Posted by Claire James | Posted in House & Home | Posted on 11-06-2011
Tags: baby, baby seat, car seats, children, Family, home, House & Home, infants, parenting, sleep baby, toddlers, travel
Finding it hard to get your baby or toddler to go down for a nap? That’s perfectly OK because I think you are not alone, in fact I think there may be another million or so Moms in your exact position, and yes, I am one of them. Here are some hints and tips that I have learned and picked up along the way to help you get that well deserved break.
Even my baby and toddler will sleep at night. Granted they are restless and are still hard to get down, but the whole process of having dinner followed by a bath and then a bottle helps get them in the right frame of mind for sleeping and this routine gives us all something to follow, but it is during the day that they need their sleep the most, and it’s also the time that has no bath or dinner to help.
For the afternoon nap there are a lot of different tips and tricks that I have tried but the one thing that has worked consistently for me is the car. By taking the children for a drive I can get them to sleep, but even this process requires a deft touch and careful planning. Here are my top tips for getting your toddler to sleep in the car.
The best way to show you how to make this work first time every time is to list the do’s and do not’s from what I have learned over the many frustrating and sleepless years of trying to get my baby to go to sleep.
No matter how well you follow my advise, if you do not have the right baby car seat installed then you are stuffed before you begin. Your Baby needs to feel comfortable, safe and secure in his or her seat or they will simply not sleep, end of story. Check out the great range of baby seats, as well as ratings, reviews and recommendations on all models of Baby Car Seats and Covers and guarantee your baby sleeps first time every time.
The First step is to get them into the car. This is fine when you are dealing with a baby but when they get older they start to fight the idea of going for a ‘drive’ because they know what this means. The best thing to do is to distract them and play on their interests. If your Toddler likes Diggers, then suggest going for a drive to find them. Make it fun and they will happily oblige.
The Second Step is to be prepared, and here are some great learned tips I can share with you. Make sure you have the bottle warmed up and ready to go. Last thing you need is a baby that suddenly decides they want more milk or something. It’s a regular swamp ass trying to figure out exactly what your baby wants though.
Babies who have dummies, which I think is pretty much all of them need to have extras. There is a very probable chance that your baby will throw or spit the dummy on the floor of the car during the drive and if you are driving its a lot easier to reach around with a spare than it is to fish around the floor behind you looking for it. This is an especially helpful tip when there are two kids and one can potentially wake the other.
Also make sure you have some of your baby or toddlers favorite music with you. We will get to why this is important in a minute, but just know that the more familiar you can make the environment and surroundings the more chance you have of success with getting your baby to go to sleep.
The third step is to think ahead, and by this I mean removing all the shoes and heavy garments that will potentially wake your child when you try to remove them later. Think about the transfer later and realise that when your baby finally sleeps you want to make the transition as smooth as possible, for your sake more than anyone’s!
The 4th step is in the way you drive, and believe it or not the advise I give is to drive completely normally. If you don;t then your baby and/or toddler will suspect that something is up, or at least notice something is different. Remember that it is all about familiarity.
I mentioned earlier about transferring your baby back to the house and this is because I do not recommend leaving them in the car. But again think ahead, and transfer them only after you have prepared their room, so as to make as little noise as possible and make the transfer seamless and easy.
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