I went back to work when my LO's were 6 mos old and they then entered daycare. I've been told by many that they should fall into a good sleep routine afer 6-8 weeks....well that has not been the case. I'm lucky if the daycare is able to get 1-2 hours out of them TOTAL. Prior to going into daycare my LO's were sleeping 11-12 hours a night and now I'm lucky for them to get 10 hrs. Our routine looks something like this: *4:30-5:30 am wake up time--don't get them out of bed until 6 am *7:15 am arrive at daycare--most of the time take a 10-20 minute nap in the care *1/2-1 hr nap in the morning--don't have a set-time the daycare puts them down--all on demand *1/2-1 hr nap in the afternoon *4:30 pm go home--sleep 20-30 minutes in the car *6:30 pm off to bed I've tried pushing their bedtime later, but my LO's are so tired from daycare, they can't last any longer without getting over-tired. I feel like I'm in a vicious cycle and can't break it! Napping in the car to/from daycare is totally messing up their nap timing. My drive to their daycare is about 30 minutes door-to-door and don't know what to do to keep them from snoozing. Any advice?? Thanks!
I am by no means an expert. I have been reading HSHHC trying to find some solutions for my LO's. It sounds like they need more sleep during the day. Is there a way you can communicate this to the daycare?
Are they sleeping through the night until 4:30-5:30? What kind of schedule were you following before they started daycare? Can the daycare maybe follow your previous schedule? Keeping them awake in the car is SO HARD at that age. I always talked to mine, sang them silly songs, pointed at things out the window, anything I could think of & half the time, they still fell asleep!
Yes...they do STTN until morning. We had a good routine before I started them in daycare....up at 6-6:30 am with 3 strong naps a day. I did type up their schedule and give it to the daycare, but there's so much stimulation with the other kids that it's hard for them to fall asleep and stay asleep. My daycare is an on-demand daycare for sleeping and feeding with minor exceptions--like feeding the other twin right after the other to maintain same feeding schedule.
[ *4:30-5:30 am wake up time--don't get them out of bed until 6 am *! [/quote] Do they fall back to sleep? I can say mine are going through this wake up time and if I give them a quick response ( small bottle 3-4 oz) they will go right back to sleep until 7am. Their last bottle was at 5:45-6pm and down for the night at 6:15.I hate to tell you to get them in this ahbit, because Im trying to break it now, but they would go right back down. You could also try putting them to bed 15-30 min. earlier a few nights and see if that will help them catch up on some sleep. I follow HSHHC too and when my LO's dropped their third nap I had to put them down this early. A few nights of them going down at 6pm helped them not be so tired the next day. I know he suggests them getting more sleep at the front end so you could try it.
Okay, you might want to :tomato: me but I dont think napping to and from daycare is such a bad thing. They need the sleep, so why stop them. I dont think the 20 min nap in the car is throwing their nap schedule off so much at day care. I know they are really young for this but it could be possible that they want to count the 20 min nap in the car as their first nap and then try and hold them off a bit longer for the second nap with hopes of taking one longer nap at daycare? Just a suggestion. Going to bed at 6:30 is fine and you could try putting them down a bit earlier like the pp suggested to try and get them more sleep. You can also give them a sippy if they are interested in them or just to play with to try and buy you some time in the car. :hug:
daycare and naps just don't go well together. we've had a horrible time with naps because they just don't have a single dedicated staffer to make sure they go down on schedule and stay with them until they fall asleep. it's been my biggest problem with daycare, frankly. is 6:30 the earliest you can get them into bed? for us, that's our reality. if it's at all possible to get them down earlier rather than trying to keep them up later, that might help. i've learned that less sleep begets less sleep. i feel your pain, though. you're not alone in struggling with this! :hug:
[/quote] Do they fall back to sleep? I can say mine are going through this wake up time and if I give them a quick response ( small bottle 3-4 oz) they will go right back to sleep until 7am. Their last bottle was at 5:45-6pm and down for the night at 6:15.I hate to tell you to get them in this ahbit, because Im trying to break it now, but they would go right back down. [/quote] This works for us aswell! If you could do that they would get an extra couple of hours, which is exactly what they need. Sorry things are tough i hope you find something that works soon.
