Scheduling around a day of naps

[Spirited Sprouts]

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

[Crayola kiddies]

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 .....

[daycaremom9]

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.

[Spirited Sprouts]

oh the three boy are picked up at around 4

[Crayola kiddies]

oh the three boy are picked up at around 4

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.

[Spirited Sprouts]

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.

[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.

[daycarewhisperer]

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.

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.

[Crayola kiddies]

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.

[playfelt]

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.