Napping twins...am I wrong to do this?

glasshalfsomething · 2021-06-01T09:29:10+00:00

I’ve got almost 20 week old twins. For the last few weeks I’ve been attempting to follow the Little Ones sleep routine (9am-10am and 12-2pm roughly). It’s not really went to plan. Today instead of waking the em at 10 (it took 25 min to get them to sleep), I’m just going to let them sleep as long as they like and see if we can find a natural routine to their naps. Would you do the same? I figure as long as they both sleep at the same time, it doesn’t matter when they nap? Or will this majorly impact night sleep? Appreciate thoughts from those in the know!

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FATEdestiny · 01/06/2021 11:27

Once baby (babies in your case) are able to sleep over 90 minutes, my favoured routine is two naps both if 90m-2h.

The Gina Ford method - which bear in mind was written more than 20 years ago - always said 45m morning nap and 2.5h afternoon nap. Lots and lots of sleep consultants basically just follow this premise. Gina Ford also says 12h overnight sleep is right, I think 11h overnight sleep is right - so we differ on that point too (I'm a sleep consultant btw).

So my suggestion at this age would be:

AM nap 2h from waking
Wake from AM nap after 2h, but baby usually wakes naturally after 90-120mins
3h awake time until PM nap (although this can be manipulated to fit in with family routine)
Wake from PM nap after 2h, but baby usually wakes naturally after 90-120mins
4h to bedtime (although again this can be manipulated to fit in with family routine)
Expect 11h overnight sleep (although 10-12h range is considered normal).

So am example routine would be
7am wake
9am - 10.30/11am Nap
2pm - 3.30/4pm Nap
8pm bed

Another example, to show the idea of manipulating to fit naps in with family life, would be:

7am wake
(School run)
9.10am - 10.30/11am Nap
1pm - 2.30/3pm Nap
(School run, dinner, homework with siblings)
8pm bedtime

Danni91 · 01/06/2021 11:36

Yeah just go with them I would assume its quite stressful trying to force a nap, 100% not worth the effort.

They will fall into a routine on there own terms I'm sure, plus trying to keep a tired baby awake is nearly impossible job (let alone 2) just because its not secudled iyswim.

Congrats on twins!

Danni91 · 01/06/2021 11:37

scheduled*

vivariumvivariumsvivaria · 01/06/2021 11:39

My HV gave me a good bit of advice:

eat, change, play, cuddle, sleep and repeat.

I could never manage doing things to time, but, by doing it in order we settled into a sort-of-routine that worked for us.

Bluebell9 · 01/06/2021 11:43

I used the huckleberry app. It predicts the nap 'sweet spot' based on the wake period and how long the last sleep was etc.
Its free and you can use it for twins too.

SinkGirl · 01/06/2021 11:44

Routines never worked for my twins at all. They rarely ever slept at the same time and wanted to feed constantly. You can only do what you can do. Just make sure they’re fed, have had some good sensory stimulation and are physically comfortable. White noise helps.

Original poster

glasshalfsomething · 01/06/2021 22:49

Thanks everyone; it’s reassuring to hear that it’s possible not to follow that old method!

@FATEdestiny - I’m glad you cropped up; I’ve been stalking your old responses to others in older threads.

Your suggestion is really useful and it ink would fit much better with our life (esp the element of older sibling). Really appreciate your input.

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Babyboomtastic · 01/06/2021 23:30

At that age, I'm very surprised they only have two naps a day. I think both of mine were only transitioning from 4 to 3 at that age (then down to 2 about 9m ish and 1 at about 15m).

Original poster

glasshalfsomething · 02/06/2021 05:05

@Babyboomtastic - they also have a 4.30 one that I didn’t mention; but that’s hit and miss. Needs to be in the pram!

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Wallywobbles · 02/06/2021 05:10

With ours (15/16 years ago) - naps happened at the very first sign of rubbing eyes. For as long as they slept or was convenient.

But from rubbing eyes to bed was very quick, no faffing.

Ginfilledcats · 02/06/2021 05:57

God bless you trying to follow a specific times nap with twins, that must be so hard!

Like a pp at that age I aimed for a nap 2 hours after waking each time. DD really liked that and slept for 2 hours at each nap. She then slept through from 9m. 8-7

Though she was up at 4.45 this morning little horror!

Definitely just let them fall into their own routines and hope to god they're the same! There's a mum on YouTube with twins called Lucy Carter and she does routine videos with her twins at different ages, maybe worth watching to see if there's anything you can copy similar if you're interested?

Good luck!

