- Hey guys!

Jordan Page from Millennial Moms here.

How's it goin'?!

I am here to do a video on something

that all of us moms can relate to in one way or another,

I have no doubt.

Dun dun dun!

Napping!

As you know, I've got five kids six and under.

Believe it or not,

my kids nap every single day at the exact same time.

In fact, if my six year old hadn't just started first grade,

he would still be napping,

and still takes naps on the weekends at least.

So I thought I would just share with you

some of my tips on how to get your kids to sleep.

But before I get into my secrets,

don't forget to subscribe,

and give this video a big thumbs up.

Okay, let's do it!

My first tip for getting your kids to sleep,

is you've got to figure out a routine.

If you're trying to get your kids to sleep

at a different time every night,

or nap whenever you can, whenever that is,

it's not going to happen.

When I was sleep training my first child,

because he was a terrible sleeper,

because I had him on no form of schedule.

I literally typed it on a computer,

and stuck it in every room in the house.

When his nap times were, when his bedtime was,

and when he was supposed to be awake and playing

and burning off energy.

Protect nap time.

Block it out in your calendar as if you had an appointment.

It takes 21 days to make or break a habit.

So you need to do a strict routine for at least a month,

and then you can veer off the schedule here and there

without completely derailing everything you just did.

One of my tricks is to use white noise.

You guys have heard of Pavlov's dogs,

your body and mind physically respond to cues.

So my kids minds and bodies physically respond to the fact

that when their white noise turns on,

it is time to decompress, relax, and go to sleep.

Which brings me to my next point

which is there is such thing as too quiet.

With my first baby, sign on the door, shh!

Don't talk!

Don't come over!

Don't call me!

Don't breathe.

And wouldn't you know, any noise wakes him up, and he is up.

With my other kids,

I get them used to sleeping

in the middle of chaos and noise.

Because it's next to impossible

for your house to be perfectly silent

when you've got more than one kid around.

Another tip is to have special things

that are for sleeping only.

Whether it's a special binky, a special blanket,

a special stuffed animal,

they only get that thing when sleeping.

I see so many moms carrying their kid's favorite blanket

and lovey all throughout the store,

at DisneyLand, all around, no.

Make it special

and then it's almost like a reward or treat for them,

rather than a punishment.

(pretend snoring)

Oh!

Sorry, okay.

Where was I?

Another tip of mine is that rooms are for sleeping,

not for playing.

We have a bed, a dresser,

um, that's pretty much it.

Oh yeah, and books.

When we were in our two-bedroom town home,

we kept all the tools in storage ottomans and compartments

in our living room.

And now we actually have a playroom in the basement.

Every toy we own goes down there.

A lot of people ask me,

"Wait a second, so your six 1/2 year old still naps?

"Uh, does he go to sleep at like midnight?"

Valid question.

My answer is, no.

Again it's just mostly the fact

that their bodies are trained,

but you also want to make sure

not to be napping them too late.

We try to make sure that they are down by one or 1:30.

If we're not home by 2:30 or 3, naps are not gonna happen.

We skip naps and we put them to bed at 6:00 pm,

an hour earlier than usual.

If you have a kid that just doesn't need as much sleep

as the other kids.

That's okay, still go through the routine,

protect that time, and maybe you just call it quiet time

instead of nap time.

They read books, they work on their homework,

they play with Legos, they do quiet activities,

and they do not come out until quiet time is done.

So that way the kids who do nap aren't disturbed,

and, hey mom, gives you a little brain break,

and a chance to get a few things done

in the middle of the day.

Yeah, high five on that!

Another trick is to make sure every room has a clock

or a stoplight clock.

My older kids, they have a digital clock in their room.

For my younger kids, I've used stoplight clocks.

If the light is red, they stay in bed,

if the light is green, you can be seen.

Full disclosure though,

we've been through three of those stoplight clocks,

and they've all broken, and they are way overpriced.

So if anyone knows of anything cheaper

than the one option on Amazon, will you let me know below?

'Cause we are in the market for a new one, again.

And my last tip is actually for you moms.

And that is to make sure that you're using nap time

in a productive way.

Write down your to do list for the day,

and be sure to preserve things for nap time

that are hard to do when your kids are awake.

And then as soon as your kids wake up,

tune out the to do list and just go back to mom time.

It will make you more productive

and it will make you a better mom for your kids.

So there you go, I hope you liked these ideas.

I know that they work for me.

Hopefully they work for you.

If you want to see yesterday's video, click here.

If you want to see more from me, click here.

Click, right now, click.

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Be sure to follow my own channel and website,

funcheaporfree.com, we'll link to that below.

Have a great week and I'll see you guys soon, bye-bye!

Bye-bye.

Somebody please make me nap, I want a nap.