Since my twin daughters’ birth, one has been a better sleeper than the other, even though they were put on the same schedule from the beginning. While they were both good to me at a young age and slept through the night, if someone were to get up at night, it was Lisa, and still is Lisa. If someone were to take a long time to fall asleep, it was her as well. But, my other daughter, Alison, almost never gets up at night. Alison can sleep through her sister’s night wakings and subsequent crying and bedroom door opening and closings. She really only gets up if she is sick or something. It is wonderful.
At nap time, Alison is generally much quicker to fall asleep. She just needs her special blanket. And she can then sleep for at least two hours but has been known to sleep for up to three, or, on a rare day, even longer. Her sister Lisa on the other hand, fights taking a nap with tears, requests for books, drinks of water, and protest of, “I don’t want to take a nap!”
So, my husband and I have tried numerous thing to coax Lisa to nap every day – rewards for taking a nap; punishments for not taking a nap; loving words; threats; sitting in the room until she falls asleep; ignoring her; giving her books or a toy; moving nap time back; and so on. But, that girl can happily roll around her bed for an hour, and still not fall asleep, frustrating her parents to no end at the same time.
Lately, Lisa is hit or miss with napping. It seems more often than not, she does not take a nap.
So, my question is, to all the seasoned MOMs out there – what do you do when one of your twins seems to be done with naps? I am stubborn and still try putting her down for a nap every single day, at the same time that her sister Alison goes down. I know my girls are now three, and that maybe I should just be grateful that they’ve napped as long as they have, but naps are precious to me, especially as I have a newborn and desperately want to take a nap each day too! Plus, she gets destructive and defiant when she doesn’t nap, and is then ready for bed much earlier at night than her sister. I really don’t like them on different schedules.
So, when did your twins stop napping? How did you encourage a stubborn napper to sleep? Or what did you do with them once they stopped napping? Quiet time? And what did that quiet time look like?
ldskatelyn is a wife and mother of three kids, including a set of three year old fraternal twin daughters and brand new newborn son. She works hard to mantain balance in all things as she stays at home with her kids and runs the household, supporting her grad student husband. She blogs about her life and other things over at whatsupfagans.blogspot.com.