PP, a lot depends on a kid's schedule. My older toddler in a share was a late riser, so he would be napping from about 1:15-3:45 when started 1 nap schedule, while my younger toddler in a share was a very early riser and would just nap for 40 min in a stroller while getting to the playground, and afternoon nap was from about 2-4:15, so I always had good overlap in pm. Take years of experience of course, which I have.

Anonymous wrote:mine took afternoon nap always at the same time, even when younger one took 2 naps, so I always had a break in the afternoon. Otherwise, you burn out after couple weeks with no break

I'm the PP who dealt with this in my son's share - this is unrealistic when one is about to move off two naps and one is just starting one nap. When a kid is about to move from two naps to one, the second nap is late - definitely starting after 2pm. And when a kid just moved to one nap, it needs to start early, at more like noon. Having them line up at this stage is not a reasonable solution.

This does work when you have an older toddler and a baby - we've got that right now, with my baby sleeping 2:30-4:30 in the afternoon, and my 3 year old sleeping 2-4 (so pretty close to overlapping). But with kids a couple months apart, this will not work.

When this happened at our share, we had the older one stay on two naps a bit longer than he needed to, and the younger one moved to one nap a bit sooner than she needed to, and so there was only about a month when they were on different schedules.

That's a hard time for two reasons - 1) it's hard to get the babies outside at all and 2) the nanny doesn't get a break.

To solve #1, the nanny started taking them on a quick walk around the neighborhood at about 4:30 when they were both up most days - just 20 mins or so for some fresh air.

As far as #2, we (parents of the older baby) had the nanny do "me time" for our baby (playing in his crib with toys alone for 30 mins, but of course there's a monitor) during one of the younger baby's naps. That way, the nanny had at least 30 mins to rest and check her phone and eat her lunch in peace. I do think that's critical - can also work if the naps overlap a bit. For example, 9:30-11:30 and 2:30-4:30 naps for the younger child, and 12:30-3 or 3:30 naps for the older means that the nanny gets at least 2:30-3 for a break. If that means adjusting a baby's "ideal" schedule by 30 mins or so, that's what you do. Nannies NEED at least 30 mins every day for a break.

mine took afternoon nap always at the same time, even when younger one took 2 naps, so I always had a break in the afternoon. Otherwise, you burn out after couple weeks with no break

I am assuming that you are doing a Nannyshare.

You likely will have to have them sleep at different times until the 12MO transitions their two naps to one nap.

This will make things a little challenging for probably at most a few mos., but hopefully then you can have them both on the same nap schedule.

Good luck!

Yeah thats what you have to do for a few months.
I’d let one of the younger child’s naps be in a stroller or car seat now and again. So you can still go out for walks etc while the older one us awake.

Nannies, how do you handle taking care of two babies with different schedules? So far, both babies took 2 naps at the same time. Now we are transitioning 14 month old baby to one nap. The younger one ( almost 12 months old) is not ready for 1 nap yet. What do you do? If I keep them on their own schedules when one wakes up, the other goes down.