CC to get my twins to have two-hour lunchtime nap

[Neenztwinz]

My twins have always been good sleepers and they sleep through the night from 7/8ish to 7.30am. They are 21 weeks old and still fully breastfed.

They go down for daytime naps really well, at 9am, noon and 4pm, but they only sleep for 45 mins.

I want their lunch sleep to be 2-2.5hrs (I need the break!!), and have been trying controlled crying this week to get them to sleep longer at lunch. My DS seems to be responding to it - he still wakes after 45 mins but I feed him then he goes back down - but my DD just screams and screams. Sometimes she goes back to sleep but only for 10 mins or so.

Should I ditch it and try again in a few weeks as they are still quite young? This is the third day in a row I have done CC... I also did Thurs, Fri and Sat last week... and it doesn't seem to be getting much better with DD. Is it worth carrying on?

If they sleep so well at night - around 12 hours? - they may not need so much daytime sleep.

A 2.5 hour nap is pretty long.

They aren't going to sleep that long just so you can have a break. It's as if babies know!

I think they're still too little to drop the morning and afternoon naps but as they get older you may find they will be awake all morning and sleep after lunch then go again until bedtime.

Try to make the most of what you're getting break-wise and repeat the new Mum mantra.....this will not last forever, this will not last forever...

cktwo, I know other mums who have sleep-trained their LOs to have a two-hour nap at lunch (as in the GF routine) so I think it can be done. It seems to be working with DS. It's just DD, she is more spirited.

They get really cranky in the afternoon if they only have 45 mins at lunch so I know they would benefit from longer.

I was just wondering whether I am doing it wrong... or if anyone had any tips to try. When they wake I go in after 5mins, then 10mins, then 20, 40 etc but sometimes it is a bit hit and miss cos obviously with twins it is hard to keep track of where each one is up to. Sometimes I stroke her, sometimes I just talk to her, sometimes I feed her, sometimes I pick her up then put her back down. Is it better to be consistent?

I think you have an unreasonable expectation of a 2.5 hour nap at 21 weeks. DS didn't get to 1.5 hour naps until 12 months, 2 hour naps until 18 months.

Your babies are twins, but that doesn't mean they'll respond the same to your parenting. It's perfectly reasonable that CC will work with one but not the other, but then you'll be in a bit of a pickle if DS is sleeping longer than DD and they are off kilter with their sleep needs.

I have twins...they did have 2 hour naps but not that young, they probably started around 14 or 18 months! I really don't think CC for little ones is a good idea...sorry...don't want to be militant, but I just think it's mean...basically. I think you're doing really well if they sleep that well at night. I used to take them out in the buggy for really long walks so they could either sleep or just look around and relax, and I could have some peace...(and great for losing the weight!)...It was quite a nice time, when they get older they won't sit in the buggy for that long anymore...

I wouldn't try too hard to get routines during the day, it seems like a losing battle...

my dd had 2 half hour naps at that age. she has never done the 2 hour lunch time nap at all. she quickly dropped to one half hour nap. and at about 20 months stopped having a nap every day, instead going maybe 3 times a week. now 2year old she has no nap. she's always been ready for night bedtime at 6.30, lately 7pm. and is up at 8am.

anyway...they don't all sleep the same.

dd's best friend does 3 hours at lunchtime. but only goes to bed at 9 or 10pm at night.

You are getting 12hrs approx sleep at night OMG at 21 weeks that is amazing and they are BF. You are a lucky women. Agree with MS but also totally against CC, sorry.

wkaing after 45 mins can be a sign of over tiredness

a baby sleep cycle is about this long

i would try something as simple as putting them to bed a bit earlier and seeing if that helps rather than CC

You are expecting too much of very tiny babies. most 21 week olds sleep for 45 minutes, several times a day.

You got lucky at night, don't get spoilt about it.

PS a 21 week old is neurologically incapable of understanding he is being deliberately ignored because you don't wish to meet his need for mothering. He will simply think you have gone. Tiny babies who stop crying for their mothers haven't 'learned', they have given up./

yes...its fundamentally wrong to leave a little baby to cry, everyone knows it deep down...

I don't know anything about CC but I know it's not for me. At 21 weeks they should be more alert and more into things during the day and be settling into a pattern of eating/awake/sleeping.
I wish you well but if something's not working you need to find another solution.

It is very common at 21 wks to have probs with the lunch nap. My dd is nearly 21 wks. She won't do a 2hr nap yet. We do a 30-40 mins nap in the morning. 35-45 mins at 12pm. She then gets up about 12.45/1pm and then about 1hr later, we go for a walk/go in the car somewhere and she sleeps for another 30 mins. She then does another 30 mins about 4.30/4.45pm.

It is a bit of a pain but she sleeps 7-7pm with a dreamfeed at 11pm which is fab. I also know she is getting enough daytime sleep.

Gina Ford says not to do cc when they are so young. She also says that if the lunch nap is not working yet, ditch it for a while until they are bigger.

Many of my friends who followed Gina Ford said that it took quite a while to get the lunch nap sorted.

Neenz - I know its tough but you get a good sleep at night which a huge amount of mothers don't get until way later.

It took me ages to get the lunchtime nap sorted for my DTs. And they didn't sleep through till they were about 15 months old, so count yourself lucky on that front .

I did do controlled crying with my two, but when they were older, and I never left them to cry for longer than 10 minutes - that was as long as I felt they, and I, (and the neighbours!) could stand it for. Although cc worked for me eventually, if I'd left them for longer than 10 minutes they would have worked themselves up into a hysterical frenzy which would have been upsetting for all of us. 40 minutes is way too long to leave any baby to cry on their own, let alone one of 21 weeks.

And when you do controlled crying properly, you have to be consistent about what you do when you go into them. A quick cuddle to settle them is what a sleep therapist recommended to us - anything more, particularly feeding, gives the wrong message. But I think even advocates of cc don't recommend it for babies younger than 6 months at the very least.

Thanks to all for their messages... will hold off on CC for now. DS does now sleep longer at lunch if I feed him in the middle. DD... no chance! Yes I know I am lucky - my twins are absolutely wonderful

My son's lunchtime nap has been my saving grace of getting my head around motherhood and I don't think you are being unrealistic about wanting your twins to sleep for 2 hours at lunchtime. My son was doing 2 hours at lunch at about 6 months.

My son sleeps 12 hours at night, 40 mins in the morning and 2 hours at lunchtime. It took me a few months for him to get the hang of it, but I started off by giving him only 15/20 mins to sleep for his 9.30am sleep and then I knew he would be tired for his lunchtime sleep. I kept the morning sleep at 15/20 mins for about 2 months, but over the last few months, he's gradually settled into the two hour luncthime sleep and this has meant that slowly I've stretched out the morning sleep from 15/20 mins to about 40 mins... bliss!!! (he's 10 months old now)