Nap Help

laclyn

ds goes to sleep on his own, unswaddled at night but I am still having to swaddle, bottle and rock him to sleep for naps. Then, as soon as i lay him down, he wakes up so I have to pat him or rock him back into a deep sleep in order to get him to stay asleep when I lay him in the crib. Any suggestions for getting nap time to be as smooth as bedtime?

Jen0204

Is his room dark during the day?  We bought room darkening shades so that it is pretty dark in there during the day.  I think it's fairly light at daycare where they nap, but I think having it dark when they were little got the into the habit of being good nappers.

ETA - We also have at least one fan going in there, both for noise and air circulation.  And I use the term "good nappers" loosely - on most days we get 2-3 hours of napping out of them but they are random as far as how they split up that time over their two naps throughout the day (and of course, they never nap for the same amount of time as the other one!).

jmccall79

I don't get to do nap time, except on the weekends, but I think Ian prefers to be rocked to sleep for naps more so than he does for bed time.  Maybe by the end of the day they're just so worn out it's just easier to put them to bed.  He doesn't fight nap time, most days, but he will let us rock him more then than bedtime.  Try using pretty close to the same routine (darker, noise) whatever may simulate "bedtime".