We are struggling with naps and bedtime. Mainly with Emerie. Nap time still consists of me rocking both of them at the same time to sleep. Daiton falls asleep and I get him on the chair by himself and then transfer Emerie to my bed and go back to put Daiton in his crib.
Sounds seem less right? NO! Lately Emerie won’t let me put her in her crib OUT OF NOWHERE! So hence getting her to sleep in my bed, where before I was putting her in her crib and Daiton in my bed just cause they sleep on a barge an hour more or less than the other, no one knows who will wake first each day so having them separated helps ease wake up craziness.
Well a lot of the time Emerie won’t even let me transfer her into my bed either and I spend an hour trying to get her to sleep. Or she reawakens Daiton or visa versa and I spend and hour getting both or at least one back to sleep. Then if I’m lucky I eat some lunch or take a brief “snooze” myself.
Then Emerie us is ally wakes up unbelievably cranky and throwing a screaming fit for an hour or more with no rhyme or reason and no means of telling me what I can do. Sometimes this wears on me so much that I lose it and end up screaming as well only to immediately feel terrible for it. That actually happens on other occasions as well and I hate myself for it!
Back to naps. With 13 weeks or less to go before our #3 Lyric gets here I’m frantically searching for a new alternative to our nap time routine that will work better. I’m open to logical advice especially from other moms of twins or two year olds who have dealt with similar problems.
So, bedtime. We went through a really rough almost two months of very early waking (3/4am) and subsequently early naps. Now that we have moved again and are settled things have evened out and the kids are sleeping in until 6:15-6:30, also due to our OK TO WAKE clock! Something finally worked for us. We also reestablished Cry It Out in the middle of the night and don’t get them anymore.
As for the going to bed part that’s been hard with Emerie. Usually she would cry for 2.5 seconds and lay down and be out. Daiton was our hardball with Cry It Out always. Now I jut tell Daiton that once he is done with his bottle we will stop rocking and I will lay him down and put his blankets one and he will go to sleep like a big boy. Well, he does just that with no peep at all. Crazy and amazing!
Emerie now fight sleep hard and has to be out cold to be put in her crib or she cried hysterically for a long time. It’s hard to have one like that in the same room with another sleeping soundly cause it can lead to both screaming. So what do we do? How can we get her back to going to sleep easily before we have another here too?
We were thinking of transitioning them into toddler beds in hopes we could get them excited to get in their bed themselves and lay down and read a story and then go to bed. Also because they can get INTO their cribs now and Daiton is quickly turning the tables and trying to get out. He’s a bit scared of falling so he hasn’t fully tried yet but I know it’s coming. Again, another thing to worry about happening right as Lyric gets here. So, should we bite the bullet and transition them now to have time to settle into that new routine before he gets here?
When did you transfer yours into toddler beds? Why did you transfer? What obstacles did you face by doing so? How long did it take for them and you to get comfortable with the new routine? How did it change their sleep habits?
Ladylove & Babydust 
Nap and bedtime have been two of the four hardest parts of parenting young children in my world. Every time we would think it was getting better another tooth would start coming in, or some other crap. At 3, Darwin is finally starting to sleep through the night some nights. But she grinds her teeth and it makes me want to cry. It is so, so hard. I wish I had good advice but mostly just solidarity.
Thanks. My kids sleep through the night most nights thank goodness! But we had to nix our normal CIO routine for 7 months due to constant illness or teething. Now that they are done teething I feel like things have evened out enough to try something different. Just do t m ow what yet.
Bedtime was/is the bane of my existence, for both kids but for different reasons. Answers to your questions below,’for whatever they’re worth.
When did you transfer yours into toddler beds?
Just before three and a half
Why did you transfer?
Mostly because we were about to begin trying for our second and didn’t want to fight the “baby is stealing MY bed” battle.
What obstacles did you face by doing so?
Post-lights-out stalling/not staying in bed. Excuses to get out, searching for the things we were least likely to say no to.
How long did it take for them and you to get comfortable with the new routine?
Fast enough that I don’t remember it being an issue.
How did it change their sleep habits?
It didn’t. Changed the bedtime routine, but not the sleeping. Except a few incidents of falling out of bed (which she didn’t actually remember in the morning).
Oh, and little one went from our bed to a bunk bed (big sister went from toddler bed to top bunk at the same time) right around her second birthday. Let me know if you want answers to your questions for that transition as well.
You can tell me anything you want I’m all ears
I honestly don’t know how helpful it is, because bedtime feels like even more of a shitshow (for me, mostly; my wife seems to have the routine down) now that Julia is in the bunk bed, and it’s compounded by the back-and-forth frustration with Clementine (why they cannot both be quiet at the same time is utterly beyond me). But, here are my answers:
When did you transfer yours into toddler beds?
Bottom bunk with big sister on the top right around little one’s second birthday.
Why did you transfer?
I wanted her out of my bed.
What obstacles did you face by doing so?
Unlike her sister, she climbs out of the open bed. Biggest obstacle is the challenge of getting two kids to sleep at once. You are probably ahead of me on this.
How long did it take for them and you to get comfortable with the new routine?
Dunno, really. It went pretty well at first and (sorry to report) has gotten worse over time. things are much better for my wife, who is more consistent than I.
How did it change their sleep habits?
Again, not at all.
We transitioned a few months ago knowing a new baby was on the way, because I didn’t want a situation where my older son felt like the baby was coming in and taking all his stuff. So in that regard if you’re thinking about it, I say don’t wait.
The transition was really easy for us. After two nights of him trying to get out of bed and run down the hall, I told him I’d start taking stuffed animals away (he sleeps with roughly 100) and it never happened again. We also wanted to start nighttime potty training as well (he was 3.5 when we made the switch) and I wanted to make sure he could get to the bathroom himself if needed so that was a big part of it.
We are well on our way to being fully potty trained but I think night time potty training is going to be more difficult than I’m ready for right now.
I’m pretty sure we will be transitioning them in the next couple weeks.
We transitioned the twins to toddler beds around 18m I think. Then just recently, after loosing my marbles bc bedtime and getting them to sleep was so crazy, we put them in twin beds which has been going much much better.
Naps are hard for us right now to
(Whoops!)
Naps are hard so I instilled quiet time. We all lay in our bed and watch a movie. If they sleep, great. If not, they need to be quiet. If they horse around then they can go lay in their bed alone. It give me time to put my feet up and close my eyes some days too. With baby nearly here, my son has been really struggling with separation anxiety. Everything that I’ve read and have been told even my the preschool teachers is to maintain a routine. So that’s what we are doing. With lots of hugs and cuddling in between 😊. With the decrease in actual sleeping time means an earlier bed time for them. I was worried that it meant they’d be waking at the crack of dawn but they aren’t. They sleep roughly from 730/830 pm to 7-8am.
I’ve always felt that having a routine made my life with kids easier. My wife is just the opposite she finds routine to be annoying or something.
I want to do twin beds too but it’s an added cost right now