Transition to Mats

I have a couple of 2.5 year olds who will turn 3 in the spring. Currently they each have their own playard to sleep in and each sleeps in a separate room.
I am worried that playards are probably not going to be practical once they turn 3 in a few months. I don't want to be heaving a 3 year old in and out of a playard. I also don't want to lose the 1.5-2 hours nap/quiet time to recharge my batteries, clean up from lunch and then prepare afternoon snack.

I am looking at getting some of the fold up rest mats from Wintergreen's website but I am worried how to transition these kids.

I have no sleep issues with child #1 but child #2 has major issues already as it is. Child#2 needs the room super dark, a sound machine to sleep, a special toy and half the time will just lay in the play yard talking to himself and the toy and not sleeping at all. I am worried that during nap on a mat child #2 will just start to play and climb things in the room. (It is my son's bedroom that I use for child #2s nap place so there is a dresser, some toys, etc in there too)
The parents have told me that they have Child #2 sleep on a mattress on the floor since he climbs out of his crib and knocks over the playpen at home. They said that most of the time child #2 plays during nap time and will not stay on the mattress until he poops himself out with playing. I am scared that happens here.

I do not want child #2 open dresser drawers in case they fall on his feet or playing and getting noisier and disturbing kids in the other rooms who are napping etc.
we have a 4 bedroom house but none of the 4 bedrooms is just an empty room without dressers or beds that child #2 might try to climb and fall from.

This morning I was thinking of getting one of those gated circles which is like a baby gate playpen and putting Child #2 in there to sleep on a rest mat but then i feel like I am caging him...lol

If child is over 30 lbs he should be out of the playpen. Most kids outgrow them lengthwise before they do weightwise. You might be surprised if you put them in the same space on mats and the noise machine on etc that it works for child 2 as well. Mostly it is a learning phase. Start by putting them to nap on the main floor or the playroom if you can so there is less of a danger for them to get into during naptime. Put the mattress from the playpen on the floor and beside the playpen and tell the child that since they are a big boy now they can learn to sleep on a mat at daycare instead of a baby playpen (gotta use the word baby). BUT if they aren't able to remember the rules then you will think they aren't big boys and they have to go back into the baby playpens. Then if child gets up, lay them back down, give them a few chances and then put mat back in playpen and child goes in. Tries again the next day. Gets a sticker for days he stays on mat on the floor.

All of mine that are 18-20 months and over or at least by age 2 sleep in the same space. The older ones on mats and the younger ones in their playpen as in it is moved from upstairs where the babies sleep to the big kid sleep space. So they are learning to sleep like the big kids. Once I see they seem to have the hang of laying down and going to sleep without issue we try the chance to use a mat instead of the playpen but it is put up just in case.

Playfelt...do you mean that you have a room set up where all the children sleep? I would LOVE To put two kids on rest mats in the same room but I am worried they would never stay put.
Also...you have children sleeping on a rest mat in the playroom? How do you ensure they don't get up and play? I use a playard in the playroom nap area but am scared that putting a nap mat would mean that the temptation to play with all the toys in the toy room would be too great.

All my dckids are transitioned to nap mats at 20 months old. And yes, they stay on the mat the entire naptime. Most kids, by the time they have spent the last 8 months in my care know better than to screw around at naptime and wouldn't think to get off their mat. But, on the first day I hang around in the area and run over and put them back on their mat with my mean face if they get off of it.

ALL my kids sleep in the same area - the playroom. Like many other providers, my dckids are always on camera so I can always see them - even when they are napping.

As Judy said by 2 they know that when I tell them to do something they better jolly well do it and right away, lol. I do not negotiate. Sleeping on a mat is a privilege earned by growing up and kids love to be like the big kids so that helps. IF they don't do it correctly as in continually get up they lose the privilege and go back into the playpen which is put up in the playroom too with a stern warning given as they are tucked into their mat. When they play hard all morning they are exhausted and welcome naptime as much as I do. All my kids are under 3 and arrive by 7:15 in the morning so by 1:00 they are ready.

Also kids that fooled around and didn't stay on their mat which if anyone is usually the older kids then I make them stay there a few minutes longer while I get the others up and they absolutely hate being last - well being first is a privilege earned.

You also need to adjust your naptime according to need. Just because you want them to sleep for 2 hours doesn't mean that the particular group you have does.

My kids start on their cots from 14months in the playroom/daycare area. None of them has ever try to play. They also sleep from 11:45 to 3pm. If onewakes up early that child will remain on their cot until quiet time is over.

alright - I may need this explained to me like I am the 2 year old in the room. Sorry but I started with these two children when they were 1 year old and am nervous at the idea of putting them on a rest mat. It seems unfathomable to me that I could put them in the play room full of toys and books and expect them to stay on a rest mat and not want to go play.

