FTM winging it….should I drop I nap??

[Kaxford]

Hi mums, I’m looking for some advice please!!
I have twin boys that have been pretty terrible sleepers since they turned 4 months old, they turned a year a few weeks back. They are still on two naps a day but the past three nights one of the boys has been bloody hard work to put to bed. We give them their bottle in the nursery and then rock/bounce them to sleep. Normally they are asleep and in the cot (they sleep in a big cot together) within ten minutes but it’s been 40 minutes of messing with the one lad for three nights now 🙈 he’s been slightly resisting going to sleep for his second nap of the day but I didn’t want to jump the gun and say he’s trying to drop it but maybe I was wrong? I don’t really want to push bedtime later, mainly because I want to go to bed too 😂 what would your advice be girls xx
picture of the lads snuggled up in the big cot for reference!!

How is he with his naps during the day? I knew when my little one wanted to drop a nap as she would fight going down and would be awake for ages instead of her normal falling asleep. Now she has one big nap in the middle of the day.
It might be worth trialling one nap to see how you get on?

Not long after my little one turned one, her night time routine really switched up. She was difficult to put down and was awake much later. After dinner I started quiet time and moved upstairs instead of staying down with all of her toys. I found she was over stimulated before bed and would become a bit hyper. Just moving upstairs with some books and softer lights helped her to become a bit more sleepy and realise this was the start of bedtime routine.

They normally take their first nap 3.5 to four hours after getting up and they go down pretty easily for that it’s the after lunch nap that John is starting to resist and although he looked tired and ready for bed at bedtime 40 mins of messing and laughing to get him to sleep he clearly isn’t that tired! He woke roaring crying then at 9.30 which is earlier than he’d normally wake looking for me 🤦‍♀️ I’m just concerned that because their first nap is well before lunchtime that it makes the afternoon very long for them? Should I try and push back their first nap too?
they evening routine is dinner around 5pm, play with daddy when he gets home wheetabix or porridge around 6.15 and then jammies on and chill out with a cuddle and watching mr tumble or Nick cope until about 7 and into the nursery for their bottle and a cuddle until they are asleep. We tired putting them down before they were actually asleep and all that happens is they jump up and no amount of back patting and shushing will get them back down

Could you swap the nick cope/ mr tumble for a bit of soft music and a book? The tv might be stimulating them a bit more.

Could you try push their morning nap to midday and do their lunch before or after it? This way the afternoon might not feel as long. The drop to one nap is difficult so it’s most likely that what’s causing the night time fussiness!

I would try early lunch then one long nap from maybe 11.30 til whenever they wake, then bed earlier at 6pm.

So quick update! We did one nap yesterday and moved bedtime 15 minutes earlier cos they were really getting tired. Down in ten minutes no messing or laughing involved 🙈 I possibly made a bit of a error I re-jigged their cot so there is a rail between them rather than nothing so they have their own space but I think they missed each other a bit and couldn’t star fish as much as they’ve been used too so I possibly shouldn’t have done that and gone down to one nap at the same time, they were quite unsettled early in the night but one lad lasted in the cot until 2am and the other lad lasted until 5am which is really good going. We slept until 7.20 this morning and I pushed their morning nap out so they were both down and asleep for 11am. They had a pretty good day, a little cranky before dinner but they had a play in the bath then and have just gone to bed and again straight down no messing 🥰 hopefully they have a more settled night in the cot on night two….new cot configuration included!

I’m glad that’s worked better for you! 🤞🤞 this is a new thing for them and they go down a lot easier going forward!

Ah that's great it does take a big of jigging around to get the timings exactly right but that's a brilliant start. I think you changed up the cot at just the right time actually, while your sleeps going to be possibly be disturbed by a new routine why not kill two birds with one stone.

Oh and don't be put off if the clocks changing upsets the apple cart again - you can actually use this to your advantage if they've been getting too tired for their 7pm bedtime.

I didn’t know what to do about the clocks changing 🙈 I read that if I was happy with the time they were getting up that I didn’t need to change anything? And I am. It’s normally around 6.30 7am which is totally fine by me. So do I just stick to 7pm the new 7pm?