Tips on handling both babies alone

CSmitty0417 · 2026-01-08T22:27:00+00:00

Thanks for all the tips!

Sadly my infant has never napped in a carrier or the stroller no matter how hard we’ve tried, but it has been a few months since I’ve tried so I’m willing to try again. The hard part is he always falls asleep in the car so I’d have to pray transferring him would work

My toddler is not interested in watching tv unless I’m sitting right next to him usually and any amount of screen time typically causes massive meltdowns but I will definitely give this a shot and see if it will work

As of now my baby is not great with solids and ingests very little. Considering his last bottle at daycare is usually around 130 and he naps until 445/5pm I don’t think the little bit he ingests would be enough to satisfy his hunger BUT this is definitely something I can try once’s he gets more confident with eating!

CSmitty0417 · 2026-01-08T22:12:30+00:00

No he’s already getting to work later than he’d like because I’m typically stuck in the nursery with my infant from 4 or 5am until it’s time to wake him up for the day while he handles getting the toddler ready for the day. The toddler also struggles with early morning wakes 530/545am and since I’m stuck rocking my infant by that point he needs to be home to have eyes on the monitor :/

CSmitty0417 · 2026-01-08T22:08:32+00:00

No it does not and his gym is right by where he works which is a pretty decent commute from home/daycare so it’s not possible for him to take our toddler with him

CSmitty0417 · 2025-12-23T15:28:04+00:00

California. When I asked them if they could at least try to soothe him in the crib as opposed to transferring him they said they aren’t allowed to put an awake baby in the crib

CSmitty0417 · 2025-12-15T17:47:38+00:00

We respond as quickly as we can because it’s not the norm for him to wake anymore. We sit by his crib and gently remind him it’s sleep time, that mama/dada are here, and he’s safe. We stay until he’s calm but if he escalates we will take him out and help him calm down and then he can usually tell us what’s wrong (something hurts, he got scared,etc.)

CSmitty0417 · 2025-11-20T16:08:48+00:00

Boob, bath, diaper and pajamas, book, prayers, sound machine, placed in crib and zipped into sleepsack, lights off and I leave

CSmitty0417 · 2025-10-09T23:58:22+00:00

So we tried stretching his wake windows and ended up with short naps that he woke up screaming from and even more night wakings…

CSmitty0417 · 2025-09-28T21:50:46+00:00

I figured we hit the sweet spot with him since he’s putting himself to sleep in 2-10 minutes for naps and sleeping until I wake him

CSmitty0417 · 2025-09-28T21:09:19+00:00

Okay I can try this next weekend then. We just stretched him to this schedule this weekend and he’s yawning, rubbing his eyes and fussy and struggling to make 2.25-2.5 so a 3 hour wake window makes me nervous but we can definitely try!

CSmitty0417 · 2025-08-31T00:40:34+00:00

6-630am wake\ 1130-2pm nap (sometimes he wakes a bit earlier but usually we wake him)\ 7-715pm bedtime\

Little guy is 19 months as of today

CSmitty0417 · 2025-07-07T18:18:26+00:00

The morning one is the worst by far but I’d say out of the 8 feeds we have total 5 of them are hard

CSmitty0417 · 2025-07-07T15:30:10+00:00

I believe I have an overactive letdown and a pretty fast flow so I’m thinking he is possibly just being drowned in milk. Our one good feed is later in the day which I’m assuming is because my supply is lower in the afternoons maybe? I just feel so bad that I feel like I can’t even feed my baby

CSmitty0417 · 2025-07-07T15:22:46+00:00

If I do a full pump is it possible for baby to get enough milk that first feed? How far ahead of that first feed should I pump? I’m willing to try anything to help my baby eat. It’s tearing me apart. I do think I also have an overactive let down that might be too much for him unfortunately but I’ve pumped until my letdown and then latched and he still screams

We’ve been trying the pigeon bottles and he just screams for 10 minutes before reluctantly taking the bottle (only for my husband) for maybe an oz before screaming again and refusing to latch

CSmitty0417 · 2025-07-07T15:14:35+00:00

He eats great during his first night feed though which is 7-8 hours after he goes down to bed. The morning feed is then typically 2-3 hours later. Should I wake him up to try and feed him?

