I am the type of person that thrives on schedule, routine and organization, that's just how I always have been and imagine I always will be. As a teacher I have learned some flexibility and how to "roll with the punches" but I definitely prefer to stick to a routine! That being said, these first four months we have NOT had any real type of schedule. The girls usually wake up around 7:30 and take a 45 minute nap at 9:00, but other than this, they are very hard to predict. It makes it so hard to plan my day. This is driving me crazy! I have held off forcing a schedule on them until they were "ready" and I think it is time! The girls always get tired about 90-120 minutes after awake time, and they generally nap about 45 minutes, although they have had some longer stretches lately. They also seem to be going longer between feedings, so I am hoping to stretch from every 2 hours to every 3.
I have read at least three different books about the subject of napping and feeding schedules and sought the advice of many other twin moms, as well as my own mom and sister, and have come up with my "plan." I will lay them down at 9, 12, and 3. These will be our daily nap times. They will stay in their cribs for at least an hour at each of these times, asleep or not. There may be some fussing and crying, but hopefully after a few days they will "get it." I will feed them when they wake and then approximately every three hours after, so around 7:30, 10:30, 1:30, 4:30. Of course I will be flexible with this, if they are hungry I will feed them! They have been getting baths and going to bed around 6:00/6:30 so we will keep this the same. I always nurse them just before bed and then put them down, asleep or awake.
If this works, my life will be much less chaotic and it will be much easier to plan outings. We will just have to work hard to schedule things around their naps so that they can be home in their cribs at these times. We'll give it a week and then reassess.
Wish me luck! Our next challenge after this.... sleeping through the night, ugh!
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This is a site for our family and friends to share the joys and challenges of our lives with a nine year old singleton and toddler twins! Our fraternal twin daughters were born on October 23, 2007 via scheduled c-section at 38 weeks weighing in at a healthy 6 lbs. 9 oz.(Candace) and 6 lbs. 3 oz (Cassidy.)
2 comments:
I feel for you. I know what you mean about wanting them on a schedule. We are slowly getting the girls to get in some time of routine. I need to get them to nap in their cribs. Right now they nap in their rockers or swings. I think we finally have the night time thing down, it's just the daytime activities we have to work on. Good Luck!!
I feel ya! I would love to have a nap schedule and think that once we get in the house and they have seperate rooms I will be able to accomplish this. We will have to figure a good time for our weekly walks then. Good luck and keep us posted so we can see how they are doing.
Damiane'
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