Getting Your Twins To Nap

Last updated on September 8th, 2023 at 03:22 pm

Nat shares her top tips for getting your twins to nap in this Facebook live video. Sponsored by Love to Dream, creators of the Swaddle UP.

Hey guys!  If you guys have never been to a Twiniversity feed first of all I am Natalie Diaz.  I am the founder of Twiniversity and the author of a little book called “What to Do When You’re Having Two“.  I’m typically in our studio aka my dining room in New York City but today we are out here in beautiful New Jersey.  The twins and I get to spend the summer out here in a house that my family bought in the 70s and we still come out here every summer.  So it’s like we turn from city mice to country mice.  So I’m out here and if you guys recognize this, this is where I was last summer and it’s going to be where I’m going to be pretty much every summer until forever.  I have a new little piece of art behind me from our friends at gifts.com.  It’s so funny because if you look at it, I was just telling Julie the other day, if you look at it it has my name and my husband’s name and then our anniversary date at the bottom.  Or truthfully it was supposed to be our anniversary date but in a classic Nat #classicnatmoment I put the wrong anniversary on it.  So my husband knows all about it and when he opened it I gave it to him and he’s like so.  And I’m like what babe don’t you like it?  Like I loved it he’s like Nat that’s not our anniversary.  So the moral of the story is while classically there’s always the jokes that the husbands forget anniversaries and stuff in our case it might be the wife.  I’m only off by like a few days so it’s not that crazy.  It’s not like I was off five years but yeah my anniversary is May 8 not May 2.  So that’s the way that goes.  It’s quite crazy but it’s really a great little thing.

We have so much to talk about today.  First of all before we really get this party started I want shout outs.  Who are you and where are you from?  Just tell me where you’re from and what I want you guys to do, don’t put your kids yet, just put where you’re from.  If you haven’t heard we’ve started a mentor program.  So we have a mentor mentee program.  Julie could post a link to that but if you just had kids and you are looking to get a little bit more guidance than our live feeds and need a little bit more hand holding I am all for it.  Check and see the people that are on this live feed with us today, connect with them.  If you want to connect with another person the live feeds are always a great opportunity because Twiniversity is about education but it is hugely about community.  I want you guys to connect with one another as much as possible so this is your chance.  Connect with other people on our live feed today.  I want you to make some friends.  That’s always a big thing with Twiniversity of course.

So we’re going to start off there.  Please connect with a little buddy of the conversation and honestly connect with a buddy if you can.  We may have prizes for you and a buddy later.  We’re going to have prizes today because we always have prizes.  Not only do we have fantastic prizes from our friends at Love to Dream but we also have prizes from us to you guys.  Today we are talking all about napping and this is all from our friends at Love to Dream.  If you do not know Love to Dream is and you have children that are under thirty six months you have quite some time.  You definitely want to look them up and get to know them.  Now guys I have some big news.  Like super level big news.  Look who came out with me.  What are you doing here little buddy?  Who is this?  If you have watched many live feeds you know who this little dude is.  So who is this little dud?  Tell me his name and we have some big stuff to talk about today.  Oh by the way clearly we’re here to educate you not just to have fun.  Although I love to have fun.  If you have any specific questions about getting your twins to nap shoot them over to us now.  The way that this works is that I’m talking to you here and my little phone but I have my laptop here and actually you can see the light that I’m using too.  So I have my laptop here and Julie sends me over the questions and then I answer them.  Oliver?  This is not Oliver.  Who is this?  Even my mom squad could participate.  Yes Laura Fred is with us today and he’s in his Love to Dream swaddlers.  So what’s so awesome about the Love to Dream swaddler is the swaddle original.  So this is the swaddle up.  The swaddle up is actually the light version.  So it’s not as heavy as the regular version which is perfect for summer.  But if you notice that Fred is swaddled arms up.  Now are you ready to have your minds blown?  Guys this is a big announcement.  We have another little addition to our family.  I was telling our friends over at Love to Dream I’m like guys Fred is lonely.  We always talk about everybody knows Fred.  It’s kind of weird to be very honest with you that I only have one baby.  I said so if you want you could send over another baby.  And I didn’t just want to go and buy another baby because I want them to kind of look like twins.  But do you see her little eyelashes?  Oh guys my babies are here.  So that’s the thing we need a name for her.  So please throw out some names that Fred’s twin sister should have.  Truthfully I suppose Fred should have been in the gray.  We are not going to name her today.  We are accepting all names.  So whatever name you think it should be please let us know.  But I am here with my little babies of the day and Fred I don’t know if he’s jealous.  I don’t know.  See look if you were born at the same time then you would have always just known her and you would have never been upset.  Now I’m worried there’s going to be fighting and no we want fake mom all to ourselves.  Are these conversations that I’m having with two dolls?  I’m having a moment and questioning my entire career path but that is a whole other story friend.  I mean I really dig it.  I mean can you see her lashes?  She’s so pretty.  All right so we got some names going on.  I absolutely love this whole thing.  They are going to be with me during the live feed.  May I could prop them up.  Could I do it?  Let’s see could you stay there?  Yes you could stay there.  She loves that.  You love it there?  Welcome to your new home baby.  Let’s see can I put Fred here?  Fred be nice to your sister.  So that’s the big news of the day.

