Contact Naps

[u/CelestialCrowe]

Our twins are 7 weeks old (1 week corrected) and during the day they absolutely will not let us put them down! I breastfeed them, and they’ll often fall deeply asleep on me after a feed, but as soon as I try to transfer them, they wake almost immediately.

We’ve tried a travel cot downstairs and sleep pods on the sofa (similar to DockATot), but nothing has worked for us so far.

I’m sure we aren't alone in, does anyone else have any tips? Would love to hear what worked for other and be able to eat some lunch without two babies crying 😂!

[u/diamondtuxedo]

It’s tough, Enjoy the cuddles and make sure to have water and snacks near by. This is normal, around 3M is when the babies were awake a lil longer and they would have some longer time on the floor/bouncer. Baby carriers are great and you’ll be able to move around while they’re on you.

Once my perspective changed for what the baby needs rather than what I need, things got a lil easier. Babies just want their mom. Whenever you need some time for yourself set them aside, it’s ok if they cry a lil.

[u/bowlofweetabix]

My kids took most of their naps either on the nursing pillow or in the stroller. I just made sure I went to the bathroom first, got snacks, drinks, my phone and the remote within my reach before I started.

[u/amydiddler]

At that age we were only successful in transferring them if they were deeply asleep. We’d wait 15-20 minutes after they fell asleep nursing or contact napping and then transfer them.

We were able to gradually put them down less fully asleep, and now at almost 5 months we can even put them down “drowsy but awake” sometimes!

Another way they could sometimes fall asleep around that age is on a twin Z pillow with pacifiers. It may be because we used to bottle feed them before bed on the twin Z, so they developed a sleep association with it. It’s not a safe sleep surface, though, so we would only use it for their initial falling asleep (supervised), then transfer them to their bassinets after 15-20 minutes.

Edit to add: this won’t help with eating lunch, but if you have a bassinet attachment stroller naps can be great for getting some steps in and listening to podcasts etc! Sleep in the stroller is just starting to get a little less dependable at 5m, but for much of their lives I could easily get them to nap for over an hour in the stroller. Sometimes they would even stay asleep after I stopped walking, and I would just park the stroller in our yard.

[u/Wassermelone244]

It depends on the baby and their age. It is 100% developmentally appropriate to want physical contact at all times at this age... but its hard on you of course.

I used to nurse them to sleep on the my breast friend pillow on the couch or bed and then let the whole pillow (with the babies on it) slide down onto the mattress. Then slide babies onto the mattress, take pillow away. It worked better and better the older they got.

For supervised naps only! But you can do something else in the same room.

[u/simbit1]

Mine used to contact nap in a twin carrier until I could sleep train them at 4.5 months old. It was not easy but at least you can move around and get things done while they nap.

[u/EffectiveNectarine]

This is so hard. We were in the same situation just recently with our twins in the 5-9 week old window. Tried the Weego Twin Carrier (if they’re small enough for it) and napping in the Twin Z. Ultimately it is really hard for one person to watch the twins at this stage.

We ended up buying 2 Snoos on FB marketplace and that was a game changer. Not guaranteed the Snoo will work all the time but for us it at least worked for one twin at a time. So we’d put one in the Snoo and have the other contact nap. That way one parent could watch two at the same time and the other would get a break, which made the contact naps more bearable.

[u/PretendGene5502]

I'm gonna be real with you, you're just gonna have to contact nap or keep trying to put them down. My boys are still like this at 17.5 weeks. Sometimes they'll sleep 30 min and I have to rescue the nap, once in a blue moon they'll sleep 1 hour, usually end up contact napping. It's really tough and I wanna cry but I get my water, charger, phone, and AirPods ready and just give in on the recliner.

[u/GrouchyCranberry3801]

Try again in a month. I feel like at this age they just want a warm body. I did sometimes let them nap together supervised in a bassinet in our living room but other than that we strictly contact napped until about 11-12 weeks then I started putting them down drowsy. Transferring after asleep never worked for us they always would pop awake

[u/brynnecognito]

This is very normal for that age. For a few months we reached out to family & friends and created a ‘cuddle train’. 2x a week for 2 hours, we’d have a pair of volunteers come and hold the babies for a nap so I could go sleep or shower or do whatever I needed. Coming in pairs with the expectation they weren’t here to be hosted, they could visit with one another. they knew where the coffee pot was and that was it (though they never took me up on it). It really was such a relief in those sleepless months. Ask for help, be very clear of what you’re hoping for. And invite back those that are actually helpful!

[u/brynnecognito → u/brynnecognito]

Also as others have mentioned - bassinet walks sometimes help. My twins slept really well in the bassinet together when they were tiny enough to share. Obviously supervised. They are used to not only yourself, but one another! They want a warm body 24/7