Do you force a nap every day?

cmsdouglas

We just moved into a new house about two weeks ago.  Since then, naps have been really hit or miss.  Yesterday, she walked up to her bedroom, climbed in bed, and took a two hour nap of her own accord.  Most days, though, she fights the nap hard.  Everything that works for bedtime does not work for naps and she ends up screaming for 30-45 minutes, at which point we give up, which just reinforces the screaming.  The past few days we've just put a movie on and let her have quiet time instead of fighting it, but she's been kind of grumpy.  MIL keeps telling me that she knows what she needs and that she'll sleep when she needs it so we shouldn't try to force her to nap, but I really feel like she still needs a nap every day.  So do you guys have any experience or tricks?

countrygrl5533

We have rest time. I put DD in her crib at 12:30ish. If she is refusing to sleep and it is 1:30/1:40, then she gets special quiet time books until 2/2:10. DD really needs the nap or else she is grumpy but I can't force a kid to sleep...as much as I would like to. lol

There was one day she just couldn't do it so she got to watch VeggieTales but she had to have her head on a pillow while she was laying on the sofa and she had to be under a blanket.

krispy83

We're currently going through nap battles.  DS is a mess without one but a few times over the last couple of weeks he's just flat out refused.  We do a sort of enforced quiet time where he has to lay down and be quiet, but that often doesn't work since we moved him from the crib.  Unfortunately, then he's extremely cranky for the rest of the day.  So no advice here, just sympathy

cmsdouglas

@krispy83 and @Excited30, how do you get them to stay in their rooms?  If we aren't sitting there holding the door shut, she just walks out...

krispy83

Well sometimes he does that too.  But he doesn't like to sleep with his door shut, he wants it open.  So I tell him that if he can't stay in his bed, I have to shut the door.  Sometimes that works, but sometimes he gets up anyway.  

Today he fought the nap big time, so I got him up and we ran errands and then when we got home I tried again.  No luck.  But I was at my parents' this evening and my mom said that when we were younger if we fought a nap hardcore but were obviously tired, she'd bring us into the living room with a pillow and blanket, turn off the lights and put on a movie and without fail we were out within ten minutes.  She said the catch was that we HAD to lay down on the couch or the floor, we couldn't be up.  DS doesn't watch much tv so I don't know if this will work for him (or your DD) but I'm definitely going to give it a try the next time.

ETA: Just reread your OP and saw that you've tried a movie, so that might not work for you.  As for getting her to stay in her room, my best friend turned the knob around on her son's door when he was a toddler so that it locked from the outside and she'd lock it until she could tell he was asleep (not leaving it locked overnight or anything) but that was how she kept him in his room, otherwise he'd get up and walk out.

kalette

I still put her in her room. Some days she will nap, other days she just hangs out and plays for a few hours.

countrygrl5533

Excited30 said:

She WILL have that rest time.  I really want her to learn that for herself as I believe it's a life skill we all need in taking care of ourselves.

This is my theory too.

cmsdouglas

I'm totally with you guys that she needs that time every day, I just don't know how to accomplish it!  The door knobs in our new house are original from 1934, so they don't lock (or at least I haven't figured out how to lock them).  We definitely hold the door shut at night and it usually only takes her a few minutes to give up and fall asleep, but during the day she will scream for over an hour. I wish I could figure it out - I could definitely use a nap myself!

cmsdouglas

@Excited30 - A baby  gate is genius! We actually have one that ended up being too wide for our stairs.  I am going to have to install that. 

 In a weird twist, she's actually sleeping right now!  It took a few tries, but I'm pretty sure she's out at the moment!

nunzchucks

We make DD lay in her crib for an hour and a half. If she's still up, we will get her up. She at least needs rest time.

lindslalala

I wouldn't say we "force" a nap, because he very clearly still needs them daily. He doesn't even fight it. When we have had nap strikes (like when he moved out of his crib to a regular bed), he still had to stay in his room for quiet time for an hour at least. DS is extremely energetic, and is pooped by nap time. I would plan for activities in the morning to see if that tires her out more for a nap.

Lesleyjking

K went through a month of no naps, she would just sing in her bed. Thankfully she never gets out of bed-she just waits for me. When she wasn't napping, I let her sit in there for 1.5/2 hrs for her down time. Now she naps 2.5/3 hours! I have to wake her!!

On a side note, at bedtime she has gotten into the habit of CONSTANTLY (every 10 min) telling me she needs to go potty, while waving her diaper in the air towards the monitor-FORCING me to go up there! Cant wait for this phase to pass!

cmsdouglas

@Excited30 - We finally got the gate up for nap today.  There was no screaming, she just stood at the gate and said "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Where are you?" for about an hour before falling asleep.  She's been asleep in the doorway for 1.5 hours now!