So we’re going to be telling more about Love to Dream and where to find them and how to find them.  We are talking all about naps today.  And of course the reasons why they are partnered with us today because there are ideal sleep conditions.  That’s kind of the first thing I want to talk about today.  Another thing I’d like is before we go even a little bit further I would love for you to tell me how old your twinnies are.  That’s the next thing if you haven’t connected with somebody geographically maybe you could connect with somebody who has children that are a little bit older, a little bit younger whatever you want.  Going back to the mentor program don’t forget to join the mentor program.  It’s not only for mentees right?  It’s not only for you to receive support but let’s say your kids are even eight months old and you’re like you know what I’ve been there, I’ve done that with the newborns I could totally give some guidance and some help to somebody who is still expecting.  Please join as a mentor you could join as both a mentee and a mentor.  You don’t have to join as one or the other.  And we mentors who have multiple mentees so shoot it over.  Regina is the Twiniversity mom squad member who is spear heading the entire thing for us and she is a Twiniversity student.  I love her to bits and pieces.  She also exclusively breastfed for a year which I feel like we should like we should have her face carved into Mount Rushmore.  I think #momrushmore it’s going to be my new thing.  I’m not saying that breastfeeding does the be-all and end-all but I do know how challenging it is.  If you’ve ever breastfed you know how challenging it is so to do it exclusively for a year.  I mean I tip my imaginary hat to you and all of the other moms out there that have exclusively breastfed for so long.

Are we ready to talk about naps?

Let’s talk about ideal sleep conditions before we get to the specific questions which Julie is already starting.  There are ideal sleep conditions.  This doesn’t go just for naps.  This actually goes for naps as well as night time sleep.  And you should have consistency.  However the babies are sleeping at night preferably they should start sleeping during the day.  If you have a sleep routine I would love to know.  If you have a routine just say I have a routine and just throw it out there. Back to ideal sleep conditions.  Number one – are you ready?  Dark room.  Ideally your kid should be sleeping in a dark room with no night lights, no lights whatsoever.  So if they have a window in their room which they probably do you should put some kind of blackout shades over their windows.  Now you don’t have to go and spend you know a billion dollars on creating you know a billion dollars on creating custom-made blinds from blinds.com or whatever.  You could a) go get some dark blackout shades that Julie is going to put a link to or you could even go to Home Depot buy yourself some black lawn bags and duct tape it up.  But ideally the room should be in total darkness.

The Temperature

Okay the room should be an ideal temperature between 68 and 72 degrees is what your kid’s room should be.  If it’s too cold you should get a heater.  If it’s too warm you should get a cooler.  The fan we use in our house is the Dyson I think it’s called Jetstream where it does cooling and heating.  I’ve been using it for years because it’s bladeless and I just prefer it because it doesn’t have blades.  I was always worried about the kiddies sticking their hands in fans for fun.  I don’t want to worry about that so Dyson is really great.  Also for the temperature don’t be hesitant to put the air conditioner on in the winter.  If you have a window air conditioner just make sure that you keep some kind of consistency with temperature.

So the next thing you should have is white noise. 

There should be some kind of white noise.  Now the white noise could be that air conditioner we were speaking of.  The white noise could also be a humidifier in the wintertime.  And by the way Vicks makes a fantastic cool mist humidifier.  And you should look for a cool mist humidifier.  And just a side note when you’re buying humidifiers, buy the extra filters.  So if you have a humidifier that has the filters that have to be changed don’t wait to buy them.  Just get yourself the filters now and buy yourself a dozen of them, set a timer in your phone that you have to change the filter but the same thing goes for the air conditioner.  If you have to change the air conditioning filter whether it’s in central a/c in your home or whether it’s a window unit make sure that you’re always doing something.

