Nap Times and Two Kids, How Do You Do It???

I don't have a solution for you, but a suggestion you could try:
Tell the 3yo she doesn't have to take a nap if she can lay quietly in her bed until the timer rings. If she gets up or talks, the timer has to be reset and it starts all over again. Then set the timer for longer than it will take her to fall asleep. ;)

Worked for me sometimes with a 2yo, 2 3yo's, and a 5yo. The 5yo almost never ended up taking a nap, but that was fine.

Hi K.-
Here is how it worked with my older two... I would read them both books at the sametime then I would lay the first one down and spend 30 minutes alone with my oldest child. I then told her it was nap time and laid down near her for 10 minutes. I set a timer that she had to stay in bed, put not always asleep, until that timer went off. Over the course of a week or so, pretty soon they both were napping at the sametime as their ones body adjusted to the time of naps.
Getting them on the same nap schedule is a HUGE relief as you are able to get things done- even just going to the bathroom in peace!!
As for our youngest now and her 3 year old brother- HA!! He gave up naps a little after 2. I LOVE naps!! So that was sad day for me...I even had a talk with the doctor who said our son just doesn't need it- I don't think the doctor realized how much I NEEDED it! LOL!!

I am not sure that I can help, but I will try.

I also have 2 high need children, and struggled with this issue.

Have you tried to keep the baby awake longer, and and then when she you can not keep her awake any longer, rock her to sleep. I know that will change the way she lays down, (not all by herself), but it should allow you time to quickly get back to the 3 year old, and read her to sleep.

Just an idea

You need to gt into a better routine that truely works for you is all....take a bit of time to play around with it all.

I do home childcare and by about 10 mos old I TRY..not always successfully, but attempt to eliminate that morning nap. If they do take one, its very short..just to take the edge off their tiredness..often its a quick deal where they might fall asleep in the Jumperoo or something...otherwise its 30 minutes in the crib....thats it for the most part.

I keep them busy, we eat about Noon and by 1pm everyone is in bed. Most children are into the main nap room by about 12-14 mos old (some earlier..depends on how light of a sleeper they are)...this is a bedroom with 3 toddler beds and 3 packNplay cribs...sort of a little dormitory....and I get them all trained to sleep together at the same general time for 2-3 hours. I am not super-woman by any means...but I am consistent and diligent and they figure it out for the most part and fall in line. I always have the radio on in the napping rooms and if its needed, the bathroom fan for white noise so I can move around upstairs...masks my footsteps a bit more than the music.

So maybe play around with shortening the morning nap for the little one and have a goal of getting them both on the same afternoon nap schedule within a few weeks time...it will make your life much less chaotic and give you some time to get a few things done in the afternoon. You will figure it out! Just don't let the chaos win!

Be like a daycare center..

Kids wake up in the morning at the same time...

Put your 10mo. down for morning nap, spend time with older child.

Feed them lunch at the same time.

Put them down for afternoon nap at the same time after lunch.

My 11 month old does two naps. He goes down around 8 or 8:30 or so (we're up at 5:30 to get to daycare) and then he goes down again around 1:00ish...my 2 year old goes down at 1ish for his only nap of the day.

At daycare, they are seperated, just because if one gets up, then the other will wake up to, so for now, until they are both down to 1 nap which would be about the same in timing, I seperate them at home as well.

My youngest sleeps in his crib and my 2 1/2 year old is in my room on the floor on a mat, just like the one he uses at daycare.

On the weekend days where I can get them to sleep in, the routine gets messed up, but it still works well, because they are in 2 rooms so they don't disrupt each other.

Here is what I do:
My 11 month wakes up 6:45-7:15 - Its a 2 nap day. She will take her first nap at 9. I will only leave her in there until 10:15 She will then take her 2nd nap at 1:30 and up in time to get my daughter at Kindergarten.

My 3 year old always goes down 12:30ish-1:15is I will push it off it is a 2 day nap for the 11 month old.

If she is only taking 1 nap (usually if she slept until 8) then she goes down at 11:30 ish for as long as she wants. When she has one nap it is usaully 1.5- 2 hours long. If she takes only 1 nap, I put my 3 year old down close to 12:30 so I get a break!

I don't have to 2 children, but I was doing daycare for 7 at one time. In my experience, schedules area necessity. Make a schedule where your 10 m.o.'s morning nap is from 9:30-11:00. Then you have lunch and you play. Then nap time for both is 12:30. You can read books to them in your living room, or wherever you play,so that your baby can do as she pleases while the older one is settling down. Then it's off to bed with a hug and kiss. Your older daughter can climb into bed herself while you put the baby to sleep and wait for you to tuck her in. That's the only way I kept my sanity with 7 children all over the place. Good Luck!

I have two children ages 2 and 5. When the youngest was little we had his crib in our room. When fussy I always would have my 3 year old help out with comforting him before I engaged in reading to her or whatever. It wasn't until he was 1 yr that we put them in the same room and then we have coordinated nap time to be the same time.

Giving yourself an hour of time while baby watches IPTV or a Baby Einstein episode will not hurt him. I also found Baby Bug videos very engaging and wonderful for little ones. We do not watch much TV either but a hour hear or there will give you the break you need and make it possible for you to be revived and ready to tackle the next challenge.

K.,

My kids are (now) 17 months and 3 years (turned 3 in March). We have worked on naps in our house for a while, and this is what worked when the baby was taking two naps.

The older child gets TV time (his only TV of the day) when the baby went down for a nap. I bought Thomas and Bob the Builder because they have 10 - 15 minute episodes, so it was easy to turn off in the middle because the stories are so short.

Then, the older one would nap before the younger, so I would put the younger in his crib, and read to the older and go through the naptime routine. If the baby got fussy, sometimes the older child had to forego some of his books. Sometimes babies need their mommies. He dealt with it ok, as long as I explained he would get extra books at bedtime... sometimes we picked some out and we made a special pile for bedtime. My boys share a room, so both beds are in that space.

Then, about an hour after the 3 year old went down (he was then 2), I would nurse and rock the baby to sleep. I had to be close by, so that when the 3 year old woke up I would run in and take him out right away so he didn't wake the baby.

NOW, we are down to one nap, and it (usually) works much better than trying to schedule two naps for both kids. You can look forward to that :) They both go down for nap at the same time, and are actually both lying down now in the same room and going to sleep. (now if I could just keep my 17 month asleep without waking mid nap I'd be set - see my post earlier today!).

You might have luck with the following:

Set up a pack and play in your 3 year old's room, and let your baby play in there while you go through your nap routine with the 3 year old. Give the baby quiet toys to play with and keep the room quiet, dark, and maybe play some sleepy music. Then, when it is time for the 3 year old to lie down, take the baby quietly out of the room. My boys would both look at books for a while at 10 months, especially is there is a favorite book or subject for books. You could save those book just for that time of day, if she has some that she likes.

Maybe that will help?

Good luck!
J.