Conflicting Beliefs/Opinions

[Inspired by Reggio]

Oh getting kids on a healthy sleep pattern seems to be the bane of daycare providers existence lately .... either the parents want the nap eliminated way to early or the kid has never had a healthy sleep pattern or environment from the get go and so does not know 'how' to sleep anymore

I have had several infants in the past few years who are just well for a lack of a better word 'allergic' to the pack n play and had to skip that entirely ... they would not just learn to feel safe and fall asleep no matter what I tried ... rocking them before hand, patting bums while in it, leave and let em CIO nothing worked they would just scream and claw and get so worked up they would puke in there and weeks would go by and it would not be any better and I would have a few new grey hairs from the lack of BREAK and well listening to that during nap time and dealing with an exhausted house of children from the disrupted sleep time

My newest one I could get to fall asleep in there if I swaddled him and than wiggled the crib for a few minutes - he went to sleep EASY but he would only sleep 20 minutes in that thing and wake up screaming like you had pulled out toe nails and wake the whole house and not go back to sleep - I tried everything hoping to 'stretch' him to sleep the two hour time frame but aside from staying IN the room with him so when he woke up he did not get freaked out nothing worked and well I was not willing to be up in a bedroom for two hours and if I left him to CIO he would puke

So finally out of 'necessity' for my sanity to be able to get things done and the others in the house to be able to sleep too - I just let him sleep on the couch in my livingroom swaddled up so he cannot 'roll over' cause he is only 10 months old ... I put pillows around him and on the floor and the little bugger will sleep THREE HOURS there ... when he wakes mid sleep cycle and can 'see me' either at the laptop at the diningroom table or in the kitchen prepping snack - he falls right back to sleep but if he is 'alone' in a room upstairs his anxiety rises and he screams and wakes up the whole house!

This is the THIRD infant in 5 years I have had to do this with because they would NOT go into the pack and play and sleep properly ... it got worse and worse in there with the screaming longer and longer and harder and puking and so forth and just not worth the aggravation to try to make them do it when they can and will sleep in other options ... with the others I just put them straight onto a cot which is what I will do with this little one too but at the moment I have a full house of kids and do not have any extra cots to put him on so the couch will have to do!

[ladyjbug]

``The other day, her mother said, "oh well, I guess that's just how she's going to nap for you". This is a problem for me. I seriously need quiet time to recharge, eat, clean up, and goof off on the internet. I NEED it.``

Depending on how the mother said that above statement, I might consider replacing. Reason being, if the mother said it in a way that made it seem like I didn`t deserve a break in my ten hour day, which I need the way you have described it, I would look for a family that was willing to work to get their infant on my schedule ahead of time. Seems like the mom doesn`t care that your day is hard because of what may or may not be the schedule at home. Only you can decide what is too much, but weeks of non-stop naptime screaming would definitely get to me after a while.

2 weeks with no improvement sounds like a really hard transition. At this point I start thinking of what is best for me and the rest of the group. If this infant is affecting the quality of care for others in the daycare, then it might be time to look for a replacement. I would put it to the mom that way too, if you want to give her warning. Maybe she doesn`t care if it affects YOU, but if it is affecting other kids`care, then that is a serious problem.

[Sandbox Sally]

So finally out of 'necessity' for my sanity to be able to get things done and the others in the house to be able to sleep too - I just let him sleep on the couch in my livingroom swaddled up so he cannot 'roll over' cause he is only 10 months old ... I put pillows around him and on the floor and the little bugger will sleep THREE HOURS there ... when he wakes mid sleep cycle and can 'see me' either at the laptop at the diningroom table or in the kitchen prepping snack - he falls right back to sleep but if he is 'alone' in a room upstairs his anxiety rises and he screams and wakes up the whole house!

Hmm, worth a try. I normally spend a lot of my break time in my own room where my desktop pc is. Maybe I'll swaddle her and put her on my bed, staying in the room, and see how that works. Thanks for the tip!