Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Help a Mother Out, Part III

While Bump was out buying the van, I took the tormentors to Linda's pool. We wore them out so successfully that during the 10-minute drive home, they both fell asleep.

Yeah, Lumpyhead's holding a camel. Just, um, yeah.

Ordinarily, this is a cause for great celebration, (Both! Asleep! At the same time! Woo hoo!) but I was completely stumped about how to get them into the house and into their beds.

Bump has attempted the fabled Double-Nap Transfer in the past, rarely with complete success. I am a fumbling rookie at this.

For those of you with more than one child: how do you get them both out of the car? Actually, I don't care if you have any children. To anyone who is good at logistics: how would you go about getting two sleeping kids from the parking lot to their cribs?

This is going to be even worse when we have three.

While I'm on the subject - especially for those of you with twins - what do you do when both of your kids are crying at the same time? I can't believe it hasn't come up before, but the other night I was stuck with two wailing children, neither of whom could be adequately comforted with one arm. They both yowled until Bump returned home - which took only ten minutes but felt like hours - and I should probably have a better solution at the ready when it happens again.

7 comments:

Delora said...

I only have one, but back when he was still at the napping age, if he fell asleep in the car I'd just leave him there until he woke up. Usually this involved me fetching a book from inside, but sometimes it was nice our and I'd leave all the doors open and do some yardwork. (It helps to have a yard for this second approach.) I was never successful at the car to house transfer.

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah said...

Okay:

1) You keep a book in the car. You sit in the parking lot with the AC running and let them sleep.

2) Happens all the time. I usually try to comfort them both at once (although lately they are usually crying because of each other) or distract them with a snack.

Julie said...

1) Get a house with an attached garage so you can take one into the house and then come back for the other one.

Not practical? Maybe Sarah's answer is better. Or you could buy a triple stroller and attempt the car-to-stroller-to-crib transfer.

2) Get good at triage. If you can't comfort them both at the same time, sometimes you have to decide whose problem is more serious and deal with that one first. If that doesn't work, I like to bribe one of my kids with food or something so that they'll be quiet long enough for me to deal with one of the other ones.

merseydotes said...

1. No idea.

2. Have your kids farther apart so the older(est) one(s) is(are) past the crying stage. Well, that's my approach (or at least my stubborn body's) anyway.

Anonymous said...

Steal a shopping trolley. Or a bobcat. Scoop them up and wheel towards the house. And then you can leave them in there until they wake up.

You can probably tell that I am childless. My mother did have twins on her third pregnancy though, poor woman (I am the eldest)...

Em said...

I usually let them sleep in the car which will work better once you have a house and can park near the dwelling itself.

Violet said...

I always stayed in the car and left my daughter to sleep in her carseat. If I wasn't too close to home, I'd drive to the beach so I'd have something nice to look at in the meantime.

When she was smaller, she'd wake up during the transfer but fall asleep again if I put her in the baby hammock.