Tell me about your pre-nap routine...

Hi ladies. I need a new pre-nap routine. When Evan and James were little I used to put them under their mobiles in a dim room for 10 minutes before naps. Then around 6 months I started reading to them before naps. I put them in their sleep sacs, give them their pacis, and then we all lay on my bed (with me in the middle, then on either side) and I read them stories for 10 minutes or so in a dim light to get them to calm down and feel a nap coming on. Then I put them in their cribs (in separate rooms), each with a white noise machine. But these days my famous pre-nap routine is NOT working. James, especially, is a crazy wiggler and just can't lay still for a story anymore. But he's SUCH an active boy that he needs something to calm him before naps. Two days in a row he's cried himself to sleep for his afternoon nap and it makes me feel awful! I've tried putting the boys in their cribs with some books for a little while, but they just walk around, throw the books out, etc. Anyway, any ideas? What do you do before naps? Or do you just put them in the cribs and turn out the light? Help! I have to say, naps have been the absolute toughest part of mommyhood so far. I find myself just wishing for the day when we're done with naps. They're so stressful!

 

I feel your pain! Our morning nap still goes pretty well (knock madly on wood!). Our routine is get up, have a bottle (I know I know- we are working on it!), and play like little crazy monkeys (seriously we get the in the living room and they run around like they've never seen the toys before!). After about an hour of playing they have breakfast and then they go right from the highchairs to their cribs (sometimes they get a diaper change is necessary).

Our afternoon nap is all over the place. They used to take a nap right after lunch, but on days when they go to the sitter, they REFUSE to nap because its just so much fun there. Which means that now our regularly scheduled 1pm nap is more like 4pm (after they get a snack). I don't like tying eating and sleeping together but ya gotta do what works sometimes.

For bedtime I read them stories in the living room right before their bottle (yup- still have 2 bottles a day. bad momma!). Ana will sit in my lap and listen to the stories, turn the pages, suck her thumb and settle down. My wild woman Meara will listen to a little bit of the story and then run around the living room whooping it up. She just has a different temperment than Ana. Ana will also pick up the books herself and leaf through the pages for 10 minutes at a time while Meara barely plays with any toy that long.

So many you need to move story time from the bed and onto the floor where one can hang with you and your wiggle worm can listen, roam around, listen some more,etc. Sorry I couldn't give you better advice.. maybe its the age

 

I can't wait for naps to end either! That is the toughest on me too! (And then we might actually be able to go out too!) My naptime routine does involve books. But i do put them down seperately. I take Alyssa upstairsto her room first (Brayden is gated in the LR which is babyproofed and he is okay for a few minutes without me) I read her a quick story (a short little board book), sing two songs like Twinkle twinke, and itsy bitsy spider, cuddle and rock her for one minute, then into her crib. She does not cry and goes to sleep on her own. When i leave her room, i go get Brayden and do the same thing, but in the LR in a rocker. Now, he is my tricky one and it took me a long time to figure him out. He will not go down awake. I have tried CIO with him and it has not worked for naps. BUT i am lucky that even though he needs to be rocked to sleep, he really only takes about 5 minutes. So his pre-nap routine is almost as quick as Alyssa's. Once he is asleep, i walk him uptairs and he sleeps in the pnp in the guest room (only for naps, they both go down awake at bedtime in their bedroom without complaint). So, i do mine seperate. They never sat still when i tried to read to them together. When we read before bedtime, my DH hold one of them.
Good luck! I hope you can figure something out!

-Candi

 

How many naps are they taking and for how long?

 

Morning nap - 9:15ish to 10:30 (I wake them at 10:30 if they're not up, to protect their afternoon nap)

Afternoon nap - 2ish - they sleep anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes

Night - usually 11 hours

They are one year old.

HELP!!!!

 

I'm pretty no-frills. DH, OTOH, is making things overly elaborate to the point where I could just strangle him (if it wasn't for the absolutely adorable way he painstakingly makes sure everything is 'just right' for the boys). I do the same routine at nap/bed...DH is only there to stall bedtime, though.

Mom's version:
change diapers
read a story or two for a wind-down
"It's sleepy time"
Put Joe in his crib, turn on his sound machine, lower blinds.
Give Joe a kiss, invite him to lay down on his pillow, and cover him with his blanket.
"Go to sleep, I love you, I'll see you when you wake up"
Blow kiss as I exit the room.
Repeat process for Nick's room.