So dark room, white noise, cool temperature, any kind of white noise is fine.  You could get a white noise machine.  You could do anything from Cloud B, you have the humidifier the air conditioner like I said and then of course it’s all going to tie together right now.  Ideally they will be swaddled in the beginning.  So when they are tiny you do need to make sure that they have some kind swaddle.  I found that my twins found it unbelievably comfortable.  I know a majority of your twins are finding it unbelievably comfortable.  Catalina is a sleep professional and she’s with us today.  So yeah air purifier another great idea.  With the air purifier please make sure that you are cleaning these things.  I love that everybody’s like we have this, we have that, even a Brita.  Everybody’s like oh I use a Brita water filter.  Are you changing the actual water filter?  A side note Lofty Dream is our preferred swaddle at Twiniversity.  I found them I don’t even know how long ago I found them but here’s why I think that they’re so remarkable.

So you know traditional swaddles have babies that are swaddled like this and then they swaddle them up.  And if you look they have a little sleep sack at the bottom but what’s interesting about Love to Dream is that the babies are swaddled up so this is called a swaddle up.  The benefit of this is a) the babies could chew on their little paws whenever they like to.  Right?  Fred loves it.  The other thing is look let’s say your baby’s always sleep back to sleep right?  Back to sleep.  Let’s say the babies roll over in the middle of the night.  What’s extraordinary about the Love to Dream swaddle, and I know this seems a little bit awkward, but what it does the baby has the availability to push his little paws down to lift his head up.  If the baby was swaddled this way and the baby rolled over it’s going to be a lot more challenging to get back or even lift his head up.  So this way with a Love to Dream swaddle the babies could push themselves up and they could breathe.  They could move their head everything would be good. They work a lot with one of my favorite nonprofit organizations called First Candle.  First Candle is a nonprofit organization that deals entirely with issues of SIDS.  So when you get your Love to Dream swaddle it comes with this little book.  And the little book is actually co-branded with Love to Dream but with First Candle as well.  And if you’re not sure that your baby is sleeping in the safest conditions this little booklet is going to give you all of the information.  So what this says in addition to the ideal sleep conditions we want to make sure that they are sleeping in their bed or their sleeping back to sleep on a JPMA certified crib.  And if you guys are not familiar with the JPMA Julie please throw a link to JPMA so our families could know.  The JPMA is the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association and they have a very stringent set of tests for baby products within the industry.  If they pass the test they get JPMA certified so that little seal means a lot more than just the regular certification that our government does.  It’s an additional layer of security and knowing that you were choosing the best products for your babies.  So JPMA certified crib.  Another thing is they have to be sleeping on a firm mattress.  They cannot be on a pillow bed or even a tempur-pedic.   It has to be a very firm, rigid mattress.  And if you are going to get the mattress that has the dual sides, make sure your baby is sleeping on the correct side.  Not the toddler side until it’s time but sleeping on that firm side.  No loose blankets, no pillows, no stuffed animals.  Nothing in their crib.  I will say that the American Board of Pediatrics says that your kids should be sleeping independently without their other twin.  I will say I love co bedding with twinnies and we are one of the only countries that advise against it.  If you look at rules throughout other countries and our international families will know it’s usually recommended that your babies will sleep together when they are twins.

So make sure there’s nothing in the crib. 

The next thing is a big one okay?  You have to make sure that there are no cords near the kids.  Now everybody usually watches for window blinds right so you’re like oh yeah of course we’re not going to have any window blinds near the babies.  But a lot of people forget about cameras.  What about if you put up a Wi-Fi camera?  It still has a power cord.  Is that power cord near the baby’s room?  Make sure that there are no cords near the baby’s room, like by the baby’s crib.  Also, the crib, if you have two cribs in the room and they are not co bedded they should be a minimum of three feet apart.  We have had horrible stories of babies trying to go from one crib to the next and instead of actually successfully making it into one crib to the next they’ve fallen in the center and then got their head caught.  So please make sure that the cribs are three feet apart from each other.  Also be sure that nobody is smoking gin your home.  That’s another big one.  The room should always be very well ventilated so a ceiling fan or a window that’s open or the air conditioner or a humidifier or whatever that we were saying.

