Scheduling around a day of naps

I was wondering if others had this problem or how I can schedule things better. I have two 12 month olds (one is my son) they are on the exact same schedule, they even poop at the same time. Morning nap is from 10-12 and afternoon nap is from 3-5. They don't always sleep a full two hours but I don't let them sleep longer then two hours. I just started a 5, 2.5 and a 10 month old three days a week. I do crafts and things with the two older ones, who don't nap, during the morning nap time and they get a movie on during the afternoon nap time for there quiet time. We go for a walk at around 12:30 after the 12 month olds wake up and eat. I like to go for walks with awake babies so I don't get any tired babies napping on the walk for a short time and then not going to sleep when we get home. ( my son is like that) Now that I have transitioned the 10 month old from not screaming constantly I have him full days but he only has one nap and its from 12-3. He is not close to being tired at 10 and I can't keep him up till 3 so how do I schedule outdoor time when there is someone sleeping at all times. Any suggestions on how to handle this would be much appreciated. Thanks :)

hi ....all my daycare kids have gone home by 4:30 as that is my closing time so I would never be able to follow your schedule. what time do your parents pick up? I have never heard of a provider doing nap time from 3-5. if I have a morning napper they go down between 8 and 830 and only for 30 minutes then we do outside time at 9 till 1030 as long as the weather is good then we do lunch at 1130 and all the kids are in bed between 1215 and 1230 till 3 or 315 at the latest. then we have snack and a bit of free play while we wait for parents to start showing up at 345 and the last one leaves at about 420.
so if this was me I would start moving the 3 oclock nap time earlier by 15 mins every day till you have them going down earlier. or you might try not putting them down for a morning nap doing an 1130 lunch then to bed at 12 for the aft nap. as a parent I wouldn't want my child sleeping till 5 in the aft as I would have my child up till 9 or 10 at night .....

That's the nap schedule that my son is on and the other 12 month old followed suit. The other 12 month old gets picked up between 5:30 and 6:30 depending on the day and goes to bed at 7 with no problems and my son goes to bed at 8 with no problems. I have no complaints with it and neither does the other little girls parents and they both sleep through the night sometimes my son will get up for a feeding but it's becoming less and less frequent. By 10:30 both are getting crabby and if they don't have an afternoon nap they wont last till 7 and are crabby This works for them and me.

I tried having 2 naps per day but it is so tough keeping the non-nappers quiet for that long. I have one nap-time at 12:00. The babies can sleep for up to 3 hours. So far it's worked for me. Personally if the baby needs more than 1 nap I just couldn't take that child.

oh the three boy are picked up at around 4

hahaha well one is my son so I can't really give him away lol I don't have a problem with noise the kids can sleep through it. I used to vacuum while my son was sleeping in the same room. They aren't a noisy bunch anyways.

I wasn't saying they shouldn't have the aft nap I was saying cut out the am nap make lunch a little earlier at 1130 and off to bed for the aft at 12 ish till 3ish and then they are up for 4 or 5 hours till bedtime. I would then go out in the afternoon for fresh air after naps and snack.

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Originally Posted by Spirited Sprouts

oh the three boy are picked up at around 4

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which is why the 12-3 nap makes the most sense.....plus the 12 month olds aren't always going to need the morning nap and your going to have to move the aft nap earlier anyway ....so you can start moving the am naps earlier by 15 mins every few days and wake them after one hour and then start moving the aft naps earlier as well.....keep shortening the am naps by 5 mins every few day and presto you have all kids going to bed at noon for 3 hours and you will have a glorious quiet afternoon break.

Sometimes we forget that we don't need to let kids be whiny, grumpy, or rubbing their eyes and showing us they are tired because by the time they are doing that they are overtired. I would just assume that they are really ready/able to fall asleep earlier in the morning and put then down at 9:30 instead of 10 and then not let them sleep past 11:30 as in 1 1/2 hours in the morning. Then you should be able to move the afternoon nap at least to 2-4 instead of 3-5. Given the schedule of the kids for pickup/supper sleeping till 4 is probably a good thing and then it is another 4 hours till bedtime.

I would just put the two of them down around 9am and wake them up at 10am. That way they get a power nap and should be able to make it until 12:30/1pm for their afternoon nap.

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Originally Posted by smileyface

I would just put the two of them down around 9am and wake them up at 10am. That way they get a power nap and should be able to make it until 12:30/1pm for their afternoon nap.

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This is exactly what I do and it works great for me. My one year olds are usually transitioned away from morning naps around 14 months or so.
Our job can be really demanding, the sooner you can get them all on the same sleep schedule the better for you to be refreshed:)

I've been reading all the posts and am very curious as well because I'm going to start in April with my daughter who will be 1 and another baby around 1 as well,,,, Right now, my daughter doesn't have a fixed schedule but usually sleeps around the same times as your son (10-12) (3-4/5),,, I hear you because when a baby is tired, it's hard to focus on anything else, but I agree with the posts that say gradually change their sleep habits,, although I think the babies will also let you know when they're tired and when they've had enough sleep,,, good luck and keep posting- I'm learning lots as well!!:)

Sometimes, we have to adjust things (even for our own kiddos), so that it is for the good of the group as a whole. My personal opinion is the same as the majority so far. I would start to adjust the nap time to after lunch for the "big nap". The 1 year olds may still need a quick nap in the morning, and I would do that between 9/9:30 and 10/10:30, so that they take the edge off, but can still sleep in the afternoon.
You will probably find pretty quickly that they will start to weed out that nap, anyway. Might as well get everyone on the same general schedule now. It will be much easier, because you won't always be tiptoeing around a napping little one.

