Anonymous wrote:Consider getting a mommy’s helper. A teen who can come over while the baby is napping while you go pick up the kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP not piling on you. Have you thought about just cosleeping entirely? Or keeping her crib in your room?

Id also ask if there are any other issues besides sleeping like loose stools, congestion, not liking the car, excessive spitup. Did you recently start solids?

Im in the not sleep training boat but I do think there is a large swath of possibilities between my personal take (cosleeping until 18mo-2years and sharing responsibilities at night with another parent and both parents WOH before I get the comments about how not everyone has time for that) and the complete CIO shut the door avenue. Neither of these seem right for you based on your responses so youll need to find what does work for you and your baby and the rest of your family. If the pickup and dropoff situation cant change and short frequent naps are happening then you need to address night time sleep and/or naps, but likely both. What situation is going to allow you and baby to get the most sleep? It may be unorthodox for others but they dont matter, and the end of the day getting your childs total sleep time increased and your total sleep time increased is the priority.

At 7 months you are looking at 12-16 hours total and a few naps with daytime sleep averaging 3-4 hours. From your post it looks like its a 30min nap plus a few (1-3?) 20 min naps. When is the 30 min nap? If not an issue with driving, I would go in around 25 minutes and help her go back to sleep. Its making sure she goes out of the sleep cycle and assisting her to go right back in- that can take the form of patting or shushing etc. I also wonder if babywearing during that 30min nap is an option.

Is she falling asleep in the car towards the end of the drive home or to drop off- if so, is she in a convertible seat or a bucket seat? If its a bucket I would see if transferring to a stroller and using that time in the morning to walk and help her extend the nap and then start to shorten the walk then remove the walk all together and do a transfer with rocking and then remove rocking slowly to see if she can -over a few weeks of time- go from car seat to crib transition. Youve gotta find a way to break these 20-30 min cycles, which may take some more effort and work on your end.

Also I have plenty of friends who did not breastfeed whose children woke during the night. If nursing at night gets you all more sleep then do it. He/she will wean eventually and weaning is done slowly. I realize that some people feel that it is prolonging the inevitable but I prefer to remove nursing at night and implementation of stronger boundaries at night to when parents and child can communicate and they can understand what is going on. Its a slow process in my household and it works for us. Thats what matters.

I just want to thank you for this thoughtful post. Rather than responding to each question you posed so I can be ripped apart by the women on here claiming that I'm abusing my baby by driving my other children to and from school (22 mins away, fwiw. I round up for car line) I'll just say that you've given me some ideas to consider. Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have 3 kids and wrote above about changing nap schedule.

Everyone is piling up on OP who is trying to do her best for her 3 kids. She has 2 more to take care of and the middle child is the most frail one right now. That baby (probably just turned 3) has just started preschool with all that goes with it. She can’t take him/her out now… it’s a non negotiable and I understand that. The baby is fine in the car especially since as we all know, in a few months he /she will be down to 2 naps and then 1. It would be cruel to change the middle child schedule for the baby’s nap.

No, op you need to keep baby awake during the first car ride or ask your husband to drive the kids to school while he takes his meetings on his phone (my DH does this). If your husband can’t drive the kids, then find a way to keep your baby awake.
He/she will be exhausted by 9-9:30 when you are home and will sleep right away comfortable in a bed, stroller, whatever (my first did all her naps in a stroller and it was great). Then he/she won’t be too tired during the first pick up…

You don’t do preschool for a 3 year old when you have a tired baby at home. Preschool isn’t a necessity. Sleep for a baby is.

-1 how come 3 year old needs for socializing, learning, becoming more independent, etc. Are less important than baby’s nap? This is ridiculous! I absolutely disagree! Baby can switch nap schedule, but 3 year old should stay in school… no question