Hello, I haven't posted for a while and have just been catching up on all the news around here!

But, I also wanted to ask your advice, particularly those with toddler or older twins. Ella and Grace are just over 2.5yrs old and have been resisting a daytime sleep for several months now. for a while they would sleep maybe 4 days in 7, then 3, then 2 and now of course none!

I had resigned myself to the idea that they would just have a "rest" (read "playtime") in their room so that I could at least still have a break but they are just so tired all the time! They start the day yawning and finish it very very very cranky. It makes them fight with each other more, fall over more and generally carry on and whinge more and I really can't stand it!

What's made it worse in the last couple of weeks is that they can now get out of bed (I know we had a good run on this, getting this far), but now they also wake up and get up earlier int he mornings, meaning even less sleep. And more crankiness.

It doesn't matter if I coax, bribe, yell, threaten, stay in the room, go in every five minutes to put them back in bed they just won't do it. I wouldnt' mind so much if they were coping but I just feel like they still need the sleep.

I'm just wondering if others have had this problem and if you tried putting them in separate rooms. We could do this if we really had to but it would be a BIG reshuffle and we'd want to be fairly confident it would work, or at least that they wouldn't completely freak out at not being with each other. or, if there are any ideas out there we haven't though of about getting them to keep sleeping, I'd love to hear them!

[color=Teal]You poor thing! I'm no help at all to you as we're just starting to go through the same sort of thing at our place, but I just wanted to let you know you're not alone, and send you a big ((((((((((hug))))))))))!!!

I'm very interested to hear what can help with this as Kai in particular isn't keen on day time sleeps lately, and Ryan's starting to want or need them too! I soooo miss my couple of hours in the afternoon where I can catch up on housework, paying bills or just resting up myself!! ;p

Would love some advice too!

Vanessa

Hi girls

Well Georgia and Kelsey stopped having daytime sleeps at about 18 months and I felt as if my throat had been cut. I really enjoyed that time out every day but it got to a stage where they were simply not interested, it was hard work to get them to lay down for a rest or if they did sleep, wouldn't sleep until late that night.

I think all you can do it have a quiet time each day, after lunch or when ever they start to look a bit weary, where you sit with them and watch a video or read some stories.

My girls used to sit and watch ABC kids in the afternoons (especially banana's in pj's and playschool). I found it to be enough to recharge and last until bedtime.

Or what about taking them for a walk in the pusher/stroller?? Would they sleep in there?

It is a really crappy stage....unfortunately we are still having bedtime issues with mucking around and am tossing up the moving room thing too. As you said it is a fairly big move so we want to be sure it will work.

I hope it gets better for all of us soon.

Chin up twin mums......YAY for bedtime



Amanda
Georgia and Kelsey 26.3.99
Piper 1.7.04

Hi Kate,

We are shortly going to do the big bed thing with the girls too. They are still in cots and have a good 2 hours sleep during the day. As I was discussing with DH, we have to bite the bullet at some stage.

I will also be keeping a very close eye on this thread. Cots is easier, but when they don't (usually only Soph) want to have a nap now, I say "that's fine, you just sit there and read some books", she choses them and within the next 1/2 hour or so, she is sound asleep. Another thing I do is tell her that she can chose what they will do when they wake up eg. play-doh or glue are the favorites at the moments. As I said, it is much easier with cots, cos they can't get out. I'm not really looking forward to the next stage and send you hugs!!

Cheers

Edited for bad grammer!

Kate
Alicia and Sophie 2/12/02



This message was edited by KateTwinMum on Monday, 23 May 2005 @ 8:03 PM

My girls turned 2 in march. Everyone is telling me that they are cutting out their day sleep which I find absolutely ridiculous as they sleep at d/c for almost 2hrs 3 dys a wk, and when at home sometimes up to 3hrs BUT this isn't all the time and even though they show all the classic signs of being tired they refuse to go down. I find one goes to sleep the other then jumps on her and wakes her up. I have seperated them one screamed the house down the other spent 10mins jumping on the bed. I got frsutrated put them back in their room and they went straight to sleep. On their off days I put them down at 12-1pm. if they're mucking around i get them back up for 10 -15mins then put them back in their room for another try, sometimes it works other days I just let them scream, play or read. I find they do keep each other up even when exhausted. If push comes to shove I put them in the car if I just can't take it anymore and then have a bit of peace while they sleep in the car or whatever.
It is extremely frustrating losing that precious time. fortunately for me one will sit and read quietly while the other will basically jump off the roof given the chance (not literally lol)Just another fork in the road unfortunately but whats a mum to do w/ no spare time..