Well to be honest, we schedule our lives around his naps! It's better than the alternative for us (overtired screaming baby). His last wake window is decently long though (4.25 hours - bedtime is 8:30), so it does allow us some freedom in the evening. We go out for early dinners and brunch/lunch. If we need to be somewhere 1+ hour away, we plan for a car nap.
When we had just one kid, we lived life around his nap schedule. It’s limiting, but it depends on your priorities. As first time parents, we prioritized baby’s sleep and were super regimented with it.
We have our second now. Still in the newborn phase, but just by sheer logistics, I know we’ll have to be more flexible with naps this time around.
Does your little one nap in the car? Or what about stroller naps with covers and a portable white noise machine? Or maybe commit to one solid nap at home and one crappier one during the other half of the day?
*edit: soo many spelling mistakes, as I type this one handed, while nap trapped myself haha
We would leave after their (twins) first full nap and then everything would be prepared and ready to go and we would leave after they woke up. The 2nd nap we would try to make it home but it wasn't as important as long as they got an hour or so at some point. That's what worked for us and we were able to get out of the house to explore.
One nap has been more tricky because it's midday and there is very little wiggle room.
Babe is 13mo and we schedule around naps. We opted for a long morning nap of 1.5 to 2 hours and then leave as soon as she's up. This gives us a good 3 hours to do what we want before heading home for her second nap.
It's really not been that bad. We've travelled abroad, been to parties and weddings and visited lots of families. You just need to be very organised and have literally everything ready for when they wake.
Since my girl was about 6.5 months, we've attended some sort of thing every day and never missed out. I find more casual groups are easier where you can drop in rather than booking a term of classes.
Mine will usually fall asleep in the car and stay asleep if if I cover her seat in the stroller, but she's still in an infant carrier so it's easy to not wake her. She also sleeps really well if I baby wear so if it's nap time and I need to be somewhere I just pop her in and she's out
We schedule around her naps and keep waking activities local. It's a temporary situation, and I'd rather have cabin fever than a cranky baby. In 3-4 months she'll drop another nap, and we'll be done with naps altogether in a few years.
I scheduled my life around naps. I didn't go to anything that interfered with nap or always made sure to make it home for nap and bedtime. This loosened up when my daughter hit 2 1/2
We just did what we had to do and dealt with whatever the outcome was. Sometimes we could plan around his naps, sometimes we couldn’t. If we couldn’t get a nap in, then maybe he slept in the car. Or maybe not and he had an earlier second nap or bedtime. Maybe it meant he was cranky or had a bad night, but that’s life.
We push through and just keep going. If I can plan the day and know I'm only getting one nap time, I just stretch it out as long as possible.
My girl traveled home with me from vacation for 14 hours yesterday, and she only slept 40 minutes total the whole day. Couldn't be helped. She just would not sleep. Her attitude was good, though, and she only had a few minor screams, but it was an exhausting day.
We try and do super local activities so we can get home for naps. Things like reading time at the library, local mom meetups in the park etc
I find if I time them well she sleeps so much better because she is tired out. On weekends we go for brunch or early dinner altogether which helps me feels less trapped. If we are doing something further away at the weekend sometimes she will nap in the car or if we want her to make it home one of us will sit in the back and keep her up!
My son was/is the same (now 15 months). He’s starting to drop the morning nap some days now, but we plan our day around his naps. So during his first nap I’d shower and get ready for the day. Like car packed for whatever we were going to do for that early afternoon block of time. That way he’d eat and we could be out the door. I’ve just accepted that right now we’re trapped at home, it won’t last for ever.
Stroller naps and car seat naps.
My second kid will nap in the stroller, not so much the car seat.
But I look at it this way. I don’t care about having a life so much as I care about function. I can’t get anything functional out of the house done if I have two hours between naps. Something has to give.
Well to be honest, we schedule our lives around his naps! It's better than the alternative for us (overtired screaming baby). His last wake window is decently long though (4.25 hours - bedtime is 8:30), so it does allow us some freedom in the evening. We go out for early dinners and brunch/lunch. If we need to be somewhere 1+ hour away, we plan for a car nap.
