GoodNight SleepBlog

Day 3 of Transition to One Nap

August 18, 2012 at 8:56 AM Leave a comment

Okay so on Day 3 I cheated a little…  I kind of pawned the twins off to my parents while we took the four-year old to Canada’s Wonderland.  So I wasn’t really there to experience the crankiness in all it’s glory but gathering from Nana’s report there wasn’t too much crankiness to witness!  Yay!

My mom was so happy to hear they didn’t have to have their morning nap.  She’s been wanting to spend more time with them and it was tough when she always had to work around their nap schedule.  We brought her the stroller and she was finally able to take them out to the park and show off her grandchildren.  She frequented the park quite a bit with my eldest daughter so everyone knew about the twins. She was so happy to finally bring them and more importantly Duncan and Lila had a blast.  She followed my instructions of getting them down no later than noon and letting them go as long as possible.  My mom is pretty awesome with following my sleep instructions as she understands the importance of a consistent routine and the need to not push their limits when it comes to sleep, so I wasn’t at all worried that all my previous hard work the days before would be for nothing.

The report came back that all went well.  She fed them an early lunch and got them down on time and they slept off and on until around 3:30.  Amazing.  When we picked them up they seemed in good spirits but I could tell they were a little rough for wear around their eyes.  It was day 3 after all and the change of routine, not to mention they just napped in their pack and plays and probably didn’t have the best sleep possible, was starting to catch up to them.  It was even more important now to watch their signs and get them down nice and early for bedtime.

It was another night of an early dinner and bedtime.  Everyone was in bed by 6pm, including the four-year old.  It was a loooong day at Canada’s Wonderland, for mom and dad too.  Early bedtime for everyone all around!

The past couple of days there hasn’t been too much to report.  Lila is adjusting and Duncan is doing great.  He really could have dropped that nap a few weeks ago but such is life with twins!  Had to meet in the middle so they could remain on the same schedule.  This is it, there’s no going back.  No more morning nap, so all I can do is remain consistent with their routine and make sure that for the next few weeks I’m making a conscious effort of having them log in as much sleep as possible so that they don’t accumulate any sleep debt.  That means that start time for their nap will remain at 12:00 pm for a while with our goal to be pushing it to 12:30.  I’ll know when I’m able to do that.  I also have the rule that no matter what they are in their crib until at least 3:00 pm.  I have to encourage them to lengthen out that nap again.  A 1 to 1.5 hour nap won’t cut it anymore in the afternoon.  Because there isn’t a morning nap any longer we have to redistribute their sleep time, therefore making that afternoon nap longer.  Even if they wake up at 2:00 pm they stay in their crib until 3pm.  Bedtime will remain at 6pm for another week or so.  I’ll be able to push that back to 6:30 pm soon and then aim for 7:00 once they get closer to 24 months.

So that has been my journey thus far.  While I won’t be updating daily, I will let you know if we have any hiccups down the road.  Sleep training and making transitions can have its ups and downs even for my children.  But as I always tell you, with persistence and consistency we will succeed!  And we are more than half way there.

Thank you for joining me on my journey everyone!  Lila and Duncan say thank you too 🙂

Entry filed under: Talkin Zzzz's.... Tags: Naps...Ugh..., Sleep Tips, Sleep Training, Twins!.