Emmacb82 · 02/06/2021 06:23

I’ve never followed any kind of sleep routine as such, just gone by the baby’s cues and a rough idea of awake windows. Have absolutely no knowledge of twins though so can understand why it’s important to get them both to nap! Mine at that age roughly woke at 6/7 and awake for 2 hours and back down for nap at 9 ish. And then repeat, so up at 11 and down for a nap at 1 ish. And that seemed to work. I wouldn’t let them nap after 4 because I want them in bed and asleep by 7. So once they woke at 3 ish, that was it till bedtime. Hard to keep them going sometimes but necessary for an earlier bedtime.

traumatisednoodle · 02/06/2021 06:30

DS had sleeps similar to what FATEdestiny describes. From memory 9:30-11 then 2-3:30 bed at 7-7:30 up around 6:30. He seemed to keep this from 4m to 11m when he tranistion to one long lunchtime nap to fit in with nursery.

whatswithtodaytoday · 02/06/2021 06:31

Mine seemed to fall naturally into the 2/3/4 routine, I never stuck to it exactly but it was a good basis to work from.

skippetyskoo · 02/06/2021 06:46

Completely agree with going with babies natural rhythms , except these comments are nearly all posted by singletons. I have twins and honestly, it really did save my sanity to get them both down at the same time. Sometimes that meant trying to extend the awake time for one twin/waking one twin from a nap so they would both go down at the same time. Some days it didn’t work! The first nap I would usually make quite short - an hour at most, so I could get them both down at once. It meant I always had two slots of calm a day!

Original poster

glasshalfsomething · 02/06/2021 09:07

@skippetyskoo

Completely agree with going with babies natural rhythms , except these comments are nearly all posted by singletons. I have twins and honestly, it really did save my sanity to get them both down at the same time. Sometimes that meant trying to extend the awake time for one twin/waking one twin from a nap so they would both go down at the same time. Some days it didn’t work! The first nap I would usually make quite short - an hour at most, so I could get them both down at once. It meant I always had two slots of calm a day!

Two slots of calm is the dream! They’re down now, so will see what’s natural.

Although at the moment they’re tending to knly do one sleep cycle so they’re in the buggy so I can re-settle east if needs be!

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Mischance · 02/06/2021 09:08

Rule Number One: never wake a sleeping baby!!!

SleepingStandingUp · 02/06/2021 09:11

My twins are 17 months. At 5 months no way would I have woken them from a nap. I agree you need them to nap roughly the same times so perhaps it serves me right that they don't always but at that age we were Def just going with them

BunnyRuddington · 02/06/2021 09:15

At that age mine had pretty much fallen into a routine by themselves. I think @FATEdestiny rough schedule seems very workable, although my second baby would never have made it to 8pm, she was still going to bed at 7pm aged 6.

Smartiesandhugs · 02/06/2021 09:40

I would never wake a sleeping baby to stick to nap times. Put them down at the same time and let them sleep until they wake up. If you need to adjust afternoon nap do so accordingly.... even now I can’t bear to wake my 2.5 year old as surely if she is sleeping it’s because she needs it!

Bitofachinwag · 02/06/2021 09:43

Just let them sleep when they need to sleep. They'll soon find their own "routine ". Don't make life hard for yourself by thinking that you have to follow a routine set by someone else, even if they are a baby expert or an app.

Randomdogbite · 02/06/2021 09:54

Our twins didn’t have a schedule as I wouldn’t want to stick with it, days out and school runs would always be in the way. We fell into a rhythm that worked and also meant they would sleep anywhere in the buggy etc which I really needed otherwise I would have felt chained to the house. Always had a good bedtime routine that was set by the siblings though so the day always fell into place around this.

Original poster

glasshalfsomething · 02/06/2021 10:07

@Mischance

Rule Number One: never wake a sleeping baby!!!

See, I disagree with this for twins. If I don’t wake one and the other is wide awake there’s no chance of them settling at the same time later in the day!

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Original poster

glasshalfsomething · 02/06/2021 10:08

@Randomdogbite

Our twins didn’t have a schedule as I wouldn’t want to stick with it, days out and school runs would always be in the way. We fell into a rhythm that worked and also meant they would sleep anywhere in the buggy etc which I really needed otherwise I would have felt chained to the house. Always had a good bedtime routine that was set by the siblings though so the day always fell into place around this.

See, this is exactly what I want to get too. Maybe I just need to step back and see what happens naturally.

Did yours nap in cot also?

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Taytotots · 02/06/2021 10:28

You have got them both sleeping at same time. Definitely don't wake them . Mybteins are much older now but our nap routine was similar to @FATEdestiny. I did try to get them both to fall asleep together - we used to rock them in buggy with a particular piece of music on. Or just walk them in buggy if we were out. I didn't worry about waking them but they did seem to wake at similar times. Good luck.