Mum's of two - help please!

[Mim135]

Hi all

I have a 3.5 year old and a 2 week old - how does every manage nap time?! I'm putting my 2 week old in his Moses basket downstairs but he wakes up so easily and my 3 year old cant be quiet.. will my newborn get used to the noise?! He sleeps so well on me, as I would expect, and won't wake for anything but as soon as he is down and noise starts he will wake... is it too soon to get him to nap in a different room?! Thank you! X

I would use a wrap. I never put mine down to sleep when his older sister is around. There’s no point. He would either wake up or we’d end up in the other room where I couldn’t hear him anyway. So when my older one is home he goes in the wrap for naps and we get on with what we need to do. It’s so much easier.

Yeah a stretchy wrap sling like Kari Me is brilliant. I'd advise having a "quiet time" for your 3.5 Yr old if you're at home, eg special nice colouring book or time on the ipad etc. It is hard work and the youngest has to just fit in with your eldest's activities, they just have to take their opportunities to sleep when they can! I actually think it's pretty healthy for the youngest, so don't feel too sorry for them.

Definitely sling at this stage! We had the Close Caboo, DS would sleep for hours whilst my 21mo DD clattered around. Or done CBeebies time whilst he slept on me.

Thanks everyone - definitely time to invest in a sling then!

Yes I wore a stretch sling nearly all day and just popped dd2 in and out as necessary.

She v happily transitioned to cot naps at 10 weeks.

Another vote for the sling. I never used it for dc1. Always thought it looked too complicated and my brain wouldn't allow me to believe it was secure with no buckles

Fast forward to dc2 and it was a lifesaver! Dc2 practically lived it it for the first 4 months.

Yep a sling here too but also my youngest did end up having naps in the next room rather than in the same room as us quite young, simply because the same room proved impossible. I found my three year old very quickly ‘got it’ when I explained that if they were quiet so that I could get the baby to sleep, then we could have some ‘grown up’ time together while the baby slept. When they were loud and (sometimes purposefully) woke the baby, I said “oh that’s such a shame, I was really looking forward to spending some time just you and I”. It seemed to work well, they associated nap time with quality time with me (the only tricky thing being when I wanted to actually do some housework while the baby slept!).