Having trouble getting twins to nap!

[ems1]

I am a full time nanny for twins (boy and girl) who are two months old. They are sleeping well through the night with 2 feedings. In the mornings they get fed around 7:30 and then are up until about 8:15 or so. They will sleep for maybe an hour and then be awake again. We feed them again at 10:30 and they have activity time until about 11:15 when we swaddle them up and hold them until calm and then place them in the same crib. Within 45 minutes one is up and it wakes the other and they feed off of each other's crying. The girl is able to sooth herself usually but the boy has to be picked up and held in order to get him to calm down. We have tried them in different cribs and in different rooms and nothing seems to help. Today they didn't sleep from 10:30 until around 6:00. In that period they had MAYBE a half hour of sleep. They are fed again around 1:30 and the process is repeated. They have activity time for about 30-45 minutes and then are held until calm and then placed in their crib. They will either not go down for this nap or sleep for 20 minutes and then be awake. By the 4:00 feeding the babies are exhausted and so are mom and the nanny.  We have tried just letting them cry and it just gets them so worked up that they can't calm down. We have tried working with them to make sure there is no gas in their tummies but that isn't why they aren't sleeping. Any ideas on how to remedy this?

[mari]

I'm not the best on sleeping issues but I am a childminder and have an 18 month old daughter and care for a 9 month old little boy.  My daughter was used to napping quietly before I cared for the little boy but of course, if he cried, he would wake her.  I persevered and soothed her to sleep without picking her up.  Basically, I was adamant that she sould sooth herself to sleep even if there was noise around and encouraged her to nap with television, radio, play, chatting, any noise in the background.  She now sleeps throught just about anything (except whatever wakes her around 12midnight)
The twins are still young and have lots to learn so I'm sure that this is only short term and they will find their routine soon.  Good luck.