I have been doing daycare since my youngest was an infant, she is now 19. I have 4 bedrooms and have always used them all for naps but now I need to be able to use just two of the rooms. I have the older kids sleeping on cots in the playroom so the bedrooms are for little ones that still sleep in Pack N Plays. Here is my problem, I have a new 6 month old starting tomorrow, I need him to be in a room by himself for a while which means my 13 and 18 month olds have to share a room. HOW??? They are both up there screaming right now as I type. What is your process, how do you make it work? I would greatly appreciate any advice that you can offer, I have got to make this work.

Thank you!

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Crying stopped after 5 minutes!! Now hopefully they will both sleep for a couple of hours

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I've always done it the same way you have. Never really had luck with 2 kids in one room, they'd be ok going to sleep but one would always wake the other up way before they are supposed to be up. Is the room large enough where you can put a divider between them??

Curious to hear how others have made it work!

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There is a full size bed between their cribs and a very loud white noise machine. I just don't know how I can go back to using all of the bedrooms, my daughter attends community college so she is in and out all day and needs access to her room. We have an elderly dog that sleeps in the master room, she needs to be able to go in and out of the room frequently during the day. As a last resort I will attempt to put the 18 month old on a cot but unless I sit there with him he isn't going to stay, I can't sit there with him if I have a 6 month old needing me.

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Crying again

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How about moving the 18 mo into the big room but in a pnp for now? My sister just moved her 16 mo dcb into the main room. She has his pnp in a semi-private corner. The older children have been instructed to ignore him if he is up early or trying to provoke them, and after the first day, he didn't even try. He sleeps in there like a champ now.

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That is a thought! I just brought him down and he is now laying on he couch, I will have to do something else tomorrow.

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so...no nap for him today?

How about making him a little nest on the floor by you with some blankets and pillows for today? Snuggle him all in, stroke his head for a few minutes, and hopefully he'll be out quick.

Or, if you have an extra nap cot, try it right now, but by you for today. Same scenario as above. You could even lay down by him for a minute to build the excitement of sleeping on a big boy bed. Then, if he does do well, have a party about it afterwards and tell all his friends about what a big boy he was today!

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He actually did take a pretty good nap on the couch but I don't want that to be an everyday thing.

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Set him up with a nap mat next to the couch for a few days. Once he clears that hurdle, see if he wants to help put his bed "in with the big kids" since he's SUCH A BIG BOY now!

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I have done the pack n play in the playroom with the other kids on mats on occasion for some who just weren't ready for the mat. Maybe that would work?

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At the FCC I used to work at, she had the kids spread out all over the house. The non napping kids (older Pre-K, kinders, and schoolers) would be in the TV room (with mats if they wanted to nap). There was 1 crib/PNP in the infant in the baby room (bedroom off of the TV room), 1 in the den, and 1 in the green room (a bedroom), and 1 in the office. She assigns a baby to each crib/PNP, they aren't all there on the same days/same times.

And the rest of the kids who got mats would be spread all through out the house. 2 on opposite ends of the daycare room (an addition), 2 in the hallway (it's a long L-shaped hallway), 2 in the living room, 1 in the den, and 1 in the kitchen and occasionally 1 in the entry way of the house..

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At the center I work at we have 8 infants in the room. They all nap in there and not at the same time. The room is divided in to two area but it is all open. Right now most of our infants are over 12 months so they all nap in the afternoon but we always have some awake and playing, eating and just going about their day. Example today 5 went down for nap after lunch and fell asleep between 12:15 and 12:30 and woke up between 2:00 and 3:30. The other two 9 month and 11 month old played during most of this time. So it is possible for kids to sleep in a room with others it just takes new kids time to adjust. If possible sit with them until they go to if they talk or try to get up remind them it is nap time.

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My only advice is to putthe one who is the quickest to fall asleep in the room first... And when they fall asleep... Put the second one in there.

Be sure the first one is the farthest, say in the other side of the bed... Where he second one can't see the first one who is already asleep.

Hopefully the second child won't realize the other one is in he room already asleep.

Loud white noise or music...

I'd try that and see if it works.

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Just curious but here we cannot have any children out of our eyesight. We cannot even use monitors with cameras. I'm guessing that this is different in other areas

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Where I live home daycares do not have to be in the room. Centers must keep each room in ratio at all times including nap, which means we have 2 staff with 8 infants even if everyone is sleeping.

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In WA state all children must be in the same room for sleeping. Infant and on up are all together. Not easy, but we get it done.

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