NAPS: I feel like I am house bound!!!

The girls LOVE their morning and afternoon naps in their cribs. They sleep anywhere from 1-3 hours each nap. I feel like a bad Mom taking them out during naptime...but there is not much time in between naps for me to run errands or whatever. What do you do? Just take them and let them sleep in the car and stroller??

 

The girls LOVE their morning and afternoon naps in their cribs. They sleep anywhere from 1-3 hours each nap. I feel like a bad Mom taking them out during naptime...but there is not much time in between naps for me to run errands or whatever. What do you do? Just take them and let them sleep in the car and stroller??

 

Kelly, I stayed home with them and only broke their routine every once in a while. They won't be on two naps forever, so I opted for the great schedule with great sleepers and took them out occasionally.

 

I invested a lot of time in my oldest, from 4 to 3 naps (4 months) to 2 naps (6 months) to 1 nap (18 months), but it's worth it. She's a great sleeper. However, now with 2 more in the house it's almost impossible to do it exactly the same way (especially for my oldest dd), but I plan to do a morning and afternoon nap (last one all together) and combine that with an early bed time (6-7 pm) in case the 3rd nap doesn't happen. On Tu / Thu I can be a little better since dd is in preschool, however she needs to be dropped off and picked up again ...

 

Kelly I feel the same way. You are right there is not a lot of time in between naps especially once you feed a bottle and/or solids. I don't like not letting them get good naps. I also don't have the luxury of letting them sleep longer in the afternoon as I have to wake them up at 3:00 to get my oldest daughter from school. So I don't go anywhere either. I'm actually looking forward to them going down to one nap so I can get out more, of couse I say that now.

 

HI Kelly,

I don't go anywhere either, I have noticed when I do take them out at naptime, they do horribly in the evenings and don't sleep well at night. They are past the age of sleeping in their strollers since they want to look around and see what's going on, so I pretty much just stay home and on the weekends, one of us will stay home with the babies and one of us will go out to do errands.

Mona

 

I pretty much just do what I need to between naps. Mine are done with first nap by 9:30 and eat right after. Then I have a good 2-3 hours to get out which is usually enough.

I have done this with my 2 older DDs and they sleep like champs. My 4 year old still naps at noon til 2:30 and that's when the babies go down for their second nap. It works in my favor to keep them in tune because they are happier and I have a block of time every day when I know for sure they will nap and I can relax or get stuff done around the house.

The babies still take a 3rd quick nap at about 4:00.
I was trying to cut that out but with colds, they are usually needing it.

At 5 months, they were definitely taking 3 naps. If I had to get out, I would let them take one of them in the car and count that and try to get back on track at home.

 

I try to stay home with them if possible. I find that if I mess up their nap then they are "fussy butts" and we all have to pay. They do get off schedule on Sundays when we go to church. I am trying everything possible to maintain a good schedule after all the traveling and visiting with did for the holidays . . . that seemed to torture us all.

 

I feel the same way also. Mine nap from 9-11am,12:30-2:30pm, and sometimes a third nap from 4-5pm. I usually don't take them out during their first two naps if I can help it because their naps suffer. I try to do my outings after the 2nd nap (usually around 3:00pm). Sometimes they will fall asleep while we are out and I count that as the third nap. If they don't get the third nap, then it is not as big of a loss.

I know it doesn't seem like it now, but when they get older and sleep less, we will probably be missing these times when they napped so much.

Jennifer

 

We let them sleep in the stroller. I try to time grocery shopping to this!

Angel

 

My girls still take two naps a day one at 10am and 3pm, it does make it tough to get out since they don't sleep anywhere well, but the crib. My only chance to get out is right after they have lunch and then I only have a couple of hours.

Very tough, but I figure a few more months and they will be down to one nap a day and I will be able to get out more.

 

We stay home for naps. I run errands in the morning between 8am breakfast and 10am nap since my 2 year old is sleeping during their afternoon waketime. I also run errands after they go to bed (7pm) and hubby is home. This evening errand running is the best becasue I do it kid-free and in 1/3 the time!

 

Mine LOVE to sleep in their cribs. Even this morning Zoe woke up before Johnny (which is unusual) so I fed her in bed with me & thought I'd just let her sleep with me (they usually go back to sleep after their 1st bottle). After about 1/2 hr of her just fussing around, I finally put her back in her crib - she fell right asleep!

I try not to go to town too much, or for too long. It's hard, though, since we don't live close to town & doing errands can be an all day thing. When I go, I try to go in the morning since that's when they're happiest. They will usually sleep in the carseats, and if I'm careful getting them in & out it's ok. I'll pull the sunshades over when I go in a store, since it helps block out the light (when they're sleeping). They actually really like going shopping; I think it's rolling by in the stroller & seeing all the lights go by.

They do get fussier in the evening if we're out too late. So I try to keep it short & not after a big day when they might be extra tired to begin with.

 

Mine eat around 11am after their morning nap and go down between 1-1:30. That gives us just enough time to do a quick outing or lunch with friends. After their afternoon nap and bottle, we have a bigger chunk of time (basically 2.5 hours). I also take advantage of the evening time after they go to bed to head out. They are asleep at 7:30 and most stores are open until 9 or so. When we do go out, I try not to take them out of the car more than twice. I'd rather go out a couple of days in a row than shuttle them to multiple places and risk fussiness.

Today we went to Hobby Lobby to look at scrapbooking stuff. Believe it or not, I didn't buy anything and there was a HUGE sale. I just wanted to get out and scout out some new ideas.

 

Mine have always slept great in their car seats, so we try not to worry about it too much. We do try to plan things around their naps so they can sleep in their cribs as much as possible. My DH works swing shift, so we try to get out for lunch about every other day. If they girls fall asleep in the car, we run errands together until it is time for him to go to work and then I drop him off and cruise the neighborhood or sit in the car and read magazines until they wake. Sometimes it feels like my only break!

 

I wish mined napped. They refuse to nap longer than 45 min so I just do things when I need to. It is tough on us and I need to get out of the house to keep my sanity. They don't sleep through the night or nap good whether I stay home or not.