Transition to Mats

[sunnydays]

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!

[playfelt]

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.

[sunnydays]

Thanks once again Playfelt! You always give great advice

[Judy Trickett]

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?

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.

[mom-in-alberta]

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."

[Spixie33]

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

[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.

[mom-in-alberta]

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?

[Spixie33]

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.

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.

[playfelt]

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.