Two under two- how did you handle naps?

[Anonymous]

I have a 20 and 5 month old. Younger one is a great sleeper thank god, but has mostly been napping on me/in the carrier/on the go so far but he's too big now and I need to get him napping in his crib. The toddler isn't having it and will start screaming when I try to get DS down for a nap. It's very nap, so this is 3 times a day. Any tips? I've tried having her watch tv or sitting with us, neither has worked.

[Anonymous]

The two of them should at least take an afternoon nap at the same time, in their cribs. Mine are a little over 2 years apart and at the earliest opportunity (which was around when the younger was 5 months) I had them on the same afternoon nap schedule. I would actually wake the baby after 1 hour of morning nap in order to have the afternoon nap at the same time.
That's the easy one. The harder one is to help baby nap in the morning in his crib, when the toddler needs to be outside playing. Can you hire a babysitter to take the toddler out to play a couple of hours a day? This could be a job for a high schooler, plenty of them with flex schedules now with all the online learning.
For the third nap I wouldn't worry too much about baby napping on me if that's what it takes. Both of my kids dropped the third nap around 6 months when they consolidated to 2 long naps.

[Anonymous]

My boys are 18 months apart.

They both napped 12-3pm or so starting around 3 months old for the youngest. This was imperative for my sanity.

Baby napped in the morning in the stroller; toddler played at park. We all got home at 11:30, ate lunch.

Toddler went down for nap. Baby laid on his playmat while I did the toddler routine.
I nursed baby and napped with him, most days.

[Anonymous]

For the am nap baby usually just slept in his swing, sometimes I could move him but my kids never really did the "drowsy but awake" put-down routine. For afternoon nap we all slept together in my bed! Their in-home daycare provider managed to enforce afternoon nap time where they both would sleep without fuss, but at home on weekends it never worked for us.

When all else failed they both went for a car ride, the older one was easy to bring in asleep and would stay asleep on the couch. The baby would wake up but go back down pretty quickly with nursing.

[Anonymous]

Older child naps while baby is most awake. It’s the only way to get quality time with each, IMO. I tailored my baby’s schedule to fit toddler’s.

[Anonymous]

I have a 3mo and a 2 yo - they are 22 months apart, so a bigger gap. I've more or less given up on being able to put the baby down for a nap during the morning or late afternoon nap and am usually wearing the baby. I am attempting as best I can to get the baby's midday nap timed to just after I put the 2yo down for her nap, so that I can focus on that one being longer and being in the bassinet/crib. I have about a 70% success rate. Maybe start with trying to get that one (hopefully longer) nap in the crib and get baby on a schedule that has him/her going to sleep not long after the toddler? Once you have that down, you can work on maybe getting one more in the crib as your toddler gets older. If you are able to do it, I see no issue with keeping that third nap on the go since they drop it first.

Good luck! And if you discover a magic answer, let us know!

[Anonymous]

I took the time when my infant was asleep to really concentrate on my toddler ( my first two boys are 22 months apart). Read ,draw and chat.

[Anonymous]

Omg OP I just lived this craziness over the last 7 months. I have a 7 month old DD and 2 year old DS. The 2 year old would ScReAm and bang on doors, be as wild as humanly possible while I was nursing and putting baby down to nap. Finally the only thing that would work was to put 2 yo in his crib with an iPad and YouTube Kids and some of his truck toys for the 10-15 mins it took to put baby down for nap. It is truly the only way to keep him contained/safe and quiet. It was a special treat since he doesn’t get the iPad any other time. I feel for you- so stressful, good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Omg OP I just lived this craziness over the last 7 months. I have a 7 month old DD and 2 year old DS. The 2 year old would ScReAm and bang on doors, be as wild as humanly possible while I was nursing and putting baby down to nap. Finally the only thing that would work was to put 2 yo in his crib with an iPad and YouTube Kids and some of his truck toys for the 10-15 mins it took to put baby down for nap. It is truly the only way to keep him contained/safe and quiet. It was a special treat since he doesn’t get the iPad any other time. I feel for you- so stressful, good luck!

OP here, thank you fo this!! My question wasn't so much about timing, we have a pretty good schedule going, more about how to get the toddler to settle down while I put the baby down, which has been impossible. I will try iPad in crib, that might entice her.

[Anonymous]

Get them on the same nap schedule ASAP! Then you can leave the house but also get a break.

[Anonymous]

Our kids are 22 months apart and on opposite nap schedules. We had to nap train our second at 5 months so we could just put him in his crib and go back to playing with toddler.