If you have 2+ kids how did you get the baby to nap with he older kid at home? R is 10 weeks and his awake time is still only an hour maybe an hour and a half (I thought it was 2+ hours because he is not cranky but turns out he was in overtired territory). He is not a "fall asleep anywhere" or even a "fall asleep on own" baby. How did you do it? T is 2.9 and watching an obscene amount tv when we are home. Otherwise he just disrupts the napping process (he thinks it's funny). What did you do?
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We are only 3 weeks in so still figuring/ going to have to figure it out in the future! When I can sense that the baby needs to sleep and has been up for awhile a sure fire way to make her nap is in the Solly wrap (like the moby). Or I put on a 15 minute Daniel Tiger episode to distract the older one in order to put the younger one down in peace. But wete still figuring things out too.
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Following!
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Thankfully she will nurse to sleep. I usually turn the TV on and nurse dd 2 on the couch while dd 1 watches TV / plays. Sometimes it's only a short nap in my arms. Sometimes she makes it into the swing transfer. Although these days we are working on crib and am only successful about 1 out of 5 times!
In the early days I would have to just let her cry in the Beco till she fell asleep if it was around lunch time and I needed to fix dd 1 lunch.
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Put her in the rock and play and let her figure out how to fall asleep! That was our only option...
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So far we've been really lucky that she prefers to nap in the swing than in my lap.
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We got lucky and she would just fall asleep in her swing. But I started letting him watch TV while she napped, otherwise he would wake her up. Where does he nap? Can you put him down in his room with lots of white noise? My DD now naps in her room so I usually let him watch a show while I put her down or he just plays/annoys me outside her door while I put her down.
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@mrskc: that's what I do - White Noise dark room and older gets tv. But since he takes 4+ naps a day that's a lot of tv right now!!!
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@oliviaoblivia: @mrskc: my first exclusively napped in the swing...R just stays awake cooing at the mobile. He might doze off eventually but only for a cat nap!
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@autumn865: I don't want to scare you but the first month I didn't have to try to get R to nap. He just would either pass out after nursing or randomly in his swing or bouncer. All that changed after month 1!
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@Rainbow Sprinkles: was she swaddled?
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We did a lot of swing or bouncy seat naps. Also stroller and car seat naps.
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Olive is a little older than three, and she is super into puzzles! She'll do them for quite a while... plus she's really receptive to incentives. So if we told her if she finished a puzzle (and didn't wake up the baby) then she'd earn a specific reward, she would be really excited!
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@winniebee: we didnt swaddle for naps past 2 months. Just night time. The poor girl has never nursed to sleep or been rocked to sleep in her life because I just didn't have the capacity. She was a decent napper though once she figured it out. I also napped her on her belly on the floor in the middle of the living room! No idea why that worked, but it did!
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@winniebee: Basically if there was only one of us at home, that person was just stuck there. Neither of my kids are the sleep anywhere types and I just can't bring myself to skip naps. The less than one hour wake times were the worst, basically we could only get the older one out if someone else was available to help. We have enough separation between the baby's room and the other areas of the house that waking up wasn't too bad - sorry I can't help more
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@winniebee: I would try not to sweat it!! Your younger son will start stretching his sleep and taking less naps. Try to just think of it as a temporary solution for now. I honestly feel better that he just watches a show while I put DD down. THen I know he isn't getting into something he shouldn't. Otherwise, are there any quiet activities you can give him that he only gets when you are putting baby down? Like play doh or a reusable sticker book. My son also really likes those magnetic books.
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@winniebee: I could bounce the baby on a big exercise ball in the same room as big brother while we talked/played/watched tv, but that only worked until about 3.5 months. I would also only focus on 2 naps at home each day if I was alone - morning and afternoon. After morning nap, we would go to the park and baby would usually nap in the car or carrier while we were out.
Now, big brother watches tv while I put the baby down in the morning and I take both boys into big brother's room for afternoon nap, read stories to both of them, then leave big brother alone for his nap and put the baby down after.
But we also watch a s**t ton of TV. It helps me keep my head above water. -
I feel like my poor baby is permanently sleep-deprived. She just didn't get a lot of naps, and when she did fall asleep, my toddler thought it was funny to wake her up on purpose. All you can do, is try your best, and hope the baby sleeps a bit. I bribed my oldest with TV so I could put the baby down, more than a few times.
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We had luck with swing naps for a bit, but that's getting less frequent. Sometimes I can nurse to sleep and just hold him for a nap, but definitely not ideal. LO is 5 months now, so DH have been talking strategy. But, in a small house with not lots of space it's hard. I feel for you, hugs!
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I walked the baby in the stroller and that helped for some naps. Big brother was in the room playing. Once baby fell asleep, I rolled him into another room so he could sleep.
I also would walk him around and when he fell asleep or was very drowsy, I'd stick him in the rnp with vibration and music. I'd have to rock a minute or so and then he was out.
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In the early days, either swing (and LO1 and I played upstairs or outside) or going for a walk with him in the Ergo or stroller. He is 9 months now and down to 2 naps. For the first nap, I let LO1 watch tv while I nurse and get him to sleep in his crib. Second nap is during LO1's nap so he crawls around and plays with toys while I get LO1 down and then I get him down for his nap as soon as we're done with LO1's nap routine. When he was taking a third nap it was usually in the swing while LO1 and I got dinner ready.
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I was just coming to the post the same thing.
Lo2 is almost 8 months and his sleep is a wreck. We are past the "just fall asleep anywhere" stage (although he will nap in the ergo.) he is too big for the RNP but only sleeps like 20 minutes in his crib. I can't spend all morning rocking him to sleep and LO1 will try to wake him up when I'm rocking him. I don't know what to do. CIO? I'm worried that lo1 will freak out listening to him cry. Help!!
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Honestly I pop E in a carrier when I can't keep N quiet. E sleeps the best in a carrier anyway. E is 12 months old, I get told all the time by my m that he should be napping in his crib and I just say at least he is sleeping right? E hates his crib with such passion. Any little noise will wake him in his crib, firecrackers could off while he was in the carrier and he would still sleep.
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@jedeve: We dealt with the same thing once LO2 started napping in his crib (and actually LO1 too even though he didn't have anyone being noisy waking him up). We just deal with a short morning nap and if he wakes up early from his afternoon nap I can rock or nurse him back to sleep since LO1 is napping at the same time. We normally try to get out of the house after the morning nap and sometimes he'll continue the nap in the car seat, even if he only gets a few extra minutes. This morning he took a 1 hour nap which is only like the 2nd time that has ever happened in his crib!
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@erinpye: t thinks it is hilarious to wake his brother up. Hilarious!
@MrsRcCar: hey whatever works! R is only 2 months and for whatever reason he is always half asleep in the carrier rooting around even if he is fully fed!
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@Rainbow Sprinkles: I tried your (sort of) approach today and he actually fell asleep pretty quickly on his own (swaddled and with a paci in rnp). Granted I sat next to him to see if he was falling asleep but it only took5 mins (big bro was napping so I had that luxury)
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oh god. i'm so glad i'm not the only one dealing with this!
i pretty much do exactly what @mrskc: does: nurse her to sleep in her room while lo 1 watches tv and cross my fingers he doesn't get into something he shouldn't (which he usually does... )
i literally could have a foot in each of their rooms at the same time, that's how close they are, and lo 1 plays a lot in his room so if he doesn't watch tv while she naps he will almost always wake her up. i've just accepted it for now!
basically
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@winniebee: that's perfect! Keep trying!
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