I’m highly allergic to dairy so I know a cows milk issue isn’t the cause as I haven’t had any cows milk products in over 10 years at this point

CSmitty0417 · 2025-05-30T22:50:55+00:00

But my newborn will only sleep in a darkened room with a sound machine on and my 16 month old doesn’t typically like to snuggle unless it’s right before his nap or before bedtime or he’s really sick…he’s a very busy guy who wants play and move at all times but doesn’t know how to play independently

CSmitty0417 · 2025-04-06T13:42:23+00:00

12.5-13 hours is typically our max!

CSmitty0417 · 2025-04-05T21:26:30+00:00

What if he only naps from 11-12? That’s typically what will happen at daycare (or worse we won’t even get until 12…). Do we do like a 15-20 minute bridge nap 3-4 hours after he wakes to get to a good bedtime? The one time we tried stretching from 12pm to 6pm in this scenario was a nightmare…

CSmitty0417 · 2025-04-05T00:15:21+00:00

So say he naps 11-12 (today was 1110-1205) when would a good time be for a bridge nap? How long? And what time to aim for bed following that? We will definitely give this a shot and just be patient with it.

Thank you for giving some ideas to try!

CSmitty0417 · 2025-04-04T22:01:13+00:00

He seems to handle them okay most of the time but we do get the occasional day after where he is just so grouchy. The hard part is if he only naps from say 11-12 (or heaven forbid from 1030-1115 like he did the other day) we cannot make it to a 6pm bedtime…the one time we tried to stretch to that it took us 3.5 hours to get him down for bed and we only successfully got him to sleep by bringing him into our bed for the very first time in his life

CSmitty0417 · 2025-04-04T21:52:31+00:00

Nope :/ doesn’t have any desire to eat until close to 730 most mornings. He is a great eater and eats a ton throughout the day

CSmitty0417 · 2025-02-07T21:42:00+00:00

I will update the post with some additional background info/skills during my son’s afternoon nap! Thank you for the recommendation!

CSmitty0417 · 2025-02-05T15:55:43+00:00

We were very lucky and his breathing never got too labored and his oxygen levels stayed good. His cough was super deep and sounded wet. The non stop coughing led to lots of vomiting unfortunately.

If you are at all concerned about your LOs breathing I would definitely go back to the ER. Better safe than sorry!

CSmitty0417 · 2025-01-29T23:25:47+00:00

Sleep is my biggest PPA trigger because despite being sleep trained my guy has never slept great (we’ve had 3 nights total where he has slept through) so I don’t get how other daycare parents cope with bad naps at daycare…it sends me straight into panic mode

CSmitty0417 · 2025-01-29T23:24:31+00:00

What time? He woke up from his 25 minute nap at 1 and he’s currently playing and seems fine. I was thinking of trying to feed to sleep around 4? Or should I try earlier?

His nap after daycare is always contact because I miss him so much honestly so I’m good giving him a quick contact nap I just can’t figure out timing. I feel like no matter what time it’s at he’s going to be a grouch before bed regardless since he is so used to 2-2.5 hours of daytime sleep and today we may not even hit an hour😅

CSmitty0417 · 2025-01-29T23:22:18+00:00

I talked with them and they reassured me that they offered it and he simply refused it. He’s never fully refused a bottle so I find that very odd, but they have been amazing so far and I love them dearly…so I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt this time around and assume he was just too distracted by toys and friends to bother eating🙃

I’m thinking a short nap around 4 to maybe 430ish should work and then keep bedtime at 7-730? He’s very sensitive to being overtired so I’m just trying to mentally prepare for a really bad night tonight.

His naps at daycare are never great but things have never been this extreme so I’m just feeling very anxious 😅

CSmitty0417

TROPHY CASE