Loud Sleep Talker & Energetic DCB Waking Everyone Up During Naptime
I have 4 children in my care, & 1 is my own almost 3 year old daughter, a set of 2 year old twins, & a 16 month old. The one constant arising issue I face almost daily is with one of the twins who I have had for 3 months. I have all 3 older children sleeping in the same room (I’m supervising in the room the entire time), & the baby in her own room in a playpen. When getting comfortable to go for a nap when laying down, he likes to talk to himself a little louder than a “quiet time whisper”. He also talks in his sleep, & often whimpers loudly in his sleep as well. I find he is often waking everyone else up when he wakes up & when he talks or whimpers & I don’t know what to do. One option I considered was having him sleep in his own room, but I have heard that I am legally not allowed to let children sleep in an unsupervised room if they are able to get out of the beds themselves, which all 3 are (they sleep on cots). I have tried a sound machine in the room to drain it out but it just excites him more & he becomes energetic FAST. He doesn’t seem to understand that quiet time means QUIET time, & every “shh” & “whispering only please” just goes in one ear & out the other. I have tried bringing it up to the parents but they initially found it funny & laughed & chalked it up to being “yep that’s ‘alan’!” (Not his real name). His sister (twin) & him have a very close bond as twins & cannot be away from each other for long so when he wakes up he almost intentionally tries to wake up his sister which the family has also chalked up to it being so cute. I have also tried TV (I’m pretty strict with limiting TV, & usually am against it) but it just made him more excited. I have tried letting him play quietly on his cot AND in a separate (still within view) space with quiet toys & he almost always finds a way to turn those quiet time toys into loud rambunctious time toys.
Someone please help? Lol