Twins and short naps! HELP!

[Will and Liffy's Mum]

Hi there,

I am new to this site but have read Tracey's book and found it really helpful so this is my next port of call!

I have four month old twins who sleep fantastically at night - 12hrs with no problem going to sleep and waiting in their cribs, smiling and happy in the morning!

My problem is during the day I CANNOT get them to sleep for more than 45 mins!  They go in their cribs awake and have no problem falling asleep - it's just KEEPING them asleep!  After 45 mins "ping" the eyes are open and they are awake and wanting to play.  They can only last being up for about an hour before they show tired signs so then they go back for another 45 min nap.  We have about 4 -5 of these naps a day but I would love to extend the length of their naps.  We have got rid of their pacifiers with no problems but now I'm wondering if I should get them back!

We have a very structured routine which they are really good on, three hourly bottle feeds and EASY works great  - it's just the extending the naps that is the problem.  I have tried trying to resettle them as soon as they stir and it seemed to work for a while if I gave my daughter her pacifier - should I revert back to it for naps for a while?  My son doesn't cry until he is wide awake and wanting to get up so it makes it difficult to get to him before he stirs.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Niki

[Keren]

Niki - It sounds like they may need to move to a 4 hourly routine. Tracy outlines how to do this in her new book.

You need to extend their awake time by 15mins every 3 days until they are awake for 2 hours before the naps. If 15mins is too much then just move them 5-10mins every 3 days. To do this, just have some quiet time for those extra 15mins (or 5-10) before starting the wind down. They will show their tired signs as normal but you have to go past it. I know it doesn't sound BW but Tracy says the only time you ignore the tired signs is so you can change their routine.

Then hopefully they will nap for 2 hours. So you will be at 4 hourly feeds as well.

Excellent work on getting rid of the pacis and for getting 12 hours at night!

Feel free to PM me if you have any queries.

HTH Cheers
Keren

[Will and Liffy's Mum]

Hi Keren

THANKYOU SO MUCH!  You were right about them needing to be on four hourly routine and I have made my husband go and buy the next book and we are following the guidlines in there.  Unfortunately we had already made a big jump to four hourly instead of making it gradual so we are trying to stick with that rather than go back and make it gradual.

We have been doing the wake to sleep with Olivia, waking her (almost) at 30mins and she slept for 2hrs at both nap times!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I couldn't believe it!  I had to do pu/pd for 20 mins with my son this afternoon but we got there.

My question is this.  We have never done a dream feed and my little guys sleep from 7pm until 7am (when we wake them)  Do I really need to do it if they are sleeping fine at ngiht?  They actually dropped the evening feed first - they got so hard to wake enough to drink that we flagged it and they were sleeping 12hrs by 11 weeks 6 days - I remember the night well!

Thanks for your advice and I am definitely sticking with Tracey's ways even though they seem a little weird at first (wake to sleep?  How weird is that!) - they sure seem to work!

I have PM this as well but wanted to make a post in case any other mum's read it!

Thanks again,

Niki
(Will and Liffy's mum)

[Keren]

Hi Niki

If they are sleeping through the night and not waking for a feed I would leave it at that and enjoy your nights back  :lol: ! However when it comes to their growth spurts you may want to consider putting it back in as you increase their amount during the day. Then drop it again once they are taking more. Otherwise you will be up at 3-4am again  :lol: .

HTH
Keren