Hi Ladies,

My beautiful twins are 16 weeks old and are named Thomas and Ella. Im really starting to enjoy them now, they are smiling and interacting well. My question to anyone is how do you get them to sleep longer at nap times, as Im currently only getting half an hour out of them at a time? I put music on for them, but wonder whether its worth blacking out the windows also? They are great with bedtime (around 8pm-ish), as they can tell the difference between night and day. They aren't quite sleeping through the night, but we can get 5 hours out of them at the start. Still crossing the fingers that will happen in the very near future.

Any ideas about setting routines or tips for getting them to nap longer would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Nat

hi!

Im glad you asked this question as Connor is doing exaclty the same thing. He is really sleepy but only naps for 30-40 minutes. Most of the time I try to resettle but if he looks wide awake I dont bother.

Ive tried everything you can think of to make him sleep longer and none of it works every time. I just think he needs less sleep! I read a thread in 'Your New Baby' about this and it seems like alot of babies only have short naps. But its hard to live with cos Connor is grumpier sometimes...

Actually the only thing that seems to work is to have him in my arms - how very restrictive!!!

So i cant help you with this one...but it would be interesting to see if others have more suggestions!

Hi!

Believe me I am no expert- half the time I wonder what on earth I am doing! But my boys are generally pretty good with their naps and are a similar age to your two.

I don't know how you feel about dummies (I used to say I'd never use them) but I find them very helpful in settling the boys for sleep. I tend to have only used the dummies when I wanted them to sleep so now they associate the dummy with sleep. I originally introduced the dummy to stretch out the time between feeds as the boys were wanting to suck for comfort.

In saying this though, it is a right pain when the dummy falls out and the bubba wakes up expecting it to still be in his mouth! During the day I don't mind going to put it back in but at night every minute of sleep is precious, so I don't give the boys the dummy after the dream feed (they usually wake up for this feed). Particularly painful the night before last trying to settle Ben who has become addicted to his dummy but was achieved and he had to be woken at 6.30am for a feed with no wake ups during the night. Anyway thats my experience with dummies, can be good for settling but also evil!

The other thing I have found is that the boys (especially Max) will wake from their day sleeps after an hour and seem wide awake- often needing a burp- but if I persist in settling, he will go back to sleep until the next feed. Alot of patting, shushing and usually dummy. With Max, once he is asleep he usually spits the dummy out and doesn't wake up looking for it. So even though he seems absolutely wide awake, after a burp and persistent settling, he will usually go back to sleep.

The other thing, if all else fails, is we have a battery operated swing- absolute gem of a piece of equipment- will always calm them down and usually send them off to sleep (even in our 'arsenic hour' between 5pm and 6pm)

As for blacking out the windows, I'm not sure. We're thinking of trying it at night in the hope they will wake later in the morning but during the day we have the blind shut but it is still fairly light. My thinking is that they sleep in the swing in broad daylight, the pram and the car and that I want them to know the difference between their day sleeps and their long night sleep. I also want them to be able to sleep anywhere even though it is not pitch black.

Anyway, I have rambled on for ages! Hope I have given you some ideas (although everything for me is still a bit trial-and-error) Good luck!

Love Em

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Sleep - the most rivetting topic for all mothers!! With my elder daughter I read everything there was, took in all the advice and tried to apply it, and she was a shocking sleeper, I thought it must be me I am not following the "rules" properly. When she started crawling I eventually got more than 40 minutes nap out of her.
So before the twins were born I decided, poohey to all the don't rock don't feed them to sleep and all the don't set up sleep association stuff, If there is anything I want in this world it is for may babies to have sleep associations, anything to get sleep out of them and preferably at the same time was my aim in life! So I say do whatever is necessary, feed them again, give them a dummy, rock them, or let them cry while you do what has to be done, usually washing, cooking or attending to the other baby. It seems like forever but the time will fly by and when they are older if they have persisted you can worry about sleep associations in future when you are more rested.