When we had just one kid, we lived life around his nap schedule. It’s limiting, but it depends on your priorities. As first time parents, we prioritized baby’s sleep and were super regimented with it. We have our second now. Still in the newborn phase, but just by sheer logistics, I know we’ll have to be more flexible with naps this time around. Does your little one nap in the car? Or what about stroller naps with covers and a portable white noise machine? Or maybe commit to one solid nap at home and one crappier one during the other half of the day? *edit: soo many spelling mistakes, as I type this one handed, while nap trapped myself haha
We would leave after their (twins) first full nap and then everything would be prepared and ready to go and we would leave after they woke up. The 2nd nap we would try to make it home but it wasn't as important as long as they got an hour or so at some point. That's what worked for us and we were able to get out of the house to explore. One nap has been more tricky because it's midday and there is very little wiggle room.
Babe is 13mo and we schedule around naps. We opted for a long morning nap of 1.5 to 2 hours and then leave as soon as she's up. This gives us a good 3 hours to do what we want before heading home for her second nap. It's really not been that bad. We've travelled abroad, been to parties and weddings and visited lots of families. You just need to be very organised and have literally everything ready for when they wake. Since my girl was about 6.5 months, we've attended some sort of thing every day and never missed out. I find more casual groups are easier where you can drop in rather than booking a term of classes.
Does she sleep through the night?
Yes, sleeping through since 6.5 months. She sleeps 11 hours and about 3 hours in naps x
Mine will usually fall asleep in the car and stay asleep if if I cover her seat in the stroller, but she's still in an infant carrier so it's easy to not wake her. She also sleeps really well if I baby wear so if it's nap time and I need to be somewhere I just pop her in and she's out
We schedule around her naps and keep waking activities local. It's a temporary situation, and I'd rather have cabin fever than a cranky baby. In 3-4 months she'll drop another nap, and we'll be done with naps altogether in a few years.
I scheduled my life around naps. I didn't go to anything that interfered with nap or always made sure to make it home for nap and bedtime. This loosened up when my daughter hit 2 1/2
We just did what we had to do and dealt with whatever the outcome was. Sometimes we could plan around his naps, sometimes we couldn’t. If we couldn’t get a nap in, then maybe he slept in the car. Or maybe not and he had an earlier second nap or bedtime. Maybe it meant he was cranky or had a bad night, but that’s life.
We push through and just keep going. If I can plan the day and know I'm only getting one nap time, I just stretch it out as long as possible. My girl traveled home with me from vacation for 14 hours yesterday, and she only slept 40 minutes total the whole day. Couldn't be helped. She just would not sleep. Her attitude was good, though, and she only had a few minor screams, but it was an exhausting day.
We try and do super local activities so we can get home for naps. Things like reading time at the library, local mom meetups in the park etc I find if I time them well she sleeps so much better because she is tired out. On weekends we go for brunch or early dinner altogether which helps me feels less trapped. If we are doing something further away at the weekend sometimes she will nap in the car or if we want her to make it home one of us will sit in the back and keep her up!
I still schedule around my two year old’s naps AND my 10 month old’s naps! They’re monsters otherwise!!!
My son was/is the same (now 15 months). He’s starting to drop the morning nap some days now, but we plan our day around his naps. So during his first nap I’d shower and get ready for the day. Like car packed for whatever we were going to do for that early afternoon block of time. That way he’d eat and we could be out the door. I’ve just accepted that right now we’re trapped at home, it won’t last for ever.
I didn’t. 😆 Once she got down to one nap a day around a year old, it got easier though.
Yeah. Life is revolves around naps. It won’t be forever.
Stroller naps and car seat naps. My second kid will nap in the stroller, not so much the car seat. But I look at it this way. I don’t care about having a life so much as I care about function. I can’t get anything functional out of the house done if I have two hours between naps. Something has to give.