Nap Time Help!

[Unregistered]

My god can someone help me please. Nap time is chaos in my house and nothing I do seems to work. How do you all work your nap time? I only have three kids and two available nap rooms very close together.

Every day is a new challenge. I have a 17 month old who usually falls asleep but wakes very early, usually only after an hour and then she will wake the others. Then I have a 2 year old who co sleeps at home and cannot be separated or he will scream and cry. Even napping with the other he often never falls asleep and cries which disturbs the others. Then I have my 21 mo daughter who was a champion napper until these kids came along and now she giggles and is loud during nap time and will take forever to settle.

How can I get these kids to sleep? I do books, songs, dark room, lullabye music. I have tried cry it out, shushing every ten minutes, rubbing backs. I'm just at my witts end. What am I doing wrong?

[caligirl]

Well, can you put the two 'bad' nappers each in a separate room, and put the good napper in the living room?

Turn on some white noise so they won't hear each other. I always have a radio on in every room at nap time.

[Ariana]

Very loud sound machines or a very loud fan/humidifier etc.

I would also put my daughter by herself if possible. The others together and just let them lie for an hour or two no matter what they are doing. They will eventually adjust to it.

[Unregistered]

That's exactly what I was doing a month ago and it wasn't working. But I have not tried a loud sound machine yet, maybe I should.

But I think you are right, I feel like they need to be sleeping at their age and it's driving me nuts that they aren't. Perhaps I need to just let go and have them stay in the room even if they do not sleep or are waking others.

[caligirl]

I have 3 in one room...... two in the playroom and one in my bedroom...... if they sleep, they sleep, if they don't -they don't.... but they are in their cribs, so they are safe and out of trouble, and I still get my break. I'd still put the good napper in the living room and the bad nappers each in a room of their own.

[Unregistered]

That makes sense, but unfortunately I only have two rooms to use and none of them will fall asleep in the living room.

So if they cry do you just leave them? I have no issues with CIO if it's effective but I'm having extra trouble for some reason.

[caligirl]

That makes sense, but unfortunately I only have two rooms to use and none of them will fall asleep in the living room.

So if they cry do you just leave them? I have no issues with CIO if it's effective but I'm having extra trouble for some reason.

I'll go in ONCE and try and tell them 'night night time', which hardly ever works....then I just go. Keep myself busy.

[Unregistered]

I think that might be a good strategy, or else I go crazy telling them to lay down or saying night night like 100 times.

Just out of curiosity, do yours ever cry for a long time?

[racemom]

I am a toddler teacher with 6 between 18 mo and 3 years. They all nap in a room together. Everyone lays down, get covered and I put a lullabye cd on. I sit between the two that are the hardest to make lay still. After those two are sleeping I move to sit between the next two and continue until everyone is sleeping. Then I have around 2 hours before anyone usually wakes up. If someone wakes up early, they must sit quietly on their cot. If they can do that for a few minutes without making noise I give them a book to look at quietly. Yes, it sometimes takes 20 minutes,to get everyone to sleep, but then I have an hour and 40 minutes to do lunch and planning/cleaning.

[Unregistered]

Wow you are a miracle worker. Sometimes I think I just got children who all have sleep issues haha. They are fine the whole day except for at nap time.

Do you think it's okay to sit in there with them? I thought I was creating a dependency by doing that. These two don't even sleep at night barely, so I know there are some bad sleep associations going on.

[racemom]

I work in a center, and our state regs are we need to be in the room at all times, even during nap. And no, I am not a miracle worker, just very stern with them about no noise. When I get a new child in my class, it sometimes takes a while to get them to nap for that long. But maybe it's because it is boring to sit in a quiet room with minimal light, they eventually all become good nappers! Lol

[racemom]

Double post. Sorry!

[Ariana]

Wow you are a miracle worker. Sometimes I think I just got children who all have sleep issues haha. They are fine the whole day except for at nap time.

Do you think it's okay to sit in there with them? I thought I was creating a dependency by doing that. These two don't even sleep at night barely, so I know there are some bad sleep associations going on.

When I worked in a centre I sat with kids too and had to manage a room full of toddlers..so 15 toddlers to 3 teachers. At home however it is a bit different. I personally don't sit with them and I definitely do CIO. Someone has to do it! I just had to to sleep train an 18 month old. I would go in every 15 minutes, turn her on her belly, rub her back and say "sleep time night night" and leave. She is a mess at home because her mom won't do CIO. Here she sleeps like a dream now. Took about 2 weeks to get her to sleep right away. She was just away for 2 weeks, schedule all over the place, mom telling me she couldn't nap her etc and lo and behold she came here and fell asleep instantly!

Sometimes tou just have to solve the issue in your house the way you see fit. I am not harming a child by doing CIO I am providing them with the skills they need to fall asleep and only CIO will get them there. Relying on others to fall asleep is a crutch.

[Unregistered]

Maybe the center environment is just more condusive to compliance . They are so at home here that it's hard to transition to nap time. Even my nap rooms aren't as bare as I would like them to be, since they nap in my kid's rooms.

[Unregistered]

I could not agree more about the CIO, and it sounds like we have the same situation. The 18 month old I have is JUST as you described, chaos at home and won't sleep there...they pick her up everytime she cries and she goes to bed with them.

So I was finally able to get her to fall asleep with no crying after sleep training her...but she wakes after an hour and half and cries very loudly. Then I have the 2 and 1/2 year old...similar issues. I feel like it's more of a tantrum at his age. They keep waking eachother, so frustrating!