Judy - when you say that you have the children on camera...do you mean that you have one of those baby monitors with camera in the room during nap and can watch them? Does it work for a whole room?

I recently transitioned a 2 year old to a mat in the playroom and he never gets off his mat...just goes right to sleep. I close the blinds, turn out the lights and that's it. Mind you, he is a very easy going child and sleeps extremely well, even through noise. I recently tried to put a 19 month old in a playpen in the playroom with him and it was a bit of a no-go. They played and laughed and then, the funny thing was that the 2 year old went to sleep and the 19 month old continued to play although she was in a playpen. I think if I persisted for a week she would sleep fine there and then eventually I could move her to a mat. I am going to try it again soon once I have the new baby that just started all settled in...don't want to make things too hard on myself! Maybe you could try one at a time?

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Originally Posted by momofthree

My kids start on their cots from 14months in the playroom/daycare area. None of them has ever try to play. They also sleep from 11:45 to 3pm. If onewakes up early that child will remain on their cot until quiet time is over.

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How do you get them to stay put if they wake up early? I have a couple who have been waking up early and it means my break is shorter :( Do you let them cry if they wake up early?

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Originally Posted by kangaroomama

How do you get them to stay put if they wake up early? I have a couple who have been waking up early and it means my break is shorter :( Do you let them cry if they wake up early?

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Give them some books to read - it's still quiet time as others are napping. Or have a quiet activity table set up once they've woken up. Ie: puzzles, playdoh - anything quiet.

What do you do if the young babies wake up early? I have a nine month old who seems to wake up very early (he is only part-time with me for now, so this could be the problem). Yesterday he only slept for 1 1/2 hours for the whole day!

Babies are upstairs in bedrooms in their own packnplays with the door closed and are free to cry if they need to but once put into bed they are not gotten up till I decide naptime is over. That is one of the reasons once they move to a mat they are used to being put down and staying put till I return.

For the baby is he is doing a morning and afternoon nap then no morning nap or make it 20 minutes from 9-9:30. If you are out and about in the morning be sure he isn't sleeping in the stroller or spending too much time confined to stroller, saucer, high chair etc while others run around at the park, do lessons etc. He needs to be down on the floor crawling, cruising the furnitures or whatever to also tucker himself out to need sleep.

If mom is putting him down to sleep at night very early and he gets to sleep in in the morning then he may be getting too much sleep overnight and not needing daytime sleep. If he is cranky then he goes back into bed and stays there. If not cranky then he goes into one of those large play yards with toys and entertains himself while I do the same.

Thanks once again Playfelt! You always give great advice :)

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Originally Posted by Spixie33

Judy - when you say that you have the children on camera...do you mean that you have one of those baby monitors with camera in the room during nap and can watch them? Does it work for a whole room?

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No, I have an actual camera system. All my kids nap IN my playroom and I have a number of cameras in that room so there are no blind spots. I can ALWAYS see my dckids.

I don't know what to tell you about your worries about getting them to stay on the mat. I guess my expectations for the kids are that they WILL mind me and behave and do what I ask - and they DO! And in return, I allow them to stay here, in my care in a great environment, with great food, and great toys, and a really engaging provider.

I never have nap problems.

I am so glad that you asked this... I found some nap-mats at Canadian Tire and I wanted to get them. But I didn't know how to go about this. I guess the same way that I got the little guy that climbed out of the playpen to stop doing that. I stood outside the door and put him back in every time he tried. Now when I put him down he says "no cwiming (climbing)... is sweeping (sleeping) time."
:)

I ordered my nap mats and so far I am on day 2 with one of the children. I decided to do one child at a time. So far smooth sailing. I started with the easier child though so next week I might be singing a whole different story when I try the more active child
I didn't know Canadian Tire has rest mats. I ordered mine from Wintergreen. They seem good

Still trying to decide between the mats that fold up and the ones that don't. Space wise five stacked flat and five folded and stored will take up about the same amount of space so that isn't really a good guideline. I am concerned about three things with the fold up ones - does the child's hip or whatever ever end up in the fold part and not properly supported by the mat depending on their size, do the kids ever fold them up when they should be resting - think what babies do with the boards in the packnplays, and third, does the constant folding wear them out sooner so they rip. Forget now if it was Wintergreen or Allaboutkids but I saw a fold up one that was four sections instead of three that looked interesting and the price was better.

The one I saw was 4 sections, and folded up like a "W".
I think it was by Safety 1st? My only concern was that it didn't seem very thick?

