It was nice to still have the naptime- some downtime for all of us- but with a late starting nap, my kids were no longer falling asleep before 8pm most nights. And no matter how much I wanted that mid-day break, I knew that it wasn’t worth having 3 year olds who were still awake at 9 o’clock at night. So, we started to entertain the idea of quiet time.

I knew right away that for quiet time to really be quiet, Buba and Tiny would have to be separated- one in their bedroom and one in the living room. They would also need quiet toys to play with- things that could keep them busy and happy for more than a few minutes. So, I put together a bag for each of them, including puzzles, sewing cards, a Magna Doodle, their Tag Readers, and a few small stuffed animals. We talked about the rules for quiet time- stay in your quiet space, play quietly, rest or nap if you’d like- and then gave it a try.

I thought it might take them some time to get used to this routine change, but it’s gone very, very well from day one. Tiny and Buba alternate their quiet time space each day, and are pretty good about staying quiet the whole time (about 60 minutes). I’m still able to get lesson plans done during this time, and I often sneak in a catnap for myself. So far it seems to be a win-win situation. They seem to benefit from some downtime on their own (sometimes they even take a catnap themselves), and bedtime is back to 7pm with both kids asleep no later than 7:30 (often they’re asleep within minutes).

And when quiet time is over, both Buba and Tiny are so happy to see each other and play together again. They even extend quite time sometimes by pretending to nap together in their play tent.

Tiny are Buba are so proud to be big kids who don’t take naps anymore. And, I must admit, I’m proud of my big kids too.

So it was all kinds of upsetting when, very suddenly, they just stopped napping a few weeks ago. It wasn’t like one day they took longer to fall asleep, or one day they just napped for a shorter amount of time. One day they were napping roughly 1-3pm and the next day, almost no nap at all (they fell asleep around 2:45, but then I woke them at 3 (which is when I always get them up) so it wouldn’t completely mess up bedtime). Then for a day or so, they napped as usual, and then the next day, no nap again. But on the no napping days, it was clear that this was not really the best way to go. Buba (who was the one fighting the nap most and then bringing Tiny along for the ride), was so crabby and cranky when he didn’t nap. So, I reached out to my mother of twins club message board, and the advice was almost unanimous: start nap time later.

T and I agreed to give it a try and decided that a 1:45-3:15pm nap might work best. We hoped they’d be tired enough to fall asleep at 1:45 and also hoped that waking them by 3:15 would mean we wouldn’t have to push back bedtime at all. We’ve been using this nap schedule for about a week and a half, and so far, it’s been working well for us. Now, hopefully, I haven’t just jinxed it all by reporting it to the world. They really do need nap time! (And so do I.)

This does not mean that Tiny and Buba sleep until 6:30am. They generally wake up sometime between 6:10am and 6:30am. But it means that T and I do not get up and get them up until 6:30am. There have only been a handful of times when I have found them still asleep at 6:30am, and even then they didn’t sleep much longer once they heard T up and getting ready for work.

But this week is school vacation week in Massachusetts. T, being a teacher, doesn’t have to get up for work. So, I proposed that we turn the alarm off and just see what happens. My thinking was this, normally I hear Buba and Tiny whenever they start to stir in the morning, and there had been quite a few times recently when I hadn’t heard them at all until the alarm went off. Perhaps, given how small our house is (roughly 900 sq/ft), they were able to hear the alarm from our bedroom causing them to wake up at 6:30am when they might have stayed asleep (or at least quiet) longer had the alarm not gone off. I wanted to test this theory, and this seemed like the perfect time.

So, we reset the alarm for 7am (T didn’t agree with turning it off altogether). This seemed like a good plan that would give us a little more time to sleep without throwing off the schedule too much. But it seems I was way too optimistic about this allowing me to get more sleep. Apparently, Tiny can tell time and 6:35am is her max for staying in the crib. Before 6:35am, she is happy to play quietly and talk with Buba. But at 6:35am, the shrieking and screaming begins. Not the sort of wake-up call you’d like to get while attempting to sleep in. I’m pretty sure I prefer the sound of the alarm at 6:30am, but I’m going to give it a few more days just because I can. When school vacation week is over, we will have no choice but to go back to our 6:30am alarm. But if I can see some positive results in the next few days, there might be some hope for 7:00am wake-ups on the weekend.

How do you handle wake-up time with your kids? Is there a set time every day, or do they just wake up when they wake up?

But today was different. Today it was snowing. And not the beautiful, fluffy, white snow. No, we had to get the wet, wet kind. The kind that you have to look at closely to determine whether it’s actually snow or just rain. Plus, we had someone coming to the house at 11am (an appointment that got cancelled at 11:15 because the person’s car couldn’t make it up the hill to get into our neighborhood). So today, we stayed home.

Now Buba didn’t really seem to care that we weren’t going out, but Tiny knows our routines by heart and it didn’t take her long to figure out what was going on, and subsequently, to begin melting down. The standard toys for everyday play just weren’t cutting it, so I had to get creative. Luckily, I had some things stashed away that totally saved the day…

1: Sunglasses from last summer

Tiny’s glasses no longer had lenses (in fact, I’m pretty sure the lenses popped out the very first time she wore the glasses last June), but she didn’t seem to care. Even as I gave them both their sunglasses, I expected that they would rip them off immediately and then cry for me to put them on again. While that did happen a time or two, I was quite impressed that, for the most part, they enjoyed playing while wearing the glasses for a good 20 minutes. Somehow the glasses made those everyday toys more fun again.

2: Connect Four

This is not something I every would have thought of on my own. But Buba’s occupational therapist has one of these games and uses it to help him improve his fine motor skills. So T brought this one home from his classroom. Tiny loves hearing the plink when the game pieces fall to the bottom, so this was another 20 minutes or so of indoor fun.

3: The Tunnel

We picked this tunnel up at a yard sale over the summer. It’s suppose to connect to a playhut, but the kids have more fun just crawling through the tunnel by itself. It’s only 4 or 5 feet long, so completely doable in our living room. This was also tons of fun for 10 to 15 minutes.

And last, but not least…

4: Snowblowers

We may be the only homeowners on our street who do not own a snowblower. The noise combined with the spraying snow, made it completely fascinating to watch the neighbors snowblow their driveways. And this allowed me just enough time to make lunch.

I certainly hope we don’t have too many inside-all-day days this winter, but it’s nice to know that we can survive (and even have fun!) without getting out of the house.

In the beginning, the routine was just swaddling, soothing, laying them in the crib (yes, just one crib at first), and then turning on the white noise. Once we stopped swaddling, the routine changed. I started to play soft lullaby music and  would rock one baby while the other swung in the cradle swing. Then I placed them into their sleeps sacks, put them into their own cribs, and turned on the white noise. The routine changed once more when they outgrew the cradle swing. At that point, I started reading to them before their naps. I also introduced them to piggy and rabbit, their Angel Dear cuddle blankets that they only get at nap time. I continued to play the soft lullaby music and use the white noise maker.

This routine is so set in stone, that Buba and Tiny know it well. As soon as I start cleaning up their lunch, they look at each other and shout, “Nap nap baby!” There is no fussing, no crying, no chasing around the house. Nap time is just what comes naturally after lunch these days.

one month old