Nap Time Routine Suggestions?

Question

Hey ladies!
Our little lady absolutely REFUSES to nap. Her nighttime sleep is good, she goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 7am, but she hates napping. She’ll only nap in 20-30 minute bursts, then wake up mad and won’t go back to sleep.
Granted, we have some blame here because we’ve always rocked her to sleep, so now of course she won’t nap without us. I’m hoping not to be judged by saying this, just trying to give some background.
So now we’re trying to find a good nap time routine to get her to take normal naps without us. We’ve tried laying her down and leaving the room but that was a nightmare (she screamed for an hour straight). 
I was hoping to hear from moms who might have some suggestions! Thank you for the help!

Answer

We did sleep training for naps too, it took a bit, but he's a great napper now. They just don't have the same sleep pull as they do at bedtime. What worked for us: watching wake times/sleep cues; quiet/calmer play leading up to nap; nap routine (something short and sweet, like a shorter version of your bedtime routine - we put in sleep sack, say good night to everything in room, pull blinds, put on white noise and sing a song); white noise; dark dark room.
We would then put him down calm and awake but sleepy and then do checks every 15min. If he refused for 40min-hour we'd get him up, play quietly for half an hour or so and try again with the whole routine. It was a process, but we just stayed consistent.

Answer

My girl is a lot like this but goes to daycare once a week where they obviously don't rock her to sleep like I do. Haha she naps like a champ there. They put her in a crib and turn the lights off and she is usually out just like she is at night. When I'm at home with her I usually still rock her to sleep and then try to lay her down with a snuggly blanket close to me. Then I move away little by little. It works for us, hopefully you find something that works. My girl only naps once a day now though and it usually is about an hour max.

Answer

I just switched to 1 nap this week. At night he puts himself to sleep and sleeps usually around 11 hours now. For a nap I rock him to sleep and put him in the crib and he's been napping close to 3 hours every day since we went to 1 nap. If he wasn't as well.as he is I would do sleep training for his nap but I'm not worried about it at this point.

Answer

I nurse him to sleep once he shows signs of being tired. there's absolutely nothing wrong with nursing or rocking to sleep! once hes out, I transfer him to the crib and do my own thing. he also naps for as long as he needs, which is usually 2-3 hours. hes on 1 nap a day. night sleep is usually between 7:30pm-6:30am, nap around noon

Answer

I put my girl down for a nap when she's showing signs that she's tired.

Answer

We rock my son to sleep, then slowly stop rocking. After we have stoped rocking completely we sit with him for 5 to 10 minutes. After that we bring him in his room and lay him in his wedge. Put his Snoozypod and white noise one. We only have a wedge due to him having a flat head problem, but it has saved us for naps.

Answer

Just wanted to say that the length of the nap might have nothing to do with your naptime routine. My little boy only does 30min naps most time and I just put him in his crib with the sleeping sack and white noise and leave the room - he is usually out in 3-5 min.

Answer

At this point, after waking up in the morning, I guess she should be able to stay awake several hours. So if you make sure she's really tired and then put her down, that should help.  We sleep trained at around 12 weeks, but we just did cold turkey- put her in the crib and leave. After one day, she figured it out. So we don't have any real routine. I'd just say to remember that she won't have the opportunity to learn to put herself to sleep if you keep going back in there. :)
For your reference, my baby wakes at 8a, sleeps from 1-4p, then does for the night at 7p. 
Good luck!

Nap Time Routine Suggestions?

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