think he would hang out all day in his cot if he got the chance.  I think he enjoys the peace  .

[momtonb&ab]

i always split the difference when dd was needing higher activity time and ds was still higher sleep needs.   i got ds pushed just 10 or 15 mins and dd would have to go down a bit early.  i worked really really hard for a few weeks with her to insist she be quiet, and i used a fan for some white noise as twinmum1 suggested.  if you can keep them in separate rooms but give T soem white noise, that would probably work perfect.  and keeping nap times close together really is important if you can - it saves twim moms some sanity. 

[SammyNik]

Thanks ladies, nice to know I'm not the only one with a noisy monkey We have a music box in each room but the music only plays for 15mins so maybe I should look into some other type of white noise or maybe I could pop into the room and hit the button again when the music stops.

I will try pushing T out a bit over the next few days and hope that I can get F to stay a bit quieter