Naps vs Bedtime (longish)

jmkatz

Lucy is taking her first EVER crib nap right now.  YAY!!!  She has always napped in her swing, but lately she has just been so restless and only napping 45 minutes max - but usually more like 20-30 minutes.  We have been so desperate to get her good naps that we spent our weekend driving around so she would sleep in the car and not be so cranky.

She is a "less than ideal" nighttime sleeper - she still wakes every 2 hours or so to nurse but I can generally get her back to sleep in under 20 minutes so I am okay with getting up with her.  We have a good solid nighttime routine that includes bath, jammies, lotion, nurse and rock, then down in the crib drowsy but awake.  She goes to sleep generally very quickly.  We play white noise all night long.

I don't want to confuse her but I feel like what I just did to get her down for a nap was pretty similar, minus the bath and jammies part.  I nursed her in her room and rocked her for a LONG while, then put her down.  She had fallen asleep in my arms but woke up and cried for 12 minutes (which I hated, but seriously - I am desperate) before going to sleep.  She has been asleep for 40 minutes now.

Should I do something different to distinguish between naps and bedtime, or is it okay to still nurse, rock, white noise, etc?  If you have a good nap time routine, please please share it!  I would love love love to get some sort of routine (even a loose routine) this summer before I go back to work in August.   Thanks ladies!

cjsbdl

She won't be confused. I think what you did is fine.

We have a very simple nap routine: diaper change, into sleepsack (before this, if he's wearing short sleeves I change him into a long-sleeved onesie--we keep our house very cool), read a book, rock, and then into the crib. I rock him to sleep for his first nap and put him in the crib awake for the second (I know that sounds crazy, but he sleeps much longer if I rock him to sleep and put him down on his tummy, and I want him to get at least one long nap a day).

artygirl

Our bedtime routine consists of brushing teeth (I brush his two teeth and then let him chew on the toothbrush for a couple of minutes), jammies, read stories, bottle, and then place in bed drowsy but awake.

Nowadays, Lucas only takes a bottle 4 times a day so I don't usually feed him before his naps due to the way his schedule works out.  The nap routine is simply rock him until he falls asleep and then place him in his crib.  If he is due for a bottle, I would feed him and then rock him.

But really, our nap routine is the basically the same as night routine, minus the toothbrush, jammies, and books.

 

jmkatz

Thanks!  You both just made me feel better!  And she's awake now but 45 minutes is better than nothing

GuitaristsGirl

I get what you're saying because I've always wondered the same thing!  We do naps differently than bedtime because of this "concern", (naptime is just rocking with lovey and paci, bedtime is white noise and swaddle; I joke that the swaddle "pushes the 'it's nighttime!' button") -- but I also admit to being lucky in that DS goes down easily.  I'm sure if he struggled with naps I'd do whatever routine worked and see what happens.