I have envy for you guys because I would have loved these for my own twins.  Fred has absolutely loved this.  So they have the swaddle up original, they have the swaddle up organic if you’re very conscious about organic materials they do have one.  And then they have the swaddle up light which is a lighter weight material.  And then once your babies conquer the swaddle up then you can go to the swaddle up 50-50.  So this is the traditional swaddle up but when it’s time for the baby to start transitioning to the next step it has a little zipper here so that you could get them used to having their paws out.  So their paws could come out but they’re still going to have that kind of security of having this nice material around their core which is going to make them feel a lot safer.  You are so super sweet!  I love our new little baby.  So we have this and then we have the stage three which is the inventive sleep bag. The inventor sleep bag is just a larger one of these and I’m sure that you know this by now but parents of twins tend to use sleep sacks for longer periods of time because when they are in it it’s harder for the babies to get their legs up to put over the side of the crib to be liberated is all that I have to say.

So let us get to our questions shall we? 

Let’s do this.  For our families at Love to Dream and even Catalina if you have anything to add to this conversation you know that I get very excited and would love you be part of it.  So I am going to grab my laptop with my favorite painting of all time.  Julie says I am having fraternal twins in November what do you suggest about getting the twins to sleep around the same time?  So Brooke first of all congratulations.  If everybody could just say congratulations to Brook and your little babies.  If you are trying to get your twins to sleep at the same time it is a good idea to just start out by having a routine.  When they are first born, I know Catalina she may disagree with me about this, but I wouldn’t focus as much as a nap schedule or a sleep schedule.  I would focus a tiny bit more on the feeding schedule.  So when they come home from the hospital they will already be on a feeding schedule of whatever the hospital has set.  Let’s just say every three hours the hospital was feeding the babies in the nursery or the NICU every three hours 24 hours a day.  You continue doing that if that’s what your pediatrician says to do.  So you go to the top of the hour to the top of the hour every three hours, 24 hours a day you are going to feed these babies.  That is number one.  You will notice that newborns sleep a lot.  A newborn to four months old they sleep about three to five naps a day between seven to nine hours total of sleep time so it’s a lot.  Focus on the feeding.  They might sleep in the middle, right after the feed, but focus on the feedings in the beginning and the sleep will fall into place.  We’re going to focus on the feeding like I said in the beginning.  Create your ideal sleep conditions and then you’re like okay we got the feedings down, life is good, start getting them used to falling asleep in their bed.  Now I don’t know if you guys know this but I barely put Fred down.  I hold Fred all day long.  I love to be with Fred and now his strange twin sister that we don’t even know her name.  What happens is we get used to holding them and they get used to falling asleep in our arms, which is not a big deal.  You know that I could say you know you should put your twins drowsy but awake in their cribs.  Of course I am going to say that.  But are you going to do that?  Of course not.  Not everybody has the fortitude to be able to do that because let’s say even if you waited a really long time to have these babies you may not be so quick to put them in their crib.  When you feed them they smell so good and they fall asleep and everything is just so wonderful it may be really tough to be like okay let’s put them in drowsy but awake.  It’s almost impossible.  So just get them used to the feeding schedule then start to create a little bit of a sleep routine.

Now, what is a sleep routine? 

A sleep routine is maybe you have some quiet time before you put them in for their nap.  Maybe you read them a little story.  I definitely think quiet time is something you should be doing.  Maybe you give them a certain pacifier once they get older and they kind of could tell one pacifier from the next.   Get them used to the feeding routine and get used to some kind of a nap ritual or nap routine.  The quiet is a big one especially if you always have a radio playing in your house or have the television on or something.  Turn it off or lower it a little bit and let them know lights out is coming.  You can put them in their room.  You could sing them a song.  I always played a song from this one CD.  The CD was called music for aardvarks.  It’s so funny and the song was called taxi.  It’s hilarious because I was Googling it the other day to see if I could find this song because I wanted to play it for myself.  But that was our sleep routine is that we would play this song and the twinnies would know okay the next thing that’s going to come is nap time.  Get them used to having a little bit of quiet.  And then once they get bigger you may want to replace nap time with quiet time but that is further down the line.

So we’re getting a lot of questions. 

