Routines and moving them on

[willow3006]

hi there

Sorry this is long but any advice appreciated!

I have twin boys who are nearly 6 months old. for ages now we've been doing the same routine. They seem to be quite good at night times now (well they were since 3 months but now they seem to wake for a little cry in the night sometimes but nothing major). They go to bed at about 6.30-6.45 after bath and feed and sleep to 10.30pm when we dream feed them and then they sleep till around 6am most of the time.

The problem is the daytime. We get them properly up and feed them around 6.45/7 then they get grouchy and tired around 8.15am so we put them down for a nap. They always without fail for any nap do 45 mins. So they're up around 9am and have milk and some cereal at 10am (they've been weaned since 4 months as one has reflux). They then get tired again at 11.15am so sleep until about 12. One will then cry for about 10 mins and go back to sleep for another 35 mins but the other will not go back to sleep so I get him up. I've tried getting them both up after the 1st 45 mins as I hate hearing the crying for so long before he drops off again but the afternoons are hell if twin 1 doesn't get more than that 45 mins at lunch! So many of the books I've read say they will sleep for 2 hours at lunch - mine NEVER do this! It's always in 45 minute stints!

Anyway, by 1ish they are both up again and I feed them milk at 2pm. They then have about hal an hour if we're out in the pram about 3pm and some pureed food at 4pm. They are then very tired and ready for a bath and bed by 6pm.

I would ideally like all of this moved on - I can't see why they are so ready for a nap at 8.15am - they've only been up an hour or so! I've tried to move it to 9 in stages so that then the next feed can move on an hour and the next nap so that hopefully they'll be less grouchy and tired in the afternoon but it doesn't really work!

Also, although one of my twins will just be put down for a nap and more or less go straight to sleep the other we have to let him cry himself to sleep, sometimes for 10 mins. Do you think this is still ok at this age?

How should I be moving the routine on? What is a good routine for a 6 month old anyway? And how/when is it ok to introduce solid food for lunch now that we seem to have cereal at 10am and pureed food at 4pm established well?

Any suggestions/past experience?

Thanks

willow x

Hi there! Its difficult isnt it during the 6months stage as there are so many stages, growth spurts, teething etc and every bit of these affects sleep patterns and feeding. Is it possible you could drop the 815 nap and push them for an hour or more until around 1030am? My girls would nap around 10-11 for 40 mins then be fine till lunch. Afternoon naps then around 230 and that would keep them going till dinner time. Are they having quiet time as well,such as sitting in bouncers, laying on floor with toys? Try to push them further in the morning - stagger the breakfast perhaps - so they nap as late in the morning as possible. Its hard when they are grumpy but after a few days the pattern should start to be easier. Re the crying after being put down, think thats normal, every baby settles in a different way and especially when tired they will fight it!
Hopefully this is just an 'inbetween' phase before the next routine starts, and its hard to move it on. I sometimes got stuck in a routine that clearly wasnt working and because i was so tired it would take my sensible husband to point out what was perhaps the problem. Is there someone whos slightly less involved who can advise? Its mainly trial and error, but to be honest I usually tried to get my girls into a routine that suited us all even if it took a bit of work initially just to keep us all sane and rested. Good luck and let us know how it goes

Hello! I remember mine were exactly the same at 6 months, especially the 45 minute nap thing. They were capable of being awake for around 2 and a half hours at once, so they also had their first nap around 8.30 (although at the time I was always worrying about trying to move them on to 9!). Then their second nap would be around midday. After 45 minutes my girl would wake, although my boy generally didn't - he seemed to extend the length of this nap much older than she did. I used to then put them in the buggy and go for a long walk with them and usually within 30 minutes they went off to sleep again. My boy barely stirred and my girl took about 20 minutes or so, but I used to count this as one long nap, which took us to around 2. Then between 4 and 4.30they had another nap (usually buggy again) until I took them home at 5ish. Then tea (at that stage rice and puree pear) and bedtime routine at 6, asleep by 7.

I worried constantly about moving them on, but they weren't ready to go to only two naps a day until nearly 9 months (maybe since they were born 5 weeks early). So we kept with this 3 naps a day thing, with the last nap getting shorter and shorter.

I read somewhere that at this age 45 minute naps are very common, and as they get older they naturally become capable of sleeping longer - which seemed to be the case with mine. Yours can obviously settle themselves well if they sleep so well at night, so I guess they'll nap longer when they are ready.
I don't think 10 minutes crying is too long at all, it just seems like forever when it is going on. 10 minutes isn't really a long time to take to fall asleep.
It sounds like you have everything just fine - but I know where you are coming from as I was constantly comparing to what the book said! I look back and realise that we just kind of found a happy medium based on what worked for our babies.

Thanks guys. I think I'll keep trying to move it on bit by bit. It's weird as some days they will last till 8.30 and some days theyre grouchy by 8!

My dtds are 7.5 months and get up about 6.30am but after 1hour 30mins (definitely by 2 hours) they need a nap of about 45 mins, then up until 10.30am and down for about 2 hours. As soon as they show signs of tiredness I take them to their cots but at one point dtd2 was not sleeping as long as dtd1 so I put her in her pram in the hall so when she stirred I could gently rock her to sleep to get her used to longer nap.

Today the girls are taking turns for lunch nap - dtd2 had lunch while dtd1 was sleeping then she went for a nap and dtd2 woke an hour later and had her lunch. usually I do them together but they are out of sync today. I'm not great at strict routines (other than bedtime) and tend to take my lead from them. It would be good to have them in sync but they are individual children with different needs - one may be teething and the other not etc so doesn't always work out. Also, I have to take dd1 to pre school 2 days a week so that affects everything timing wise.

Overall, the early morning nap is fairly common.