What did you do?

[Marley&Me]

DD has just transitioned from two sleeps to one midday sleep. She goes down around 12 and usually sleeps till 2:30-3pm. I am finding it very hard to enjoy doing anything working around these times. For instance this morning at about 9am DH mentioned the market was on and also a car show he wanted to go see. But it's just too hard to get back in time. And at 3pm, everything is over by then. Then I started thinking of days at the beach in summer etc. How is this going to work? Things don't even start till 9-10am, especially on the weekends.

How does everyone else manage to have a life around this sleep? Or is it all rush, rush, rush?

[Tinks]

I found my kids would sleep in the car while we were driving or in their prams but my sister used to have to be home for her kids sleeps. Every baby is different.

[~clover~]

Yeah, mine would just sleep in the pram. They actually slept ok with the constant noise around them too.
Dd2 refused to sleep anywhere else at night, but was ok through the day.

[Marley&Me]

She will sleep in the car easy, but never more than about 40 minutes. She will sometimes sleep in the pram, but also never for more than 40 minutes. And 40 minutes doesn't cut it unfortunately. That means once she wakes she still has around 6 hours or so until bed, that is far too long without a nap

[Doing my best]

I just did whatever we were doing and the kids either slept or not.. We didn't do stuff every weekend or every day, so not having g a full sleep on occasion really didn't phase me..

[Marley&Me]

Is it easier as they get a little older to not sleep a couple of hours? I feel at 15 months she is still a bit young to be having only 40 minutes all day.....

[Doing my best]

Is it easier as they get a little older to not sleep a couple of hours? I feel at 15 months she is still a bit young to be having only 40 minutes all day.....

My oldest was a cat napper.. And yes on the odd day she did have 40 minutes. My DH is a shift worker (has been since before kids), so we made the choice of going about our lives as normal from day 1.I tried to be home at nap time, but even at that age if our plans meant we were out and about, that's what we did.. I don't advocate that 40 mins a day is normal, but on the times it happened, I just accepted the aftermath of an overtired child that needed extra comfort to calm down for sleep..

[wysiwyg]

I just did whatever we were doing and the kids either slept or not.. We didn't do stuff every weekend or every day, so not having g a full sleep on occasion really didn't phase me..

Same as this, I always just preferred to wing it and deal with whatever happened than have to rush around all the time trying to get home for a sleep that they may or may decide to cooperate with having. I would try to time things so midday sleep coincided with car trip or stroller friendly activity. If we went out for the day often there would be a short nap midday and then another on the way home. I think in some ways it does get easier as they get older, but in other ways if they miss the sleep the level of 'feral-ness' can be increased.

Everyone is different - some people would prefer to always be home for a sleep, others can't cope with the feeling of being restricted by needing to be home for a sleep (I think this becomes apparent if you have more than one child). I would just give going out and not coming home for a sleep a go and see how you both go - it might work better than you think.

[Saffy]

I like to be home because my dd is the same- only sleeps for 40mins in the car and she needs more than that usually.

Occasionally if we have something special on -like my sisters 40th the other weekend-she just skipped her nap and had a short nap on the car trip home. Usually though, we just do stuff that we can go to early and come back for. It is hard, because I have an early bird, and nothing opens til 9 or 10 as you say. By that time my dd has been up for 5hrs!

There's a few cafés around that are child friendly, so we go out for breakfast on a weekend, then take dd for a run around the beach, or to see the ducks, or for a swim at the pool. You get good at knowing what places are open early! And I agree that by the time they wake up, it's too hard to do anything.

[~Kim~]

With my first I felt like she needed to be home for a nap, and that there were no ways around it. Now i have three and the hindsight of experience. If she's used to more then 40 minutes probably isn't enough, but think of all the stuff you'll miss out on if you don't relax for a couple of days here and there.
It's not like it's days and days in a row. I won't become a habit.
If you can't stand the feral-ness in the arvo, put her to bed earlier. I still do and my eldest is 8.5.

[Marley&Me]

Thanks everyone! She does like her sleep so will try and be home when I can. I guess it will be fine in the summer because it will be better to get out early before it gets too hot for her The other day she only slept 40 min or so at mums (in a portacot in the spare room) so I just stayed and hoped for a nap on the way home. She didn't so I kept driving around the block until she nodded off I could have just put her to bed when I got home and she definitely would have slept, but it was about 4:30pm and once I put her down in bed it's at least 1.5-2 hours sleep. And if i have to wake her lookout! she is not a happy camper haha

[CoNNiE_Melb]

It does get easier as they get older... DS1 was a big fan of sleep and really needed it.
By around 2 it was manageable if he didn't get his full sleep, he would be feral by bedtime, but we'd just bring it forward a little. It wasn't all the time, just when we had something we didn't want to miss.
By around 3, he could miss his sleep all together. Again, we'd bring bedtime forward half an hour or so.

[PumpkinZulu]

DD2 dropped naps at home pretty much altogether at 12 months, and DD1 did at about 17 months. They'll both sleep in the car depending how big a day we've had, but if we're home generally DD2 will only fall asleep while having some boob and watching a movie, and only very occasionally. Both my kids have only ever had 1 hour naps, newborn napping aside. Neither of them sleep through the night either. I guess I'm just used to lack of sleep lol.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

If we were out for the day, baby DS would nap in the pushchair or carrier happily after lunch, so I could still go out and do stuff with a bit of preparation.

[Tinks]

I think the more you're out the more comfortable they are sleeping in the pram or car. When my kids were babies I was hardly ever home so they just learnt to sleep wherever we were.

[luna moth]

We just live life and they fit in. I limit it to three days a week having a sleep away from home, it's usually a bit shorter in the car/pram/carrier, so they make up for it the following day. Sometimes I also just put them down to bed earlier if they're tired and enjoy the time off in the evening!

[Melbournemumma]

DS3 still had two sleeps but on Sundays only gets one. We are at church and he doesn't sleep there so he goes down when we get home. This means that I generally plan to be home on Mondays so he can have his normal sleeps. He will sleep for 1.5-2hrs in the morning and 1-2 hrs in the afternoon. This is how I tend to operate now. If I know I'll have a day where he's only going to get one sleep I plan the next day as a home day to make up for it.

[Sagres]

We still went out (not every day but some days) and they would get some sleep in the car on the way, maybe some in the stroller there and maybe in the car on the way home.
DD1 was fine with whatever sleep she could grab, DD2 was a bit less happy with doing that (just her nature, more routine driven and a preference for being at home) so there was a bit more scheduling involved and more driving the loooong way home to get more sleep, early nights and putting more emphasis on sleep at home during the week etc. but we still went out and did stuff as needed and weren't stuck home every sleep time.
I have had friends who've had kids who really struggle not being home for a long sleep (again just their nature, sleep loving home bodies!) so they have been much more restricted at sleep time. I think it is luck of the draw what kind of sleeper you get and also how much you want to push that!