How do I get them to sleep in the same room?  That was my first answer.  Just start off with the feeding and then put them in at the same time, feed them at the same time.  Try to get them on the same schedule as quickly as possible.  Our next question from Shannon says my six week old twins still take 30-minute cat naps randomly throughout the day.  How do I get them to transition to two or three longer naps?  Alright this is a good one.  I love this question.  Shannon what you have to do is just do it.  Create that naptime ritual, create that naptime routine whether it’s you give them a bottle, you have a little reading time, put them in their swaddles.  Get them used to having a little bit of a routine and then putting them in their cribs drowsy but awake.  You know what’s interesting?  I’m curious to know how they were sleeping through the night and how much they were sleeping because at six months they should be doing two to three naps and they should be sleeping for four to five hours at nap time.  How many hours are their 30-minute cat naps adding up?  Are their cat naps in their crib or are their cat naps in their bouncy chair?  Are their cat naps in a swing?  Are their cat naps in a stroller?  Where exactly are their cat naps?  So this is the funny thing.  We have this live feed where I come on to answer questions for you and then instead of actually answering the question I just drove a hundred thousand questions back at you.  I have no choice so I apologize.  If you’re going to ask a question try to be as specific as possible so that I don’t have to wait for you to answer again and I could just answer it.  It’s funny because if they are sleeping in their cribs and they’re sleeping 30 minutes how long are you waiting before you go and liberate them?  Are you waiting five minutes, ten minutes, or are they getting up and making noises?  Were they really asleep?  They need to get to that 45-minute mark in order to have really good quality sleep.  It’s funny because if they’re sleeping 30 minutes then they’re not meeting that so that’s not even really a cat nap.  I know for adults we need 20 minutes.  I know for babies and infants and toddlers they do need a little bit longer to get that REM sleep so with 30 minutes that’s not even a nap.  I would try to keep them in longer and a way to get that is to start establishing a routine.  We give them their bottle, we give them a little solids because they’re six months old right? So depending on what you’re giving them give them a little bit of lunch, give them a little bit of playtime.  What time are they going down?  By the way if you’re like oh my god I need to know these things in our book we have a whole section called sleep.  It’s called schedule, plus sanity equals sleep.  If anybody has the book you go to page 181 it’ll give you the exact timing of things like okay at nine o’clock you should be going down for a nap and such.  So grab that book.  Julie could put the link up again.  Put them down at nine o’clock if they get up in 30 minutes keep them in there a little bit longer and see how long it takes them to really freak out.  You may have to do something that’s like a little bit of sleep coaching to get them to sleep.  Either you could stay in the room while they fall back asleep or you could actually start officially sleep coaching.  You could do the gradual extinction going in a little at a time or permanent extinction shut the door.  Let them cry, see how long they cry but keep them in there for a heck of a lot longer than the 30-minutes because it’s really not good quality sleep.  If I were you today what I would do is for the next nap quiet time right before.  Keep a lookout for the signs that they’re getting sleepy.  If you see them yawn.  Sometimes it’s almost a little bit too late.  You have to look for when they are gazing off into the sunset.  Sometimes they even do a little slow blink.  That’s the time that you should put them in their crib because they are definitely drowsy and be like hey guys I love you, peace out, mommy loves you.  Dark room, white noise, cool temperature, swaddle – boom.  The stage is set for them to sleep well.  That is what I would do is start winding down, put them in, and then I don’t really think that 30 minutes is a nap.  So Catalina if you’re on feel free to contradict what I’m saying.  Feel free, I will never get upset.

