I have twin girls who just turned two. Since the time change two weeks ago, their normal routine is up around 8:30 am, nap around 1:30. Naps have been anywhere from 1-2 hours. Then bedtime at 8:00pm. Since the time change, one of the twins gets in bed at 8:15 after teeth brush, book, prayers, and lays down like she is really tired. After about 20 minutes, she is raring to go. She sings, talks, hits her foot on the walll for about 1 - 1/2 hours. Then she will fall asleep. THEN she will wake up after about 1 1/2 hours every night and cry. I go in to her, give her a kiss, cover her up, and tell her night night. Then she sleeps the rest of the night. The problem is she is keeping my other twin up at night which is making her tired. We thought about putting them in separate rooms, but that would probably make matters worse. Lucie, who is the one that talks so much, would probably be very upset and try to go get her sister. I am wondering if we should wake her up after an hour of nap. Are they sleeping too much during the day? I tried pushing bedtime to around 8:30 but she still sang and played for at least another hour. I have illiminated as toys as possible except the ones she sleeps with. What would you suggest for her sleeping pattern?
Sometimes when a child is overtired it may take them even longer to fall asleep and can affect their sleep patterns into the night. I'd suggest trying to ease the bedtime back by a half- hour to an hour. Put her to bed 15 minutes earlier every couple of days until you see an improvement. Good luck. :-)
I would try cutting back on nap time. Both of my kids stopped taking regular naps at 18months old. They have and still take an occasional nap, although I really try to not let them because it completely messes with their bedtime. All kids are different, time to experiment. Good luck.
We separated our twins as soon as we converted the cribs to toddler beds. It was a difficult decision but it worked wonders and we all slept so much better. We also put door knob covers on the inside of their bedroom doors so that they could not get out and into each other's rooms. We would open the doors a crack once they fell asleep.
Also, your solution might be to make their bedtime earlier not later! I know it sounds backwards but moving the bedtime to earlier may get them to sleep before that second wind kicks in. Try 7:30 for a week or so and see what happens. Keep the nap as long as you can but make it as early in the day as possible and do try the earlier bedtime routine if possible. Mine are 4 and now go to bed at 7:00 since they no longer nap during the day.
Good luck!
My son is a little over 2 and right around age 2, his sleeping got all weird again. He co-sleeps, so I cannot compare exactly. But particularly since the time change, he's been all off. He typically is up by about 7am, sometimes before, naps either around 10am or sometimes not until around 12-depends on if I keep him busy. Sleeps for 1-3 hours...it's all over the place and then doesn't want to go to sleep now until 9-10pm! He gets those little fits of crazy too! He's be all sleepy and lay down for a minute and then just go nuts!
I've just been experimenting, moving the nap around, moving activities in the day to see if it helps or hurts, playing with the bedtime routine. Seems this might be a 2 year old thing because all the kids in his playgroup are doing similar strange things and dropping naps or not sleeping as much. Best thing I can recommend is to just experiment and see what works best for them both. Talk to them about it to, ask if they are tired, etc.
Hope it improves! We're still touch and go...