Dad's version:
C'mon, we have to go pick your animals, Dad picks up Nick, then hands him to mom.
(Mom usually attempts to expedite things by turning on the sound machine and lowering the blinds)
Dad shows Nick the animal collection (which, he has RETREIVED from the crib and re-displayed on top of the toy shelf specifically for the following dialogue)
Dad:Okay, well, we KNOW we need HIM (grabbing the little, musical butterfly)
Nick: HIM! (grabs the butterfly, then runs over and throws him in the crib)
Dad: And we know we need HIM (grabbing the baby giraffe)
Nick: HIM! (grabs baby giraffe, runs over and thows it in the crib)
Dad: And I think we need HER(grabbing the mama giraffe)
Nick: HER! (once again, runs over and tosses into the crib)
Usually at this point Nick is to excited for the charade to continue and starts chanting, LI-o, LI-o, LI-o"
Dad: O-Kay, we'll get HIM too (Lion is handed over).
At this point DH finally bids him goodnight and mom continues with:
Give a kiss, invite him to lay down on his pillow, and cover him with his blanket.
Go to sleep, I love you, I'll see you when you wake up
Blow kiss as I exit the room.

 

When we were doing two naps it was nurse then nap, that always relaxed them. Then when we went to one nap I also weaned them from nursing before naps.
So now I tell them to help clean up, and use that as "wind down/know nap is coming time", then I tell them to grab their bunnies (loveys) and that it is nap time. I bring them upstairs one at a time (they nap in seperate rooms) and put them in their cribs with paci, turn on mobile and leave.
Sometimes dd will play for a min or two, but she knows well that I will not be coming back for alteast 1hr

 

My two started bucking on the afternoon nap close to the one year mark. Well, at daycare, they moved up to the toddler 1 class and their schedule only allows one nap. I thought...oh no this won't work. But we follow daycare's schedule on the weekends too to keep from "confusing" the boys.

It's great! They take a nap after lunch (not great for running errands) for about 1.5 to 2 hours. They eat lunch about 11 to 11:30, play for about 20 minutes, and I take each one into their room and put them down with their blankie, turn on the music doo-da, and off to sleep they go. Then we wake up, change diapers, get a snack, and play for the rest of the afternoon until dinner and bedtime.

It took some getting used, and I'm definitely not suggesting you should drop to one nap unless you're ready, but for us, it made things much better and they seem happy and rested.

 

I also found that naps got easier once they were on one nap. I know that doesn't help right now if you're not ready to go to one nap, but just to give you some hope that it will get easier! Also, around 15 months they at least stopped crying (usually) at nap time. They didn't always fall asleep right away, but they would just babble for awhile. Now (at 28 months) we get crib-bouncing and song-singing, but they are still usually happy and they eventually do fall asleep (usually).

Anyway, our nap routine has always been:
lunch (ideally starting around 12-12:15)
a little quiet playing after lunch
diaper changes, sleep sacks, stories (max. 2-3)
into bed, turn on white noise, a few kisses, and "have a good nap!"

Also, they nap in separate rooms, which helps a lot. We started that around 9 months when they started being much more aware of each other and keeping each other up.

Our daycare also went to one nap at 13 months, but they seemed so tired in the evening that we kept them on two naps on weekends until 15-16 months. They didn't seem to have much of a problem with having two different schedules -- I think they just really needed the extra sleep. Even when we finally went to one nap at home, it was a struggle for several months keeping them awake until naptime.

 

QUOTE(Minette @ Mar 21 2008, 04:19 PM) [snapback]680876[/snapback]
Anyway, our nap routine has always been:
lunch (ideally starting around 12-12:15)
a little quiet playing after lunch
diaper changes, sleep sacks, stories (max. 2-3)
into bed, turn on white noise, a few kisses, and "have a good nap!"


This is where we are now. It did not come easy and it took them a few months to really adjust to one nap. Ugh.

 

Our nap routine is the same as our bedtime routine.

They go into their cribs first. Then DH or I sit in the chair in their room and read them a story. During the story, sometimes they lie down and start to wind down to sleep, sometimes they stand up and watch the story intently, sometimes they jump up and down and walk around their cribs, and sometimes they just make faces at each other. Regardless, at the end of the story, music goes on, we do 1-2-3 lights out, and leave the room.

Although I love the idea of reading to them while they're in my lap, I've never once been able to make it work. So cribs for storytime has worked well for us.

We don't typically get very long naps out of them, but they do at least get to sleep (or at least stop fussing) very quickly when we leave the room.

 

How does that work, you reading to them while they're in their cribs. Can they see the pics?

 

Our first nap is a beautiful thing. Sleepy signs start at 11 AM like clockwork. I tell them its napping time and give them their paci's and loveys. Then we clean up the toys, turn out the light, put on the quiet music and put them in bed..usually with a bottle of about 2 or 3 oz of water.