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Originally Posted by Spirited Sprouts

That's the nap schedule that my son is on and the other 12 month old followed suit. The other 12 month old gets picked up between 5:30 and 6:30 depending on the day and goes to bed at 7 with no problems and my son goes to bed at 8 with no problems. I have no complaints with it and neither does the other little girls parents and they both sleep through the night sometimes my son will get up for a feeding but it's becoming less and less frequent. By 10:30 both are getting crabby and if they don't have an afternoon nap they wont last till 7 and are crabby This works for them and me.

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The other baby goes to bed within a half hour to an hour and a half of being picked up? If that is the case you have way worse problems than scheduling problems.

Start there and work your way back. What time does the baby arrive?

I've never heard of a nap schedule like the one you do and I am wondering how you are holding up having such a long pounding day? Why aren't all the kids napping at the same time?

I do a morning nap right when the babies arrive until around nine a.m. Up from nine till noonish then a two and a half hour nap from noonish to three p.m. I don't provide service to children who don't need a full afternoon nap and I do two naps from birth to twoish. The morning nap gets shorter between age eighteen months and two. We also do a daily walk from nine forty five a.m. to ten thirty a.m. and lunch when we get back. The kids all play from after lunch to about twelve fifteen and then off to nap. If I allowed that late of an afternoon nap I would loose all my clients. The baby you have now who does the nap till five p.m. will start staying up way way later really soon. It works for the parents now but very soon he will be up till nine to ten p.m and then later as he gets closer to two. If the parents are willing to put him to bed so quickly after picking him up there is little liklihood they will be okay with him staying up hours later as he ages. Be prepared for them to start complaining about having him not go to bed.

My gut feeling is that this schedule is more for you and your son. Possibly you like to stay up later at night and have a later start to the day? Your child's schedule should never determine the other kids schedule. (I could be wrong about this but in case). It's best to do a day care schedule for all the other kids and then work on what is best for your son within that. When my son was little I had him on the opposite schedule of the other kids. He slept when they were up and was up when they slept. By age one he could free range the house so he wasn't with the other kids in the playroom. He eventually went onto an afternoon naptime at the same time as the kids and then he went to preK at three. It was just a couple of years of me having him on the opposite schedule so for me, a twenty year veteran provider, it's a blip in the day care radar.

Thank you everyone for your replies. I am a new provider and appreciate all the help. I didn't realize this was an odd napping schedule, all the paretns I interviewed didn't seem to have a problem with it . I didn't make the schedule, I get my q's from my son and that works for him and I guess I got lucky with a little girl that had the same schedule. They are both active and the little girl is walking and is all over the place, I have lots of toys and two play room so there is a lot of stimulation and after three hours they are ready to crash. The 10 month old is not active and isn't crawling just drags himself around but not a lot so he doesn't expend as much energy. I can definitely look at shortening the morning nap and try to move it up an hour however I can't make them sleep just because I want them too so hopefully they follow suit. The little girl is so excited to come to my house that putting her to bed when she get here probably wont work but of course it's worth a try. I find if I wake them up earlier then they need and they didn't get enough of a nap that I have some cranks on my hands. This isn't a schedule I plan to follow until they are two, this was just a schedule that works for everyone, even my time with the older boys, just not the new 10 month old. The little girl gets to my house at 7:30 some days and 8:30 other days. The boys get to my house at 8. My son is up anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30. I can definitely try to do an earlier morning walk rather then an afternoon walk. Thanks ladies and more suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Let me pose this question because maybe it's a daily schedule issue that i'm having. i was doing things with the older boys during nap time because the babies need so much attention correcting, face touching, hair pulling, toy stealing those kinds of things and they don't really do games and crafts like the two older boys. They are just free play, I sing songs with them and read books but they don't even make it through a whole story before they are on the the next thing. So what should a daily schedule look like for two 12 month olds, a 10 month old, an almost 3 year old and a 5 year old look like.... taking in to considerations age and ability levels. Thanks in advance.

I get all the kids on the same schedule. i'm surprised that you dont get hassled from the parents that they sleep until 5. I inform parents of my schedule at interview and encourage them to start adjusting to it before starting. If they dont, the kids get thrown right into our schedule

While the babies are crawling around on the floor you could put the bigger two at the table with play doh, colouring, pasting, cutting, or sensory bins. While the babies are napping you could do stories, obstacle course, treasure hunt , or get out some smaller toys that are not good for babies like Lego, or set up a race track for the cars, or do some big floor puzzles

If you are using all of the time that the babies are napping to do things with the older kids, then you are not getting a break! You will burn out! Nobody can work 9-10 hour days without a break. I agree with all of the others who have suggested that you should get the babies to nap earlier in the morning and shorter (around 9am usually works really well) and then put them all down after lunch together. I would have a quiet time for the 3 and 5 year old too...you might be surprised that the 3 year old and possibly even the 5 year old might actually fall asleep. If not, they should be expected to rest and then do quiet things on their own without you (reading books, puzzles, etc) until naptime is over. They need the down time and for you, it is absolutely essential to avoid burn-out. I do my activities for the older kids while the babies are crawling around free playing. It depends on your set-up, but I have a table at which older kids can do art, play dough, etc. while the babies toddle around and do their thing.

Thank you everyone, I will try and get a handle on this. No break is something I'm very used to. I was a dog groomer for years in a busy fast paced salon so it really doesn't faze me. :)

It's only the one little girl that is on the same schedule as my son and she had that schedule before she came to me that is why it was a good fit. I asked her mom the other day if she was having any sleeping problems and she said no that this schedule is fine. It shouldn't be very long before they go to one nap anyways. thanks again for the help ladies :)