How do I get them to do it? This is how.

If you follow my facebook page, then you may have seen this status update yesterday:

Went for an 8 mile run.

Showered. 

Put my pajamas back on.

Numbers 2 & 3 at the Y.

Number 4 at a birthday party.

Numbers 5, 6, & 7 sleeping.

Was going to try and get a bunch of stuff done.

Then decided to screw it.

Going to sit on the couch with a big blanket, look at the pile of magazines my mom gave me, and maybe even take a nap.

Not a bad Sunday afternoon 🙂

One reader left this comment:

How do you get them to
Nap at the same time? Amazed.

Here is the answer to that question.

I’m kind of a nap Nazi.

Naps, and sleep in general, are a priority in this house.

I know how I get (even though I recently kind of temporarily forgot) when I don’t have enough sleep.

For kids it’s worse.

Kids in general can suck.

But tired kids can really suck.

When your kids are exhausted, you see it in their behavior.

Big time.

The meltdowns and tantrums are kicked up to a whole different level.

When Number 3 was a baby, we had a hard time getting him to sleep through the night.

Same with Number 4.

I did a lot of reading on getting your kids to sleep.

The biggest lesson I learned was sleep begets sleep.

Maybe it seems counterintuitive.

You might think that the more exhausted your kids are at night, the longer they will sleep in the morning.

It’s kind of the opposite.

So napping, and a napping schedule, became priorities.

They still are.

I never skip naps.

And when the kids were really little, I scheduled every single aspect of my life around naptimes.

If I had to go anywhere and take the kids with me, I did it in between the morning nap and the afternoon nap.

If I scheduled playdates, they started after the morning naptime and ended before the afternoon naptime.

If we had a party at the house, the kids still stayed on their nap schedule.

And every time we put them in to sleep, we followed the exact same routine.

We are now down to one afternoon nap.

Numbers 5, 6, and 7  (who are 4, 3, and 2 years old) all still take a nap in the afternoon.

Numbers 6 and 7 share a room. Number 5 shares a room with Number 3 and 4, but they are both in school at naptime.

Up until about a year ago, Number 6 and 7 went in for naps at the same time. They would both be asleep within a couple minutes.

Once Number 7 started talking, things got a little silly up in their room when it was time for a nap.

So then I had to tweak the routine a little bit; I had to stagger the times they went into bed. Not by much, just by a few minutes.

So everyday, after lunch, the kids sit down to watch,

ugh,

Caillou.

If you’ve ever had to sit through the torture of that kid (and his equally annoying sister, Rosie), then you know that there are two little episodes within one 30-minute show.

So after the first episode is over, I take Number 7 upstairs and rock with her in the rocking chair. I sing her a couple songs. When she is just about asleep (usually by the second song), I put her into her bed.

When the second episode of Caillou is finished, it’s time for Number 5 and 6 to go upstairs.

I take Number 6 upstairs and do the same thing I did with Number 7.

I rock with him in the rocking chair and sing the same 2, or 3, or sometimes 4 songs I sing every day. Number 7 is out cold. My singing to Number 6 doesn’t even register to her, he falls asleep pretty quickly, and I put him into his bed.

While I am doing that, Number 5 goes into her room and picks out a book for us to read.

After I put Number 6 into bed, I read a story with Number 5 in her room.

Then she gets into bed, I sing her one song and rub her back, and she goes to sleep on her own.

I do that every day.

Every. Single. Day.

Sometimes it’s a little monotonous.

Sometimes it’s a little inconvenient.

But not most of the time.

They sleep better at night and they sleep later in the morning.

And I get a break.

Each afternoon I can count on about one hour of overlapping nap times.

At least.

It is a major sanity saver for me.

So… to answer your question, that’s how I do it.

It’s totally doable.

It just requires structure and discipline.

And just like everything else in life, whether it’s working out, or eating healthy, or being in school, or starting your own business,

with a little structure and discipline…

anything is possible.

3rd PLACE SUCKS!  I need your votes!

VOTE ! VOTE! VOTE ! VOTE! VOTE ! VOTE! VOTE ! VOTE! 

I’ll keep writing, you keep voting!

All you need to do is click on the banner above to register a vote for me! 

You can vote one time every 24 hours from your computer and cell phone! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! I really appreciate your support!

Check out and “like” the not-your-average-mom.com facebook page!

Follow me on Twitter @mom_not_average