Entertaining Siblings During Nursathons

What do other parents do with their older children when their babies are having extended nursathons? Specifically, my problem of late is that my baby is very distractable. In order to have a full feeding session, I really need to take him upstairs to a quiet room. The mere presence of his older brother is such a delight to him, he couldn’t possibly focus on anything other than squealing and clapping his hands…or clawing his brother’s face.

I can usually get my big guy situated with some books or play dough for a few minutes, but sometimes it takes 20 minutes or more to nurse that baby, especially if I’m trying to put him down for a nap. It doesn’t really seem fair to ask a 3 year old to entertain himself that much, multiple times in a day. It’s also not always safe–even if I have Miles watching television, I’ll inevitably be called downstairs by some crash or tearful shouting…usually right at the crucial moment when baby Felix is just about but not quite asleep.

Of course it’s lovely when the three of us can curl up together on the couch and read books or chat while Felix is nursing. Someday, I hope bedtime will look like that, with the three of us cuddled in bed reading stories and singing songs. But right now the two kids stimulate each other so much that nobody calms down and I really need them to be in separate rooms for nursing/falling asleep.

Now that I’m thinking of it, I have the same problem when I’m trying to get Miles down for his nap if Felix is not feeling tired. Most of the time, I wait until Felix is asleep to start naptime for Miles, but sometimes the stars just don’t align and I’ve got a toddling baby roaming around unchecked while I’m trying to get a big kid to calm down.

I’d love to hear what strategies other parents have used to keep one child safe and occupied while mama has to be in another room taking care of another child! Leave a comment to share what worked for you.

1 comment to Entertaining Siblings During Nursathons

  • That’s been tough for me too when adjusting to 2 kids. I’m trying to remember what it was like when I had a newborn and a 3 year old. Now they are 18 months and 4.5 years old and it’s a lot easier. I set up my preschooler with watercolors and paper and she paints while I put her baby brother down for a nap. But it’s only a recent occurrence that I can trust her with paints! That wasn’t always the case :)

    Does he like Lego Duplos? You can leave him with some Legos, puzzles, books, building blocks, etc…

    Right now I have the opposite problem, though my 4.5 year old no longer naps, the 18 month old will not let me read to her, EVER. I’m heartbroken, we LOVED our reading sessions every evening but now the little one just grabs every book right out of my hands. I hope he grows out of that soon!

Leave a Reply

 

 

 

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

CommentLuv badge