Alright now the next thing is Crystal says my twins are six months old.  Any tips on transitioning them from the rocking place to the crib?  They move a lot.  That’s a long time to leave them in that rock and play.  That’s pretty amazing that they tolerated that the whole time.  One thing you could do is because the rock and play is on an incline, you may actually want to modify their cribs a tiny bit to put their cribs on an incline.  You could buy wedges and all this other jazz.  Harry Potter number four the blue one I used to put at the head of my twins crib to put it on an incline.  So you could put some books underneath the crib.  Not of course under the sheets but literally under the crib to put it on an incline.  So that is something that I would do if you are transitioning them from a rock and play to a crib.  If you guys don’t know what a rock and play is Jewel could you put a link to the rock and play so people can see what we’re talking about for our expectant moms.   Rock and plays are pretty great in the beginning because of this incline so I would try to get the crib to mimic that as much as possible.  Also they got so used to sleeping apart from one another perhaps I would just continue doing that.  I wouldn’t even attempt to put them in the same crib if they have some nice sleep routines already going.  That is something that I would do.  Another thing that I would do is before you transition them into the crib whatever sleep routine that you are going to kind of institute in your home, start instituting it while they are in their rock and play.  So if they are going to sleep in a different room than they have been sleeping move the rock and plays into the room that they are going to be sleeping and have the stage set there.  So white noise, dark room, cool temperature, swaddle, blah blah blah everything that we are saying.  Once that’s done and they kind of get used to the room and they got used to the environment then transition them into the crib.  Get them used to that situation, move them to the crib, they’ll already be somewhat acclimated to the idea to the place that they’re sleeping and hopefully it’ll be an easier transition.  But there’s not much you could do other than move them from one place to the next.  It’s not like the rock and plays can be modified in any way to make it more crib like.

So now Jennifer says my guys are toddlers and I’m thinking about the transition to a toddler bed.  Jennifer you are so brave!  How old are they Jennifer?  Why are you transitioning them?  I’m always curious.  What’s the big motivation?  Are you having more babies where you have to evict them from their cribs and then move them into the toddler bed?  Because of toddlers they still should be I think the kid should stay in the crib for as long as possible.  Did you take the side off of their crib yet?  Are they literally just in a regular crib?  Do you have a crib that can convert into a toddler bed?  What are your thoughts on that?  Tell us your thoughts on like where you’re going with this.  Why you’re doing it?  How do you know that this is going to happen?  The biggest tip I could tell you with toddler beds is Julie can you find that link that I have it was me and Weissbluth and we were talking about transitioning to a toddler bed?  It’s over on YouTub if you could throw that on.  Before Twiniversity even existed I met Marc Weissbluth at a seminar and he was talking about twin sleep and I was still with the Manhattan Twins Club.  It was great but we were specifically talking about transitioning to a toddler bed.  So we could link that up and you guys could see what we’re talking about.

Wait!  Julie what should be our first prize time?  We are going to give away a set of the 50/50s and then we’re going to talk about more transitioning to toddler beds.  I know I feel like we haven’t had a prize time in forever so yes if you want prize time just say prize time.  That’s pretty great.  So 50/50s are what we’re going to give away.  We’re going to give you a set of 50/50s.  And by the way they do come in two different sizes.   This is the medium 13-18 pounds.  So it goes from zero to three months which is six and a half to 13 pounds.  Three to six months which is 13-18 pounds and six months and up which is 18 to 24 pounds.  If you would like to win a set of these swaddle ups for your twinnies at home all you have to say is I love to dream.  That is it.  It’s so simple.  I love to dream and feel free to click over to Love to Dream.  Don’t click over just link them in there.  Do the little @ symbol, love to dream, it’ll pop, click them on and let them know that you love them.  They’re here with us today and I love they are such big supporters of Twiniversity and we are equally as big supporters of them.  Just say I love to dream and Julie is going to pick a random winner.  It is literally random as you could probably tell and you guys will win a set of these Love to Dream 50/50s.  So the 50/50s have the little zippered arms that come off so that you could get them used to from being in a full swaddle and transition them to the next thing.

Whenever we get a product especially that’s clothing like we did this with our stuff from Magnificent Baby, we’ve done this with other blankets that we’ve had from other companies I wash them a few dozen times before we do anything.  So I like to see how things hold up, are they going to shrink, are they going to stretch, are they never going to be the same like they were in the box.  I wash them in hot water, in cold water.  I wash them with towels I wash them with rugs.  I wash them with everything to make sure that they are going to last because I am very neurotically conscious about the recommendations that I make to you guys.  If you haven’t noticed we don’t work with 27,000 companies specifically because I don’t have time to all of that homework and all of that research on those companies.  When we do work with a company they do get put through the paces before they ever come out of this mouth.  I just wanted you to know that.  So know that I promise you are that you rae in great hands with these swaddles.  I’m glad that we have a winner.

