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14wo twins, short naps, always tired, have me in tears. please help

1 reply

MamaChris · 12/01/2011 21:50

14wo dts used to nap in slings or my arms for 2 hours. have been trying to get them to nap in cot/buggy for last 2 weeks with some success, but now no nap lasts more than 30 mins, even in sling. they wake up tired but I can't resettle. often they are so tired they will nap 30 mins later. as I find it hard to get them to sleep at the same time, I end up in a cycle of pacifying one while getting the other to sleep, then swapping. they are not getting much positive attention from me because my focus is always on the tired crying one. I am exhausted by late afternoon, by which time the naps get harder and it often ends with all of us in tears.

The situation is no good for any of us. I need help to get longer naps anyway I can. Should I be forcing them to stay awake longer? should I be trying to get them to sleep earlier? should I be trying to do things at same time each day (they wake anything from 7-10 in the mornings) or doing some kind of nap routine? even early in the day they don't manage much more than an hour awake before they get tired and cranky.

nighttimes amazingly are quite good, they wake every 1-2 hours, but we co sleep and they feed back to sleep so I do get sleep at night and don't want to mess this up. but how can I sort the days? I'm lying awake now stressing about tomorrow :(

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Chil1234 · 13/01/2011 16:03

I think - as you suspect - this is when a little routine can go a long way. If sleep patterns are too random then you can get to a stage where babies are overtired, fighting sleep all the time and never well-rested as a result. Miserable for them, you and everyone else!

I'd start by waking them up at a decent time in the morning... say between 7 and 8... and then they should be ready for a nap mid morning. Don't let them get too visibly tired before they go down for a nap in their cot or pram/buggy or however you want to play it. If you make the schedule similar every day... rather than exact times... then they'll quickly get used to it.

Good luck

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