Our youngest is 9 months old...in general he's doing great...he's really been a good baby. Lately I've been struggling with naptime...it just seems like with 3 older sibling it's been h*** o* his routine. I remember with my first, she took two naps a day...at pretty much the same time...it was easy to put her down...napping baby=happy baby=happy mama :). It hasn't been horrible...he sleep great at night...sometimes pulling 12-14 hour nights...but every once in a while he has a day where I know he could use a little more sleep...or he dozes off and I have to wake him to pick up/drop off someone (I try to keep him asleep or arrange his nap to fit the schedule...but that rarely happens)...or his 3 or 5 year old brother's get loud and wake him up...etc. Summer seems to be slightly harder :/. Just curious what other mama's do :)
(I already have one child that I feel struggles with sleep deprivation/mental block against sleep...we're really working on that...and that's probably my only fear - not so much the here and now...but long term)
Naps are extremely important to me. I have quiet time for the older kids during naptime for the little one. I also make sure not to schedule any activities during naptime. No need to over-schedule the older kids anyway.
I feel like I wrote this! I have a 9 month old and 3 older siblings. I having a really hard time with naps, just in the last few weeks. The baby use to sleep through anything and now wakes up to the slightest noise. It seems to me that she is so interested in her world that she would rather be awake (even though she really needs sleep). The only thing I can think of, is that its a phase and hopefully she will get use to a little noise again and sleep. :)
I wish I had advice for you and just wanted to say, I going through the same thing. Good luck!
My youngest napped when he could. That was mostly in the car on our way to gymnstics, dance, soccer, Cub Scouts, Girls Scouts--you get the drift. I also have three older ones.
He is a very good sleeper and is actually asleep at 10ish now and gets up at 7-8. He is 10.
I had more sleep issue with number one who always got a quiet area, I was super vigilant about his naptimes and bedtimes. Poor number 4 had to adjust to our schedule.
My youngest is 6 months, my big kids are 11, 10 and 8. So I can relate. The baby naps more than any of the big kids ever did. He still naps 3 times a day, but more often than not they are 45 minutes long, where my big kids would take 1, maybe 2 naps at this age, each for 1-2 hours. But then they were close enough in age to kinda nap together a lot of the time. Now we have baseball games that we have to leave, because baby goes to bed at 7/730, and baby gets woke up to run to and from gymnastics three times a week. But having him take more naps, even if they are shorter, or if I have to wake him up, is better than having a fussy baby who needs some sleep. it isn't ideal, and the baby is on less of a schedule than the big kids were, and it changes every day, like today, baby woke at 6 (yippy) so he will go down for a nap between 830 and 9, if I'm lucky it will be or a little after even and he can just sleep in the car and I can take my DD to gymnastics a little early and have her brother walk her in. This means I can run to the bank as well and give him about 30 minutes to sleep. But he will go back down about 12 and possibly sleep for an hour or more, if the big kids can keep from slamming the screen door and fighting and running up and down the steps. (I keep a fan in baby's room, turned to a corner so he doesn't get a chill, but on high, to block noise, it REALLY helps).
I cherish nap time, so I instill quiet time for my older boy and will continue this until they're at least 10. lol While I don't have the brood that you do, I provide a quiet activity for my 6 year old to do while the 3 year old sleeps. Everything is "unplugged" so we read or play puzzles or some kind of art project that I don't have to direct. We have done this since the younger one was born, but the younger kid always just seem to go with the flow.
When the boys were younger and both needed naps, I always started with the youngest (since they probably needed more sleep). All three of us did the routine (story, song, rock the baby for a few minutes, baby 1 down, then take older kid to room, one more song and boy down). I made at least one long chunck of time during the day for nap. The younger kid would wake up after about an 1 1/2 hours and the baby slept for 2-3 hours. This glorious chunk of time allowed me to do a little bit of what I wanted to do to keep the house up.
I hope this helps, and good luck!