Now going back to transitioning to a toddler bed – when should this be done?  For my expecting families that are with us now if you have taken a Twiniversity class, which hint hint Julie throw in a link to our Twiniversity class, we discuss at great length about the gear that you should buy.  And when we talk at Twiniversity I always recommend that people buy the basic cribs.  Like a simple, simple crib.  My favorite crib that I love which is a JPMA certified crib is the Delta Capri crib.  It is one of my favorites.  It has a verylow price point, it is aesthetically beautiful, and it is gender neutral and will fit in any kind of design you want.  Whether you want like a farmhouse theme or whether you want a baseball them or whether you want whatever – woodland animals.  Doesn’t matter.  This crib will fit in that.  So that’s one of the ones I always recommend at Twiniversity.  But clearly you have to go buy what you think is beautiful but why I like it is it’s a very basic crib and you save money.  Because then when it’s time to transition them to toddler beds, if you give the power to the twinnies and you’re like hey guys listen.  Your big boys and big girls, your big twins now – what do you want to do?  How do you want to sleep?  Do you want an Elmo bed do you want a Bubble Guppies bed, do you want a Paw Patrol bed, do you want a Batman bed, do you want a racecar bed?  Step 2 makes some fantastic toddler beds.  Take a look at those, especially the Thomas one it rocks my world.  If you give them the say and say what kind of bed they want to sleep in you will have an easier transition from crib to bed.  Because instead of just taking the side of a crib and saying you’re a big kid now just go to sleep.  Everything’s going to be ok.  If they got to choose the bed they were sleeping in and the sheets that they were sleeping on it’s going to be an easier transition.  That’s how I would transition the babies from cribs to toddler beds.  But I would really wait until the last minute.  How do we know when it’s time?  When they’re getting out as easy as you were putting them in it is time to transition them.  If you can’t go any lower like let’s say the crib has settings where it goes from high and lower and lower, you want to make sure that once it’s on the lowest setting they really should not be able to get out.  But if they are getting out of that on a regular basis yeah you definitely have to consider that.

Remember at the beginning of this feed I told you find a buddy.  If you have not found a buddy find a buddy now.  That’s all I’m saying to you.  So message that buddy, you could link to that buddy, you could write their name in, but find somebody that’s your buddy okay?  Thumbs up if you found a buddy because this prize time comes with the buddy.  You and the buddy will be winning a prize because right that’s what I said.  Twiniversity is about community.  I want us to win as a community.  You do not have to both be expecting.  You do not have to both have toddlers.  You do not have to live in Houston.  Find yourself a Twiniversity buddy right now and then we’re coming back.  Find yourself a buddy.  Not everybody could pick Matt.  If you guys want to pick me as a buddy I don’t mind having a prize.  You guys could pick Julie too if don’t really want to make friends.  If you’re the shy type.  If you don’t have a buddy say I need a buddy and then you guys will buddy up.  So get yourself a buddy and we’re coming back to prize time in two seconds.

The next question Tasha says any tips please.  My boys are nearly three and still wait for two to three bottles of milk throughout the night.  I’ve tried leaving them to cry, substituting for water but nothing works.  Tasha God bless you.  That is tough that your kids are three and they’re still not sleeping through the night.  My heart breaks for you because I know sleep deprivation is no joke.  Tasha how much are they drinking during the day?  What has the pediatrician said about them getting these bottles at night?  Does the pediatrician say give them the bottles, they still need to grow?  Because you should never start weaning babies off bottles or taking bottles away – by the way why are they still on bottles at almost three years old?  That’s a whole other question that I have but I would first speak to your pediatrician because I don’t know how little they were when they were born.  I don’t know how many months they were when they were born.  I don’t know how much time they spent in the NICU.  I don’t know if they have feeding issues.  I don’t know if they’re getting full feeds during the day.  So you can see how all of these things could combine into perhaps them needing the two or three bottles at night.  I don’t think they’re getting up to eat.  I think that they’re getting up to see you.  Because if you moved them from the milk to the water and they’re still waking up – also what diaper are you using?  Big one.  If you are not you have to consider strongly using the Pampers baby dry they’re going to be too big for Swaddlers but the Pampers Baby Dry gives you twelve hours of overnight protection.  It’s really important because sometimes if the babies are waking up because they are uncomfortable and you’re getting up and giving them a bottle and changing them or their diapers full, that’s really something that you need to take into consideration.  If they don’t need the bottle and they don’t need the fluid and they’re still getting up, figure out what you are doing.  Is there an alarm going off in the house?  Is your husband getting up for work or maybe your wife is getting up to work.  Maybe the neighbors are getting up to work and they could hear the alarm through the walls.  Is there something happening at the same time each night?  Are they in the same crib?  I’m doing it again guys.  Did you see that I’m doing it where I answer a question with the question because I want to know more so then I can help Tasha out.  Tasha if you’re there and you could answer some more questions to Julie I would love that.  But if they’re getting up figure out why.  If they don’t have a reason speak to your doctor if they still need to get up and I would actually either consult with a sleep specialist or I would speak to your doctor.  But if everything is going according to plan then I would just do whatever you do that sleep routine.  I would create a sleep routine for naps.  I would create a sleep routine for night.  I would have the stage set with idea sleep conditions as we were talking about earlier in this feed.  And if you didn’t get to watch go back and watch that.  But if everything is okay I kind of want to say I would let them cry.  I know that may sound super evil of me but I’m not sitting here with cat going let them cry.  I’m just saying that you have to sleep.  It is imperative that you sleep.  And you are going to teach your babies how to eat correctly.  You’re going to teach your babies how to read when it’s time.  You’re going to teach your babies good hygiene habits when it’s time. You have to sometimes teach them how to sleep.  You have to say listen I can’t comfort you a thousand times.  This is what’s going to happen.  You may want to go to some Twiniversity articles on getting your kids to sleep through the night.  It will not be as easy to sleep train if you are absolutely exhausted right.  Julie if you could throw up just a link on sleep.  Also guys did you see our new website?  I want to invite you all back tomorrow to a little behind the scenes tour of the Twiniversity website which will be at 11 am with Julie and I.

