20 month old Twin Boys in toddler beds NOT sleeping!! HELP!!

Jessica - posted on 01/11/2012

My Twin boys are two & 1/2 and are crazy at bed and nap time. I but a child door look inside their rrom so they can't open the door and get out. They still destroy the room. I will lay on the floor at nap time and then sneak out this works sometimes. Other times I put them in their stroller and walk while the get a nap. This weekend my husband and I are removing there dresser so they can not longer climb on it and take all the clothes and diapers out. Then they will just have a few toys, books, and bed in the room. They can nap or play but at least they are safe in their room and I get a break!

Lykke - posted on 03/05/2011

BTW, my boys are VERY active, so I make sure that we are outside playing every day, wheather allowing, now if naptime was an issue that would work, now they take naps about 2-3 times a week, about 1-2.5 hours.

Lykke - posted on 03/05/2011

Soooo this is what I did for a little while,I turned their cribs into day beds and then turned them around so that the opening was up against the wall, they didn't attempt to climp out, but we have hardwood floors so it didn't take them long to figure out to push their beds out from the wall LOL, so then I went out and bought some cheap mattresses to put under the good one and then got a siderail at BabiesRus, and for some time several months it worked really well. During the day it was a challenge sometimes for naps, but then I would just keep putting them back to bed, we went through that a while and then they "got it", it's EXHAUSTING but well worth the work cause it WILL pay off.

Lisa - posted on 03/05/2011

We are still having troubles. The first few nights of having the gate up and letting them do their own thing till they fell asleep worked great! They were asleep in their beds within an hour. Last night was horrible, they kept crashing through the gate and getting out, and it was 11pm before they went to sleep. Its getting soooo frustrating. Even changing nap time and bedtime routine hasn't worked. They don't nap through the day anymore most of the time. I honestly didn't think it would be soooo hard to get them to sleep!! :s

Suzanne - posted on 03/05/2011

Hi all, we have had a similar issue with our twin girls. A while ago we changed their cots into beds and they are not sleeping at all during the day and just running amuck. All very tiring for me. They are up from 7am till about 8pm. So very hard work. Luckily after they stop jumping and playing they eventually go to sleep. In the first week, we learnt that the furniture was not baby proof and that we needed to really step up where we storing things. Nappy cream plastered everywhere, baby powder in our room and theirs. Just a mess and disaster every where I turned.

They do sleep through the night and currently not tall enough to open the door, cross fingers that lasts for a while. Although it is just terrible and chaotic during the day they sleep through the night unless they are sick or have a pooey nappy.

We don't have the space to give them their own rooms, and I see that they are tired during the day and need some time out. However when I do put them down in their room for time out or a rest, they muck up, play, jump on beds and 9 times out of 10 hurt themselves or the other twin. So you go in to make sure the hurt one is not bleeding to death or something else worse and they use it to their advantage. So you end up not having any time to do anything. It is driving me to the brink and I am just needing some down time.

Would love some advice as we have tried everything from making them so tired that they will sleep during the day. I have now decided that I will leave them in their room unless I hear such a bad scream that I need to check, however it is hard to know if they are really hurt or not.

I don't think much can be done as they are very active kids and have such enquiring minds. They love being busy and just power on even if they are tired.

Any advice would be great.

Alda - posted on 03/05/2011

My girls are now 2 1/2 and have been in toddler beds for just over a week. The first few nights of freedom caused a lot of crashes, running around and giggles to come from upstairs. Now, after story time, they get into bed and sleep through the night. If you get into the habit of staying in the room with them you'll make life so much more difficult for youself. My advice is to put a stairgate in their room and just let them do their own thing. They'll soon learn that they may as well sleep because they're not getting any attention from you. Good luck :-)

Lisa - posted on 03/04/2011

Thanks for the advice ladies. I've come to the point where I am just leaving them in their room and they run wild until they are ready for bed. I tried standing guard, and even tried rubbing their heads till they fell asleep - after a month of doing this I have given up. Eventually it goes quiet and I find them back in bed. What are crib tents though? And where do you get them?

Sarah - posted on 03/04/2011

I had the same problem with my twin boys when they were 2. My husband and I took turns standing guard outside their door. We would do the normal bedtime routine and then when they got out of bed we would tell them it was night night time and put them right back into bed. You have to keep doing this until they give up and fall asleep. You have to do it every night and don't talk to them. Just in and out. There is a lot of crying to begin with but each night it gets a little better. It took about 2 weeks until they finally stopped getting out of bed. Dana Olbeman has a great online book that describes this process. http://www.sleepsense.net/

Lykke - posted on 03/04/2011

Adjusting bedtime could be an idea, I love the idea of the crib tents. For my twin boys it was really only a problem at nap time, they were 2 when we changed their cribs into daybeds, if they were really tired and got out of bed I would simply lay down on a mattress in their room and they would stay in their beds. They are 4 now and in full size beds and in seperate rooms, sometimes they still take naps (2.5 hours) and in bed by 8pm. Without naps they go to bed at 7pm and is asleep the moment their heads hit the pillow. Try changing their sleep schedule, maybe it's time to cut out a nap, mine took 2 naps till they were 2 and then we cut it down to 1. You know your kids the best, but it could simply be that you keep walking them back into bed, do a super nanny!

Heather - posted on 03/04/2011

yes... put them back in their cribs with crib tents. My girls were in their cribs until they were 3 with the tents. They loved them because it felt like they were "camping." It saved us a lot of destruction. Before we had the tents they were getting out of their cribs and taking all the toys and clothes out, stripping themselves naked, etc.

Liz - posted on 02/25/2011

Maybe they arn't tired enough at night? Have you tried changing their bed time, or maybe giving them a calming bath before bed with the johnsons or baby aveeno baby nightime bath and lotions? Also i'd suggest putting a gate up in front of their door. That's what we do for our b/g twins. We don't have the room right now to seperate them either, they will be three in June but the gate helps keep them in their room.

Laura - posted on 02/25/2011

I had the same problem when i put my b/g twins into toddler beds. They went from being great sleepers to little terrors!! Because of our housing situation we couldnt seperate them either, they share a bedroom with their older brother as it is. I would love to say they grown out of it, mine havent yet and theyve been in toddler beds since christmas. They get up and play instead of sleeping. My best advice get a stair gate for their bedroom door, mine have just mastered how to open the door using the handle so we now have put the handle upside down.
They have got better, they usually end up asleep on the floor, and i just move them into their beds.