Sleep and EASY support for twins and multiples

[kayra]

Yes I've been thinking about that too, any sort of calculating I do for a times doesn't seem to work anyway
If wake up is 7ish, I'm thinking nap at 10 and 2? I'd rather 2:30 so that if they do do a silly nap it's just that bit closer to bt but if they have a silly nap at 10 I dont know if they (or I ) could cope 3+hrs...
They've just been so fussy in the mornings these days, it's going to take a lot of stamina to keep them for 3 hrs! I will give it a try tomorrow with dh home to help if they're really grumpy.

[babybarr]

That sounds about right. If they short nap the 10am put them down a touch earlier. Then do early bed if necessary. Once they're on fixed naps I found it easier to wake the sleeping one usually up to 20mins after would still mostly keep them together. Just looked at our 2 nap days at around 10mths though was wake 6ish nap 10 and 2.45.

[kayra]

Thanks Laura that's encouraging I also like the 20mim grace period
Let's see how today goes, they were both awake just before 7, I went in at 7 and did their bottles in turn in the dark for min stimulation and till breakfast I will try to keep lights low.
How are you?
How is everyone?
Xxxx

[babybarr]

Why low lights till breakfast? I just get mine up after 6am then they have their bottles downstairs. Especially if they're in bed by 7pm. 

I honestly would also avoid at all costs a late catnap now. Just do earlier bed.

[kayra]

Because they've been barely managing 2.hr in the am and I want to push them to 3..lights weren't too low, just not full on bright lights.
Yeah I'm not trying catnaps anymore

[babybarr]

Oh I'm with you now! How did it go?

[kayra]

Well they managed the first a pretty well but only slept half an hour and woke up very grumpy, it was quite the chorus of moaning the first hour after lunch they cheered up a bit then before their nap we gave them another bottle so they settled quickly just before 2, ds slept 1hr15 dd 1.5 hr. So not too awful. We were out in the evening so weren't abile to do ebt but hopefully that won't be too much of a problem, it's not that unusual for them to have a longer than ideal a time before bed.
I will definitely soldier on with this, I was getting silly naps anyway so at least this way they'll be in sync and I won't have to be doing calculations all day-math was never my forte and having to so it for 2 babies is no fun

[babybarr]

Honestly it'll pan out in the end and def takes the stress out of it a bit!

[*Kara*]

Laura is right   Identicals do stay on the same schedule fairly easily   If one baby wakes, the other seems to notice that she is missing and will be awake by the time I am downstairs and changed the bum of the first typically.

That said, today is a good example of what happens if they get off course!

Both had a similar first nap after waking at the same time this morning... second nap, C woke after 2 hrs and we chose to wake S at the 3 hr mark.  C took her catnap of 40 mins and was up for 30 mins before S even went down for her catnap.. she slept 35 mins and was up for only 1hr 15m before bedtime.. both went down easily. 

[babybarr]

3hr nap??!! What is one of those!

[kayra]

I'm drooling over here Kara
Something has occurred to me in regard to set naps...if I'm doing set naps regardless of a time, then I don't need to wake the sleeping twin do I? Next nap they're going to go down at the same time anyway...?

I've also realized I problem with my set nap times...in that it's fine if the first nap is short (which I don't necessarily want) but if they do nap properly, like dd who had a 1.5 hr nap this morning waking at 11:30, then a nap at 2 is potentially too early for her...but I can't set it to later b/c if the am nap is short they can barely make to to 2 anyway (like ds today) so should I think of the 2nd nap as 2 or 2:30 depending on the first nap??
Feeling fed up

[babybarr]

Kayra I'd set your nap times based on the ideal. So if ds short naps you can put him down say 20mins before dd. But you're working towards what you want else you may as well not bother! Did you do set naps with ds1? It does work. It's like eating at the same time every day. Your body gets hungry at that time regardless!  If they slept 1.5hrs for the first nap what time would you need the second one to be? Hang in there.

[kayra]

I guess closer to 3 hours later..I don't really know to be honest but if after a good nap they were to have a silly nap at 2 it would just be a long time till bed. We'll see I guess, I need to be consistent with these set naps for a while and see how it goes. So once their body clock is set, ideally it's based on the time of the nap rather than when spy hey started the day, isn't it? Meal times are basically fixed
I don't think I did do set naps with ds1, he would mess around too but on the whole I seem to remember that he was a good napper but he was an ew'er which wasn't fun!

[*Kara*]

We are making the shift to two naps here... it's rough just like I remember from DD1   They need to learn to transition to a second cycle during their first nap!  They can, they just don't.  So, I am pushing first nap out a bit at a time until the do lengthen it out a bit.. they are waking happy as a lark at 45!

[kayra]

You have my sympathies Kara!! And you're much braver than me, we've only been on 2 proper naps for 2 weeks now and didn't start transitioning till 6months+
You'll be there eventually, pushing that first A is brutal though, especially if they're like mine in preferring a short A time first thing. It is nice to be in 2 naos now, especially since ds has finally cracked crawling (he's been working in it for a good month) which means after awful naps and nights for good long while he is now sleeping well again dd seems to have no interest in crawling but gets quite cross when ds goes off and leaves her alone!! What's you guys' experience with one twin becoming mobile before the other?
Hope everyone's well, very quiet here...everyone busy or sthg?