She won't take her afternoon nap - please help!!!

[candgmom]

I have 12 month old twins.  Here is their normal schedule:
6:30-7am - wake up, sippies of milk
7:45am - breakfast
9am - snack, then down for morning nap (usually sleep until 11am)
11:45am - lunch
2pm - snack, then down for afternoon nap (usually sleep until around 4:30pm)
7:30ish - bed

My little guy follows this schedule just fine - he goes down for every nap and at bedtime without issue.  For at least a month or 6 weeks my little girl has been fighting her afternoon nap.  I have tried waking her up early from her morning nap, moving her afternoon nap later (3ish), and have tried making her bedtime earlier (more like 7pm instead of 7:30pm).  Nothing is working - 9 times out of 10 she cries in her bed for an hour instead of sleeping in the afternoon and is then tired and cranky for the rest of the afternoon.  I think she might be ready to transition to one nap, but I can't figure out how to do it because she NEEDS that morning nap.
I know that the fact that I have twins only makes it more difficult because it's hard for me to have them on two totally different schedules, but at this point I will do anything to get her to sleep.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

[marensmama]

Hi and welcome to the BW community!  I definitely think that she needs to transition to one nap.  I'd push her morning nap later, wake her up from it (so like give her 45 minutes at 10:00 if she can handle it) and then put her down at 2:00 with her brother.  That being said, my babies came one at a time, so I really don't know how feasible the 2 separate schedules are.  

There are great resources for moms of multiples on this board:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?board=19.0
and you'll find more info on the 2-1 transition here:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=41952.0

HTH, let me know how it goes. 

[candgmom]

I put her in bed super early last night (5:30pm) and she slept all night and took 2 good naps today.  I didn't know what to do with her tonight, so I put her to bed around 7pm.  I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow.  I will definitely try your suggestion of bumping her morning nap later, but waking her up earlier, then putting her down for an afternoon nap.
Thanks so much for your help!!!

[marensmama]

Wow, I'm envious!  My 10 month old has STTN on just 3 occasions thanks to her reflux.  Anyways, glad you had a great night and good naps, keep us updated on how the nap situation goes tomorrow!

[candgmom]

The afternoon nap boycott continues...I am at a complete loss as to what to do except sit here and cry as I listen to her up in her crib screaming.
I have tried moving her bedtime earlier as suggested in HSHHC - we have been putting her to bed before 7pm for at least a week now and guess what? She just wakes up earlier! She was getting up around 7, now she gets up at about 5:30am which means she DEFINITELY needs a morning nap no later than 9:30am, so forget trying to move the morning nap later on into the morning to make it a midday nap.
I have tried going out and doing something fun (we went to storyhour at the library) so that I could attempt to move that morning nap later. I fed her an early lunch and put her down around 11am and she slept until about 12:30pm - then I was really screwed because she refused to sleep the rest of the day, but had hardly any sleep at all during the day.
I have tried moving the afternoon nap later/earlier - no difference.
I have tried making the morning nap super short - today I let her sleep exactly an hour before I woke her up - no difference.
I have tried soothing, patting, rocking her to sleep - nothing.
I am seriously at my wits end - and the worst part is that this has been going on for over a month and I feel like I have read every book, done all of the research I could on the internet, tried all of the "experts" advice and still have a child who is refusing to sleep. What is the next step?? HELP!!!!!!

[marensmama]

Hmmm.  Sorry it's so rough right now, there's nothing worse than a tired bub who just won't sleep!!  I would limit her morning nap even more, first to 45 minutes and then if no difference to 30 minutes.  Then try the afternoon nap and an early bedtime.  The EW is from being OT, so if you can get a better daytime sleep then the night will follow.

Let me know how you do.  

[candgmom]

Thanks!!!  I'm going to try to continue to decrease the time of that morning nap and see if that helps.  I woke her up after an hour this morning and she went right down for her afternoon nap and slept for 2 1/2 hours!  Keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow goes as well!!!  Thanks for all of your help!  I'll keep you posted!

[marensmama]

Good news!  You must be pleased!!  Now, tell me how you're getting out of the house at all with 2 different schedules?

Keep me posted!

[candgmom]

Luckily I still have them both on basically the same schedule - I just wake her up earlier from her morning nap than him.  I am still putting them down at the same time in the afternoon and have been pretty much putting them to bed at the same time, too - unless she doesn't have her afternoon nap, then she goes in much earlier than him.  Today she took her afternoon nap again - fingers crossed that keeping the morning nap short will continue to do the trick!!

[marensmama]

Perfect!  Now that you've got her figured out, it'll be his turn to throw you a curveball!