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Originally Posted by playfelt

Still trying to decide between the mats that fold up and the ones that don't. Space wise five stacked flat and five folded and stored will take up about the same amount of space so that isn't really a good guideline. I am concerned about three things with the fold up ones - does the child's hip or whatever ever end up in the fold part and not properly supported by the mat depending on their size, do the kids ever fold them up when they should be resting - think what babies do with the boards in the packnplays, and third, does the constant folding wear them out sooner so they rip. Forget now if it was Wintergreen or Allaboutkids but I saw a fold up one that was four sections instead of three that looked interesting and the price was better.

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Yup I got the four section one from Wintergreen. It is 2 inches thick. Blue on one side and green the other and says it is waterproof and durable. It seems pretty padded compared to the playpen board. I put thick blankets underneath the toddlers in the play pen i.e a folded up quilt so they are comfy so I just moved that on top of the fold up mat and you cannot feel any of the indents.

Just went back to see what it was I was looking at. Meant to say it was only three sections rather than 4 meaning the main part of the child's body was on the solid middle. It is in the allaboutkids.ca catalogue for a store here in Ottawa which is even better for me. The 2" thick ones are 24x48 in size and $25.99.

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Originally Posted by Spixie33

I have a couple of 2.5 year olds who will turn 3 in the spring. Currently they each have their own playard to sleep in and each sleeps in a separate room.
I am worried that playards are probably not going to be practical once they turn 3 in a few months. I don't want to be heaving a 3 year old in and out of a playard. I also don't want to lose the 1.5-2 hours nap/quiet time to recharge my batteries, clean up from lunch and then prepare afternoon snack.

I am looking at getting some of the fold up rest mats from Wintergreen's website but I am worried how to transition these kids.

I have no sleep issues with child #1 but child #2 has major issues already as it is. Child#2 needs the room super dark, a sound machine to sleep, a special toy and half the time will just lay in the play yard talking to himself and the toy and not sleeping at all. I am worried that during nap on a mat child #2 will just start to play and climb things in the room. (It is my son's bedroom that I use for child #2s nap place so there is a dresser, some toys, etc in there too)
The parents have told me that they have Child #2 sleep on a mattress on the floor since he climbs out of his crib and knocks over the playpen at home. They said that most of the time child #2 plays during nap time and will not stay on the mattress until he poops himself out with playing. I am scared that happens here.

I do not want child #2 open dresser drawers in case they fall on his feet or playing and getting noisier and disturbing kids in the other rooms who are napping etc.
we have a 4 bedroom house but none of the 4 bedrooms is just an empty room without dressers or beds that child #2 might try to climb and fall from.

This morning I was thinking of getting one of those gated circles which is like a baby gate playpen and putting Child #2 in there to sleep on a rest mat but then i feel like I am caging him...lol

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Leave child #2 in the playpen. It is the safest solution. My 3 year olds still sleep in theirs and they wouldn't have it any other way. They feel safe and secure. I put down thick comfortors on the bottom so it is very comfy for them

I'm a little late replying but thought I would add my 2 cents ;)
I also have all the kids sleeping in the playroom ~ with the exception of one right now who just joined me and that one is 12 months in a fold and play and still getting used to nap time.
I thought it would be hard getting the kids to transition to a asleep mat but it has just taken me a week to get them into the routine. They are already used to nap time and know the schedule. When they get up and roll over instead they sit up to look at the toys, I tell them it's nap time and lay them back down. I have been lucky that I don't have to give any of them a mean look but I don't transition them around the age of 2- or if they are good sleepers and I've had a few, I transition them sooner and I haven't had a problem.

Yup - I have never had an issue transitioning children to the cots ... most children see this as a right of passage and want to be seen as 'big enough' to get to do it like the other kids in care. If I have a child transitioning and they do not stay on the cot willingly and are disruptive to the others as a result the consequence is going BACK into the infant crib so they can be safe until they are 'big enough to try again and so that the others sleep can be respected as well which has always seemed motivation enough for anyone in my care.

I generally start to transition to a cot at 18-20 months because I only have the 2 pack and play cribs so when a child gets to be 18 months it means in about 4-6 months time another 'babe' could be joining the program and I want lots of time to work with the transition to a cot before the new baby needs it.

Great time to add to this! Thanks everyone. I have a soon to be 2 year old that is no where near the maturity level to understand that he needs to stay on a mat during nap time, but he will soon have to. I'm trying to reconfigure my house so I can start napping the big kids in the play room and I can still chill out in froont of the tv without disturbing them. I have to have something in place by September as I have a 3 year old starting and I want to get the 2 year old conditioned for the sleep mat before the new one comes.

I'm heading to the states this summer on vacation and plan to look at cots. I have 2 mats that the kids us for sleep overs and movie nights, but I think laying on a cot might give them the same feeling as a bed or crib (being off the ground) and might encourage them to stay in it!