Moms home with two (or more) kids - question

Okay, moms, I need your help! For those of you with at least 2 kids, how did you handle the time schedule around the baby's naps? I don't know what others do, but I can't seem to figure a good solution out so that we're ALL happy.

It's either A) we go out for errands, playdates, whatever and Emily has fun and I have my sanity or B) we stay in most of the day and Sarah naps well but Emily and I are crawling up the walls So, who wins?!

Sarah naps around 2 hrs each AM and then she should go down for another hour around 2 or 3....but on most days, I have things to do and then when we get back home Sarah is overtired, exhausted and a BEAR!!! She does not sleep in the car or stroller.

So what does everyone else do?

Re: Moms home with two (or more) kids - question

This might not help since Lauren is down to 1 nap each afternoon, usually after 2 p.m. and for a few hours. Since Andrew is in school, the only real thing we have to worry about is picking him up, but once we do, I usually go on my errands run or take them to the park, etc. We are usually back no later than 2 or 3, and they eat lunch and take a nap.

Today, once we came in and Lauren took a nap, I had that time with Andrew and we played out back or we did some activity together. Andrew is 50-50 with naps. He does still need them, but I need to be careful with him because if he naps too late or too long, he doesn't go to bed as easily.

Re: Moms home with two (or more) kids - question

thanks Trish. Sarah still needs 2 naps, but I can see it being better once she's down to one nap.

Re: Moms home with two (or more) kids - question

My two-age 23 months and 9 months.

my 23 month old take 1 nap a day, usually 1.5 to 2 hours. My youngest 1st nap is usually the same. I finally got them to go down at 11:30am together (they also sleep in one room).

Then at 3-3:30pm my youngest goes down for her 2nd nap for an hour.

Then both go to bed at 7:30pm

Sometimes i'll put my youngest down at 10am, she'll sleep til 12 then my oldest goes down, sleeps til 1:30-2pm, then the youngest goes down again at 2-2:30pm. That keep me in the house ALL day long. But i don't want to mess with their naps sometimes, i know it's just temporary for now.

GL

Re: Moms home with two (or more) kids - question

My 2 girls are 2.5 and 11 mos. DD#2 still takes 2 naps generally--at 11am and again around 4pm.

We'll go out before her first nap, maybe between 9:30 or 10am until 11ish. Then, we go out again after lunch--around 1ish until DD#2 needs to nap around 3:30pm.

We've gotten a pretty good routine going and both get their naps, which I'm usually a stickler for. Sometimes I'll be flexible if we'll be driving a while that way DD#1 can sleep in the car on the way there--wherever "there" is. For example a couple of weeks ago I took them to White Post which for us is about 40 minutes away. I didn't put DD#1 down, but we left around her naptime and she slept well and was fine for the day.

Re: Moms home with two (or more) kids - question

DS is 7 months...and he's scheduled has to basically revolve around his sisters comings and goings with school, dance, music, playdates, etc...here is what I do..

He is up at 7:30 if I need to go food shopping, bank, etc (errands) I will get him him all ready to go so that when it's time to take the girls to school he is ready. We then run our errands and come back home for his morning nap. He may doze in the car but not really sleep so he'll still go down for the nap...

I do my house stuff while he naps..cleaning etc...

He's up around 12:30 then we have lunch and then the day is ours until the girls come home from school. I put him down for a nap at 3pm. The girls are home at 4. So now he's up and ready for whatever or whereever we need to go...

Ive also tried to keep things pretty flexible. This is generally our "routine" but not necessarily our schedule. The times can change depending upon appointments or how late he sleeps. I have found that as long as you keep the routine basically the same you can deviate from the "schedule" rather well..and vice vera.