Prize time.  We’re talking about sleep and because we’re tired and we need to rest.  I don’t know if you like coffee or fancy tea, a hot chocolate but you and your buddy are going to be picked and you will each be getting a $10 Starbucks or Dunkin gift card of your choice.  You just got to say do you want Starbucks, do you want Dunkin because I know Starbucks people are Starbucks people and Dunkin people are Dunkin people.  We are going to give you a little wake me up that it is just for you guys.  You and your buddy are going to win.  Put you and your buddies name and just say we are tired.  Say we are tired and with your buddies name.  Julie is going to pick a winner.

We have another question and we will do one more prize.  Tonya says we’ll be going on vacation in a couple of weeks after sleep training my four-month olds.  I’m not sure if we’ll be able to keep the same schedule while away.  And of course they won’t sleep in the same place.  Should I wait to train?  Yes Tonya I may wait to train.  Also, you didn’t say if you were changing time zones that’s a big question?  Because if you sleep train and then change time zones of course that’s going to be an issue as well.  Tonya I would wait to sleep train the babies until you got back.  Make sure that they are sleeping in the same ideal sleep conditions in a safe environment when you travel.  People are like what’s the big deal?  We’ll put the baby in the bed.  Do not put the baby in the bed.  Baby Bjorn makes a fantastic travel crib.  Julie can put up a link to that.  But I would strongly recommend that you are making sure that they are sleeping in something that is JPMA certified.

Guess what guys?  It’s prize time.  If you want prize time it is our final time of the day and of course it with our friends at Love to Dream.  You are going to win two swaddle up originals.  This is the light, very similar to this but doesn’t have the zippers.  If you want to win two of the swaddle ups just say swaddle up and then we will pick a random winner.

I love that you guys could join me in my home all the time and we had such great little people on with us today besides our mamas and papas.  It’s great that some of our other Twiniversity influencers or fans or professionals or whatever we call them, I hate that word, but I’m very happy everybody is here.  We’re very supportive.  It’s a great little industry to be in and of course I can’t thank my Twiniversity team enough for being there and helping us out.  So if everybody has one more minute say thank you to the Twiniversity team for helping us through the day.  And then finally make sure that your babies are sleeping safely.  And yes Love to Dream is going to help make sure that your babies are sleeping safely.  Go over, link to them, and make sure that you like their page.  Just like you get updates from Twiniversity I want to make sure that you’re getting updates from Love to Dream as much as possible because they always add new products.  They make fantastic beanies, they make lovely wonderful little loveys.  Love to Dream makes an assorted really great little stuff that’s made that’s made of this wonderful material that you’re going to love to touch.  Your babies are going to love to have it on their skin.  Thank you to our friends at Love to Dream.  Thanks to our friends at Twiniversity.  Make sure to join our Twiniversity classes if you are expecting.