2 vs 1

Having twins elicits lots of sympathy. We routinely hear, "double trouble!" I haven't been shy about the fact that the first four months were hard. Very hard. Things have gotten easier a little at a time. I have been told that around 18 months, having twins will start being easier than a singleton because that's when thy can start playing together rather than always needing an adult to entertain them. We're keeping our eyes on the prize.

Truly, though, things had gotten to where two rather than one wasn't twice as hard, just a little harder sometimes. One of the main reasons things have been so manageable is because the twoddlers have been on the same schedule. Until now. We are in that weird stage between two naps and one. So, it's harder for us to just stick to our nap routines because they aren't tired at the same times that they have been for months. Well, one might be one day and the other the next. Which meant that for today, Sylvia took a long morning nap, Rafa took a long midday nap and Sylvia is down again for an afternoon snooze.

If they don't both take two naps, this is the more frequent scenario. Sylvia is a disaster when she's tired. And she seems to really still need two naps. We ha a backup nanny one day last week and she let the kid play and then tried to put them down for one midday nap. Well, Sylvia was overtired and couldn't settle down. Because she was wailing at the top of her lungs, Rafa couldn't sleep, so the nanny got them both up since thy screamed for (according to her) 15 minutes. I came home or my lunch break and it was clear that Sylvia was über tired. So, I helped put her down to sleep. She didn't like it and still screamed some, but eventually fell asleep. Rafa, on the other hand never looked tired, so the nanny never put him down! So, he went the whole day without a nap!!! And he was perfectly pleasant at the end of the day. Some kids are just easier, I guess. (At least on this point, let's not talk about eating...).

So, Rafa is probably ready to switch to one nap a day, but Sylvia's not quite there, yet. This is when 2 is much harder than 1. We either fight against their natural rhythms or we have one child or the other sleeping for 6 almost continuous hours during the day, which makes going out and doing anything or getting anything done, nearly impossible.

On the positive side, this has given us some one on one time with each kid and a little glimpse into what it would be like to not have to divide our attention all the time. We probably should be more intentional about splitting them up even when they're on the same schedule so that they can experience uninterrupted time with at least one of us.