Seeking Routines

I'd get rid of the bottle and get a really colorful sippy cup. My daughter just self-weaned the other night, so our weaning went surprising well. I introduced whole milk during meal times about 6 weeks ago, when she dropped her morning nap and we dropped the corresponding nursing. Once she was drinking from the cup, I then introduced the cup for her nursing with her second nap. Since she was use to getting sips of water at night (when she is sick), she took to it quickly. I always give her a toy or something to play with, and make a big deal about how it's time for her to play with her friends (she has two different soothers in her crib that she loves). She plays for a few minutes and then goes off.

I knew she was ready for one nap because she was only taking a morning nap 2 out of 7 mornings, and she did this for a good 3.5 weeks. Our schedule goes something like this:

6:30-7:30 Up
7:30-8:30- Eat
9-11:45 Play
11:45-12:15 Eat
12:30/1:00 Nap
3:00- 5:30 Play
5:30 Eat
7:00-7:30 Bed

Hello, I have twin boys who are almost 16 months.. I have been big on the routine since birth. First of all GREAT job on the breastfeeding! The one nap a day thing, I think you will be able to tell when they are ready. Mine still love their moring nap, and if they dont get it, watch out :) Here is our schedule
7ish - get milk in sippy cup
730:8 breakfast
8-9:30-10ish Play
10 - 1130 Nap
12 eat lunch w/sippy cup
Play till around 2
2-3:30 - 4ish Nap
5 Dinner w/ sippy cup
630 Bath
7 bed time w/ sippy cup (no bottles)
Hope that wasnt too confusing, if you have any questions, email me :) Hope everything works out for you!

I have 3 kids to but not a set of twins. My kids are 6, 4, and 1. I thought I would respond because I have a 1 year old. My daughter has been down to 1 nap now for a few months. This is our routine:

~8:30AM-wake up. Change diaper and bottle
9AM-Breakfast
9:30AM-11:30AM Play
11:30AM-3ish Nap
3ish-Bottle
4-6PM-Play
6PM-Dinner
8:30-the 3 B's (bath, bottle, bed)

I just weaned her and I feel like we finally have a schedule. If her brothers wake her up during her nap she will end up taking a 2nd one (like today). So, sometimes things get thrown out of wack. I hope this helps. Maybe try a different bottle/nipple or a cup. My 1 year old only will drink out of a specific sippy cup. Try warming up the milk if you don't already. Usually all of my kids kind of gave up their second nap on their own (didn't want to sleep, etc). I have been blessed with 10-12 hour a night sleeping kids so unfortunately I don't have too much advice for you as far as getting them to sleep. That's great that you are still nursing, but I have found that now that I am not it's a little easier for me. I hope this helps and best of luck to you getting some much needed rest.

I recently felt like this with my young son (he's only 5 months) but I started to think he needed to be on a schedule.

For a few days, I just let him do his normal thing and I took a note of it each day. When he woke up, wanted to eat, nap, play etc. What I found was that, while he wasn't on a minute-to-minute schedule, he wasn't as random as I thought either.

You may want to do this - then build the schedule that works for you using what they already do as a starting point.

As for going to one nap, with my daughter (who is 3.5) she just started fussing and crying at nap time and clearly wasn't tired. Then when I went to one nap, I had to fight keep her awake until 1-ish, but she slept great, and quickly got used to it.

Good luck!

Well, my 18-month old weaned herself at 8 months...but she had already been taking a bottle at daycare, so maybe ONLY offering the bottle at certain times of days would be one option to help get him used to it. I'm sure you'll recall that the most important thing is to be consistent. Pretty much anything you do will eventually work, you just have to stay consistent. As for schedules, I'll give you what we do (except for daycare). So, 18-month old wakes at 6am, we cuddle in bed until 6:30 or 7:00, get up and start getting both of ourselves ready for the day (shower for me, brushing teeth, change of diaper for her, etc.). At 8 she is at the daycare and has breakfast. For a long time, she napped routinely at 10:30 for an hour and then around 1:00 for an hour. Maybe 2 months ago, she started to change this and would just start napping at different times. One day she wouldn't nap at all in the morning, another day she would nap for four hours, etc. She gradually changed her own schedule, and now we count on a 2 hour nap around 10:30 and maybe another 1 hour nap in the afternoon sometimes. At 6 sharp she is ready for dinner. Every other day or so we give her a bath after dinner, then we brush her teeth, change her diaper, put on pj's...if she does not seem tired, I put on some relaxing music and we lay on the floor and read books for about 15 minutes. Then, I tell her it's time for bed around 7:30 (she is usually rubbing her eyes by then), and we tour the house saying bye-bye and good night. Finally, we read a story that we read every night, and I put her to bed.

Whew! That was long, but I remember being so tired, and trying to figure out the best way to get things done.

I struggle a lot with how to do things with her, she is my first, but in the end I see that it is most important that I follow some of her cues, and be consistent in my decisions.