What is your naptime routine?

C&C6202005

I know it seems late in the game to be working on a naptime routine, but it's only been recently (2-3 weeks) that DD will NOT nap at home.  She still takes a wonderful 2-2.5 hour nap at daycare, but on weekends and now that she is home a couple extra days while I'm on maternity leave she will not nap here.  She tells me she is tired and she cries sometimes around naptime, but when I lay her down or tell her it's naptime she just throws a huge fit.  Other days she will just play straight through naptime and act like she isn't tired a bit.

At daycare they turn all the lights down and play music, and they tell me she is usually the first to fall asleep and sometimes the last to wake up.  I have tried that at home but she just keeps getting out of bed.

Thoughts?  Suggestions?  TIA!

Singingmama

She's probably afraid she's going to miss something at home while she naps. At daycare, all the other kids are napping, so there's nothing left for her to do except sleep. Plus, it's just part of the routine for all of the kids. If I were you, maybe tell her that it's naptime for everybody, lay her in her bed and then go lay down in your own bed with the baby in the bassinet/crib. If she sees that everyone is going to sleep she may not be afraid of missing anything. Of course, you don't actually have to map, but it may help her to relax and fall asleep.

Art Teacher

Our routine...at 2pm we tell her it's time for naptime and to go pick out a book or two.  She'll sometimes stall (like today) but most days she'll run in there and pick out some books.  We read them to her (usually it's just me but on weekends we both read to her).  We're in this silly routine now where she asks us if we want to sleep and we lay our heads on her and pretend to snore and sleep. Then we kiss her goodnight and give her a high five - not s ure how that started but it's her routine now.

At night it's almost the same - pjs, teeth, story, and then sing wheels on the bus before kissing her goodnight.

We keep the lights on until it's time to kiss her.  We turn on a white noise sound machine at that point, too.  Her room is pretty dark - we don't have black out curtains but it's fairly dark in there. 

If she doesn't sleep, she doesn't sleep.  I still leave her in there for at least an hour. 

powderpuff1981

After lunch I tell her to go to the bathroom and get her blanket. then I tell her to choose a book and I read it to her while she is in bed.  She then gets a kiss, tucked in and the book stays with her in bed.  I have to blow her a kiss and catch hers before I leave her room.  

  She gets out sometimes but I keep putting her back in bed. I do not let her get out until she has rested at least an hour, she usually falls asleep pretty fast though. I have to make sure she has an active morning on the weekends though.  During the week she is busy at school and naps there very well.