If you have 2 or more children, how the heck do you have a routine for the younger one(s)?

[HouseOfSix]

My second DC is 16weeks and is absolutely delightful but has no routine at all, not even a hint of one. Our lives are spent facilitating her 2.5year old brother's classes, nursery pick ups, entertainment etc. If we didn't, life would be horrendous - he has to get out and about each day and be kept busy or hell would break loose. He's pretty full on.

The result is that my gorgeous DC2 has no routine and gets nowhere near enough sleep. She's a light sleeper and wakes getting in and out the car, when the buggy stops moving, when her brother tells me very loudly to come see the cars in his garage etc etc.

I feel so guilty when she is clearly very tired. Any tips from those with multiple DC?

No advise but I could have written this! I have 2 a 2.3yo ds and a 12 week old ds.. untreated to hear what people say

Having the exact issue here!! At home I put youngest upstairs at nap time and put on peppa pig etc to get to sleep. When out I’ve found draping a muslin over the car seat/pram (just low enough to hang past his eyes - not covering him) has helped.
It’s still so hard though, my ds is so overtired he’s started waking every hour now! (He’s 7 months)

We don't lol. I have 4.

Ive 4 little ones. The youngest is chilled out so naps whenever wherever but #3 is a bear and needs help to find a rest time. I bet you could find a point in the day where everyone is at home each day for a few hrs, like between 1-3pm or 12-2pm or 2-4pm where there is a formal quiet nap? Take a look at your schedule and if you feel your baby is not getting the sleep she needs then you need to make it happen. The 2.5yr old could do with a quiet time, I’d not nap, each day too I bet.

We all used to sleep every afternoon, but I was lucky that my older dc had a good nap routine established already and he was at nursery every morning too. With activities the younger one just had to fit in with what was already happening.

It's hard! I heard a lot about the next baby 'just slotting' in to the family and learning to be more flexible...... Utter bs in my experience. The second baby was definitively not flexible and fell asleep at the worst times, like 5 mins before we arrived anywhere then woke up, overtired and cranky meaning I spent the whole time tending to a ratty baby and poor dc1 got ignore.

Ds2 is 7 months. He'll grab half an hour in the pram in the kitchen in the morning. A big nap at lunch when the toddler naps and then might cat nap in the afternoon if given opportunity. I just try to go out when he needs first nap if he's going to sleep in the car or just after if I want him in the pram