Napping for twins-4months

[Starfish1980]

My girls sleep pretty well at night now, going down at 7 pm ish, dreamfeed at midnight, a feed about 4.30am then up at 7.30 am ish.

Up to now we have been getting by on cat naps on play mat, rug on floor, bouncers and they can often want naps at different times. They may sleep 20-40 mins at a time 3/4 times a day with a regular nap for them both in their cot about an hour after they wake/feed, usually whilst I have a shower!

I am worried that they may not be getting enough kip and was thinking of changing my routine to make sure i put them down for a proper cot sleep (hopefully for an hour or more) after their lunchtime feed.

Not sure they would go for this but i can try!!

Has anyone got any advice/tips/thoughts? Xxxxx

[Meatyfeet]

My twins are 10mo now and I remember at around 4 months being the time when I started proper naps, upstairs in their cots, rather than going with the flow.

I think I spent a few days writing down the times they napped and tried to see a pattern. It worked out that at that age they had about 40 mins 2 hours after waking then a longer sleep in the afternoon.

Getting them to sleep together was tough and some days I felt like I was putting 1 twin down when they weren't tired but it was worth persevering as you need them to nap together for your own sanity!

[Starfish1980]

Thank you x did you make sure you were in the house every day at nap time?

[Meatyfeet]

Where possible, yes but I didn't turn down invites etc. I just tried to make sure we planned to have a few quiet days in every week.

[Starfish1980]

I think that is what i am going to have to do, i seem to have got into the habit of drivng round to all and sundry accepting every invite as no one wants me to be twiddling my thumbs...

[TallulahBetty]

Yeah I think DD was 4-6 months old when I introduced the "official" nap. Upstairs in her cot, with her glowing seahorse thing. She was confused but I persevered and within a week we'd got into a routine.

[gretagrape]

Tallulah - did she cry a lot at first? My 4.5mo son only naps for 45 mins once or twice during the day which means by the time bathtime looms he is v cranky. I want to try and have official naps but dread the meltdown - he already cries for 10-15 mins before napping (I stay with him but don't interact unless he gets really upset) so can't imagine what he'll do if I don't pick him up once he wakes up from that 45 mins.

[TallulahBetty]

Yes she grizzled a bit for a few days but I kept going to reassure her and never left her to cry cry.

[BabiesAreLikeBuses]

By the time my twins were 4 months old i was so tired i crashed into a parked car round the corner from home... At that point i started a full on routine, roughly following gina ford's twins book (much better than her original book imho) and they had a nap of around 45 mins at 9.30, slep 1230-230 then half hr top up around 4. The short naps were often in buggy or car seat but the big one was at home in cot or sleep tent, took about a week to get them to settle in cots which was tough - but not really much effort in the long run. They kept the big nap til they were 3 and friends were often jealous of my long break in the day!
Hth