Naps in a buggy or travel cot.

[clare83]

My first post so here we go....

I currently have a 14 month mindee who has been with me since November. I have another child starting with me in a week who is 8 months. 14mo will only sleep if he is being cuddled or rocked in a buggy with his milk ( which I have been doing a bit of both to get him to nap). As soon as the motion/cuddle stops he wakes up crying despite being tucked in (feeling like he is still cuddled) and then is grumpy as he is still tired. I have tried the travel cot on numerous occasion as he gets himself very upset. 14mo mindee sleeps in his parents bed at home for night and naps. With the new younger child starting I am thinking how am I going to get them enough sleep. Until now have only had my own daughter here (2). So mindee 14mo has had pretty much my full attention. Would ofsted be okay with both children napping in a double buggy? It meets their needs and they are safe and checked on. This is assuming they need to nap at the same time. I want to think about this situation before I get to it so I'm all organised.

Any advice/support would be much appreciated.

Thanks x

[funemnx]

Welcome!!

It's really hard when you have one who needs help to sleep. In your place I would put the young baby down for a sleep morning and after lunch in the cot from day 1 with no rocking (I'm assuming you're daughter either has no sleep or goes in the cot with no probs). That would leave me free to continue to put 14m baby in the buggy after lunch as he is used to it now :thumbsup:

[clare83]

Welcome!! It's really hard when you have one who needs help to sleep. In your place I would put the young baby down for a sleep morning and after lunch in the cot from day 1 with no rocking (I'm assuming you're daughter either has no sleep or goes in the cot with no probs). That would leave me free to continue to put 14m baby in the buggy after lunch as he is used to it now :thumbsup:

Thanks funemnx!

Mine own child does not nap in the day so no problems there. I think you are right about putting the. 8mo in the cot from the start. Mum says that he should go to sleep no problem . I always feel nervous about letting a minded child cry when it's nap time. I did with my own but that's different) I always go and check on then every 5 minutes until they settle. But how long would you leave them if the crying continues. 30mins? I know mum and dad of 14month mindee would be really happy if I could get him sleeping independently for longer periods. They are an Indian family and want their child to stay up later with them and eat a meal ect, which I understand.

[Jiorjiina]

I had a 12 month old who was similar, in that she was a nightmare to get to sleep unless she was being held, and would wake up screaming if she was put down, and then never settle. Which obviously made things enormously difficult, since I had at least two other children to take care of at the same time as her.

After talking about it with her mum (mum did say she was 'tricky' to get to sleep at home :eek:), I would hold her until she was relaxed or just about asleep, then put her in the travel cot and go. If she woke up and cried, then I left her to it unless she was genuinely distressed (her mum was fine about me doing this, which is a really important point to stress). If she really was upset, I would go in, hold her and rock her a little but not make any eye contact until she went back to sleep, then put her back in the cot and go. And repeat if necessary!

The thing is, if they're really tired, they will go to sleep, and sometimes all the rocking actually does is stop them from getting into a deep enough sleep, which is why they wake up so easily when they're moved.

It took a little while, but now my mindee's brilliant and only grumbles a little when I put her in the travel cot. Also I found having radio 3 on very quietly in the background was really helpful. Mindee was and remains a very light sleeper, but the radio seems to cancel enough of the noise out to allow her to sleep while not being too noisy and waking her up.

Oh, and also, if he's having two naps still, or just one? Because cutting down the naps to just one longer one at lunchtime was the other thing that really helped in my case!

[clare83]

ONE WEEK IN.....

What a week! 8mo is going to take some settling in but besides that the napping is going well

8mo... Bottle @ 10am....down in the travel cot and sleeps for 1.5 hours + !!!!

14mo. Once the 8mo is asleep he goes in the pushchair for a 5 mins rock then he sleep for 1/2 hour. :-))))

14mo has a after school nap (again in the buggy) for half hour

Plan is...to rock buggy less gently every nap so 14 mo gets used to going to sleep without the motion.

Happy days :-)

[miffy]

Well done, it sounds like you're getting into a routine that suits you.

I started with a 15 month old last September who only fell asleep in mum's arms - they now sleep in the buggy without rocking so it's worth persevering.

Miffy xx