I have 1 year old twin boys (born 7 weeks early). They still take 2 naps each day - one at 9-930ish (for an hour) and the other at 2-230ish (for 40-90 minutes). I put them to bed around 730pm each night and they, thankfully, usually sleep through the night. They were consistently waking in the 6 o'clock hour until 1-2 weeks ago when one of them started to wake at 445-515ish. I tried letting him play, cry, etc in the hopes he would return to sleep but he didn't. The other sometimes gets woken up by his crying, too, which is the pits. I can handle an early rise time but the whole day gets thrown as far as their naps go. Could he be going through a phase due to growth, teeth, etc? Do you think he needs less leep then his brother and I should try to put him down 30-60 minutes later at night...although he seems pretty wirey and does go down fairly easy at his current bedtime? Or should I just ride it out?
Is one of them waking when it starts to get light out? My son did that last year at daylight savings time and it took me 2 weeks to realize the sun shone through the trees into his bed. We put a thick blanket over the window and he slept until 9 the next day to make up for lost sleep. Good luck
Dear A.,
It probably is that he isn't requiring as much sleep and just isn't tired. Have you tried slowly transitioning them to one long afternoon nap. I own a childcare center and we try to get our one year olds to nap at around twelve so we can get them to transition into the toddler classroom. The reason I say this is they usually sleep from around 12 until 2 or 2:30. I know when you total up the two naps it seems like the same amount of sleep but for some reason it seems to work better for our moms. What we do is we give lunch around 11:30 give them their bottle and put them down for their naps at twelve. It may be a good choice for you and will give you a nice long break in the afternoon. Studies show the earlier children go to bed the longer they sleep, so they do not become overtired. I don't think your kids are overtired so I would not change their bedtime. When I put my kids to bed later assuming they would wake later it never worked they still woke up the same time. I think this may just be that your one son has had enough sleep and you just need to ride it out. You can try doing the one long nap and see if it helps. Good luck with your addition to your wonderful family.
One of my twins was like that too. He just needed less sleep. Even today (at age 3), he can get away with no nap at all, whereas the other twin can barely function without a nap. It's hard to put just one of the twins on a one-nap schedule. you'll probably have to put them both on one nap a day. Also, this probably is a bad week for them anyway b/c of the time change. My boys gave up the nap around 14 months because I started taking them to gym and music classes and they were always during the time period of the first nap.... So it's a natural time to switch to one nap a day.
I agree w/Diane. I dropped the 2nd nap at about 9 months of age because they just wouldn't sleep for long and the time i spent trying to put them to sleep made it not worth it anymore.
If you're going to drop the 2nd nap for the early riser, then do it for both. No point in you entertaining one while the other is sleeping. you need your rest too (prepping you for 'terrible twos').
good luck
Hi A.
As I mother of twins myself albeit they were a year old quite some time ago, I can tell you that they do have very different sleep patterns. One of the girls would wake the other. It was a nightmare. My solution was to have the early riser not take a morning nap. By noonish she was ready to sit still while I read stories or we did rhymes etc, so was her sister because she was just waking up. They both went down for the afternoon nap until they were not quite 2. They both went to bed for the night at about 8. Mine were all early risers but it never worked to cut the PM nap, or to wake them so they didn't sleep so long.
Don't ask about turning two because all my kids turned crazy about sleeping then. They all don't need the same amt of sleep. In fact one of mine slept/sleeps 2 hours in 24, one of the twins 4-5 hours in 24, one about 8 hours in 24, and lastly our oldest still sleeps 8-10 hours in 24. Hey they are all adults now but all started this around 2 and continue to this day -- in order of the above sleep patterns they are 32 lawyer with wife and our only grandbaby, 18 one of the twins in college majoring in fine arts, 18 the other twin in college majoring in journalism, and 37 volleyball coach--college level hoping to coach at the international level again.
God bless you and your lovely family
Congrats on the new baby on the way. Hey I met a lady once with 3 children in the grocery cart, twins and then single they were 7 months apart.
K. SAHM married 38 years.
