Preschool schedule and DD#2's nap schedule

mm&es

How do you deal with co-ordinating the drop-off / pick-up schedule for your older child and your younger child's nap schedule?  I'm starting to get a little stressed about it for September!

DD#1 will be going to pre school 5 days a week from 9 to 11:30.  The school is a little less than 10 minutes away.  Right now, DD#2 takes her naps from around 9 to 10, and from 1 to 2:30.  She usually falls asleep in the car, however, so if I took her with me, she would definitely fall asleep while dropping off DD#1, and depending on her morning nap, would probably also fall asleep picking her up.  When she falls asleep in the car, its usually for a short, unsatisfied nap, and by then, she'll be in  convertible car seat, so I can't take her out of the car easily.

 How do you deal with it?  Just accept #2 will fall asleep?   

neverblushed

I had the exact same situation when my oldest was in preschool.

I gradually pushed the LO to nap from 9:30 to 10:30ish.  He was tiny when she first started school, but it got tougher as he was older because if he fell asleep on the way home from drop off, it was hard to get him out of the car and into bed.  I pushed him to stay awake in the car on the way home by playing music, reaching back and tickling his head, etc.  (I know, real safe driving, huh!)

There were a few times when he fell asleep and it ruined his nap, but we got through it.  He gave up morning nap at around 9 months, and I moved his pm nap to 12:30ish.

AgrippaRidesAgain

DD ended up switching to one nap a day shortly after school started, but until then, she got good at transferring from car to crib. At first, I was trying to keep her up in the car so that she would sleep at home, but she became really good at ignoring my attempts. Me having to wake her at 11 to go get her brother may have spurred the push to drop a nap. She dropped it at 10-10.5 months.

Littlejen22

My kids went to one nap around 12 months so remember naps change ad in a few months it will not be an issue. What will likely happen eventually is she will sleep for a few minutes in the car and then long nap later. 

CarolinaDaisy

It will be ok. My younger DS used to fall asleep on the way home from preschool drop off at the beginning of last school year. I could move him from his convertible seat to the crib without much problem. Toward the end of the year, my older DS was able to keep his brother awake through drop off and I could usually get home again to put him down for his nap. So he would sleep from 9:15 or so until 10:30 when I woke him to run an errand before we picked his brother up by noon.

Then second nap was about 1:30 until 3 or 3:30. By shortly after his 1st birthday, I could shorten the morning nap to 45 minutes and he'd be fine. He just went down earlier, around 1pm and slept to 3 or 3:30.

It will be ok. Try not to worry too much about it. If she falls asleep on your way home, just try to move her to the crib and soothe her back down. She may really suprise you and adapt quickly.