I'm trying to eliminate the bottle and I'm hoping to move their perfect first nap back to noon...so AFTER lunch. As it is, they sleep or play until 1:30 or 2:00, eat lunch around 2:30 or 3:00 and get sleepy again around 4:30 or 5:00 like clockwork. That is an awful time to be sleepy because if they take a nap then we're guaranteed they'll be up until 10:00! And if I try to keep them up, they're cranky and miserable before 6:00. I'm hoping that pushing the first nap back will eliminate the need for a 2nd nap. But I'm so reluctant to mess with their first nap. They practically ask for it everyday at the same time!

 

I didn't read all the replies, so I might be repeating what others do. We don't have a routine for nap OR night time. A little while before, I'll say "naptime (or bedtime) in about 5 min", sometimes if they are watching a show before nap I'll tell them it will be naptime after the show. We all go back into one of the bedrooms, change diapers, boys into their room, into their beds, I turn the fan on for white noise, offer to cover with blanket if they want, give a kiss, say night night, turn off the light and shut the door. Then I take kayci into her room, turn on her fan, she turns off the light, I give her a kiss, put her in her crib, cover with the blanket if she wants and leave. I guess that is still a routine, but not the way most people think of it. I can get all five kids in bed in 10 min.

 

QUOTE(CHJH @ Mar 21 2008, 09:25 PM) [snapback]681710[/snapback]
How does that work, you reading to them while they're in their cribs. Can they see the pics?


Yes, just like storytime at the library. I sit in the chair facing their cribs and hold the book out so they can see the pictures. It's the only way I've figured out how to read to them without them grabbing the book out of my hands or crawling all over each other!

Like I said, sometimes they are really intent on the story, and they sit or stand and look at the book while I'm reading. Other times they are walking around their cribs or laying down, but at least they're still getting the story read to them.

 

We still use the swings (!) They are 16 and half months old but still under 25 pounds so I'll use the swings as long as i can.

I say "Swing time" and they drop whatever they are doing and get up and rush to the bedroom - they grab their loveys and a pacifier (the swings are next to their beds). Then I put them into the swings and read 4~5 stories and then check nappies and put them into bed. Then I tell them its nap time and I'll see them again soon. They talk a bit but fall asleep within 15~20 minutes... Not sure what to do when the swings are out....!

 

Our nap routine isn't much. After lunch, they play for a bit, sometimes we watch a short program on TV. Then we change diapers, hugs and kisses, and into their cribs. Mine do not nap consistently anymore, but I don't think it has anything to do with the nap routine. Even when they do nap, it takes a bit for them to settle down. There's always playing and hooping and hollering. You will find that once they can walk and such, they really don't go right to sleep anymore. They will play for a bit in their cribs at nap and bedtime, and that's perfectly normal. If they don't seem tired though, maybe it's time to adjust naptime.

 

Well about a 15 minutes before nap time I change diapers and then say "It's time to take a nap, let's go nigh nigh." I still give them 4 ounces of breast milk in a sippy cup and they get in their beds (recently switched to toddler beds) and I tuck them in and say, "(It is bed time, go to sleep, I love you, don't get out of bed, go to sleep." and then give each a kiss and then I leave the room, they still share one for the moment. And they usually sleep for 3 1/2 to 4 hours (just one afternoon nap).

 

QUOTE(LaRae81 @ Mar 24 2008, 04:43 PM) [snapback]684984[/snapback]
And they usually sleep for 3 1/2 to 4 hours (just one afternoon nap).


WOW!!!! That's all I have to say....just, WOW!!!! We've never gotten a total of 4 hours of naps out of them, even when they were taking three naps a day. Now they take two naps a day (and need them both) and we still don't get a total of two hours out of them. We've been okay with it only because they sleep 13 hours at night, but I must admit a 4 hour nap would be nice.

 

I thought the 3 1/2 to 4 hours was a misprint! :lol:

 

QUOTE(BridgePort @ Mar 21 2008, 07:28 PM) [snapback]681188[/snapback]
Our nap routine is the same as our bedtime routine.

They go into their cribs first. Then DH or I sit in the chair in their room and read them a story. During the story, sometimes they lie down and start to wind down to sleep, sometimes they stand up and watch the story intently, sometimes they jump up and down and walk around their cribs, and sometimes they just make faces at each other. Regardless, at the end of the story, music goes on, we do 1-2-3 lights out, and leave the room.

Although I love the idea of reading to them while they're in my lap, I've never once been able to make it work. So cribs for storytime has worked well for us.


I think I am going to give this a try. I am currently reading to them in my lap in the rocking chair, but the bigger they are getting the more squirmy they get and God Forbid someones arm touch someone elses arm and then the pushing begins. This might just be the next best thing!!