Baby's big nap during toddler's nursery drop off time... What do you do?

[paperina]

What do you do when your baby's only long nap always overlaps with the drop off time of your toddler's afternoon nursery? I'm just out of the house for 20-30 minutes (at most) for the drop off so I doubt I can get a babysitter for that (and if I could it would not be cheap)! Such a shame to let her do that nap in the buggy as she'll never do the full two hours there and transferring her from the buggy to her cot is probably not going to work (never tried it though).

What do/would you do?

[The Nappy Lady]

Get a morning nursery slot, or see if another parent could share nursery run - eg they drop off & you pick up, or find a neighbour who might sit at yours whilst you pop him up to nursey - not so easy if you don't know people I know, but it has worked for me with my neighbour in adjoining house, or fellow Mum over the road.

Xx

[paperina]

Molly, I wish I could get a morning slot! Not until September unfortunately. Good idea about the shared run although I still need to get to know the nursery parents as we just started there. One neighbour might be happy to have the baby phone in her house but I find that a bit scary: if there's a fire or burglar she may not notice it in time (is that being paranoid?). Don't know her well enough to ask a favour as big as coming to our house (with her baby) multiple times a week although I could offer to babysit for her when she picks her kids up from school, hhmmmm. We moved to a new street a few months ago so I need to work on my contacts!

Thanks for the suggestions, I had half thought of those ideas but not given them proper consideration but you're right, they can work very well.

[pebbles]

I don't know whether I would be brave enough to try this however my sister in law had the same problem and from day one she just transferred from buggy to cot and it took a couple of weeks of giving milk while transferring but it kept her going until my neice was old enough to keep going that little bit longer until they got home. Sorry I can't be of any help but maybe you could try the transfer before ruling it out??? Good luck

[The Nappy Lady]

I think if you could return favour and babysit while your neighbour does her school run she might jump at the chance - I know I would!!

[gwod]

Really worth trying transfering from from pram to cot while asleep - I bet your LO stays fast asleep!!! I bet you get away with it most of the time.

[paperina]

Am going to try the transfer first. I know she'll wake up once she hits the mattress but if she resettles quickly it'll be worth it!

But yes always good to talk to the (lovely) neighbour as well. As long as it's a mutual thing I like the idea. Don't like asking non-emergency favours from people I'm not very close with.

Sorry I must sound like such an idiot asking for this kind of advice :)

[littleEDfamily]

paperina - I am struggling too with older child's routine not complementing baby's. But it our morning drop off tat cuts across my ideal morning nap time.

Could you allow her to have a small nap only in the buggy and then wake up by whatever means possible, and then try her in cot a bit after you get home. Bit of a long shot, but you may still get 1.5 hours out of her.

My baby falls asleep in car on way back from school at about 9am - wakes up as soon as I take her out of carseat, so no more than a 10-15min nap. I then try and tire her out til about 10am and try and get a cot sleep out of her then. Works some of the time!

[nylonmeals]

Do you think that your baby won't do a long nap in the buggy? Mine did on the occassions that we were out during lunch. A snooze shade worked wonders for us. If he did wake up early it was dark in the buggy and I used to rock him until he fell back to sleep again. Good luck!

[candj]

Can you push her afternoon nap back by 20 minutes so she can take it when you get home? Or do you risk her falling asleep in the car on the way home? The transfer from buggy/car seat to cot NEVER worked for me as once the children were up they were up.

I'd be inclined to try to get a neighbour/friend at your house with a nice cup of tea for the 20 minutes you're away or try to work something out with your neighbour with her own baby and you can swap duties or do a bit of babysitting. Good luck!

[new mother]

If you decide to mvoe the lo around, there are sleeping bags you could get that would enable you to transfer her straight from the car/pram to the cot. (ie they are designed for such a move) You prob knew this but inc ase not....

[paperina]

New mother, I don't have those sleeping bags yet, I know of them but should indeed order one as a snowsuit is not exactly the ideal sleepwear in the cot. Travel grobag and some sort of a blanket should do the trick in the buggy (may even see if I can attach a footmuff to the back seat of the P&T) and then hope for the best with the transfer.

There's no way I can keep her awake in the buggy when she wants to sleep there, she's still quite young and it's not a parent facing buggy so I can't really distract her much anyway.

Hmm, now that you mention the car, I could take them to nursery by car as the ride is so short that the baby will probably stay awake, especially if I take her out of the seat when we get to nursery. But I don't really like the idea of using the car for such short distances, I'd rather walk.

Such a small issue, so many words!