Helping babies to sleep without CIO...

[Lilyoftheincas13]

My precious baby is a hearty and active 9 month old who, I've been told, is completely spoiled because he "has me trained" as my mom puts it.  :)  This is something that I'm perfectly okay with, because he is a very happy kid.

He is very high maintenance though, so I don't think that would fly in daycare, and in order for me to continue taking care of him myself, I have to do some sort of work, so I've taken in one other child, a 6 month old infant.  She's a sweet baby, and I've been caring for her the way I would care for my son--which involves a lot of holding.  This is an issue, because my son also needs to be held as well--not as much anymore, but he still needs the holding.  And when they both get cranky at the same time, or need feeding at the same time, I have to hold / feed them at the same time.  And this, I would like to stop before they both get too heavy for me to hold all at once.

Her mom suggested putting her down for her nap and letting her cry a little (to clarify, I don't think she's suggesting full-on CIO), and since she suggested it so many times, I decided to try it today. I had to actually call my mother to get through it because I was almost in tears myself at one point.  Long story short--I can't deal with CIO, not for longer than 3 or 4 minutes at a time, anyway, and I don't think that would work.  I would, however, like for both of the kids to get in their naps, because they get very unhappy without them and need their sleep, and I'm looking for suggestions to do that without letting the little one CIO.  We ended up going for a walk in the stroller today, which was really nice because they both slept, but it's bitterly cold and I don't want that to be my only option for getting them to sleep at the same time.

Tomorrow, I plan on putting her down at naptime and staying in the room with her, and holding her bottle for her while she stays in the play yard.  I hope that works, but with all the new stimuli, she's very resistant to sleeping.  I've only just started with her this week.

Any other suggestions?

[SeekingJoy]

What is her nap/bedtime routine at home? Does she prefer it to be dark? White noise? To be rocked a minute before being laid down?

If your goal is to get them both to nap at around the same time, you could put them both down and stay with them until they fall asleep, although this is suggested without being a mom of twins or in your exact situation.