To ask how to prepare boob loving 2 yr old for nursery!

[Yawnyprawn]

I’m planning to start a part time job within the next couple of months and am wondering how my 2 year old, who usually naps in the middle of the day, will adapt to nursery. She usually feeds to sleep, although she will also drop off in the car or pushchair. I’d be really interested to hear how others handled this- did you change their nap/sleep routine in advance, or do nurseries somehow magically get the kids to nap on cue? Grateful for any advice! Thanks

Nurseries have magical nap powers :)

DS started at 20m and still fed to sleep for naps. The first couple of times the ladies had to rock/cuddle him to sleep (I once went to pick him up and he was asleep clinging on to the nursery nurse like a koala)
Then they'd lie him on the mats and pat him to sleep
Then he just happily laid down and went to sleep with the other DC.

My daughter automatically adapted when she went to nursery. She normally feeds to sleep in the morning, and on days when she isn't at nursery she continues to feed to sleep in the morning. At nursery she will have some milk from the fridge and they push her in the pram until she drops off.

Don’t

Nursery witchcraft. My 10 month old boob obsessed Velcro baby slept for them with no more than a back rub. The little git! 2 yr old should be absolutely fine. If they don’t already have one then cultivate a comfort object-I hugged one bunny every time a breastfed for a while and that did the trick.

Oops! Don’t worry about it they’ll get with the nursery routine. Just goes to show that you can impose a schedule on your child!

My two never got with the nursery nap routine but caught up on sleep on non nursery days and were fine with it. If they had been full time I would have worried but it was only a couple of days a week.

Thanks for your answers! That’s really reassuring

I dunno about that age or about breastfeeding to sleep challenge, but DD started at 8.5 months three consecutive days a week and the first couple of months she mostly only had like 2 or 3 30-40 min naps in the whole day. So she was utterly exhausted, at first she often wouldn't eat any dinner because she couldn't stop crying with sheer exhaustion, poor love. But she was tiny and your DC will be much bigger. Now at 13 months the last month or so she's finallyyy fallen into their after lunch nap routine, barring illness/teething etc when she gets messed up again and has a short morning nap and a short late afternoon nap usually. Ask nursery what they do re sleep. Our nursery is flexible, they try to get them to nap in the baby room after lunch but they obviously don't force it and they are responsive to little ones that need to sleep outside of that time. The first couple of months they had to cuddle DD and rock her in the rocking chair til she was asleep and then place her down in a cot, DD has a dummy so always kept one at nursery for her naps. Eventually they managed to get her to sleep in the cot with nursery nurse patting her tummy, but when she's teething/poorly they still cuddle and rock her to sleep if necessary.

Slightly different as DD was around 11 months when she started nursery.

I was worried about naps but she’s been absolutely fine. I think she falls asleep easier there than she does at home! As home is pretty boring compared to nursery so she is easily distracted and doses off.

Maybe things you could do to make it easier would be to make sure she has a comforter, her own blanket to take with her. Maybe you could also try a few naps at home without feeding to sleep?

I wouldn’t worry too much though. DD has always been really difficult to get to sleep but we don’t seem to have a problem at nursery.

Definitely nursery witchcraft. DS (also boob lover) started when he was one - they managed to get him to sleep without boob and still now (21 months) falls to sleep easier there than at home.

Out of sight, out of mind.

My DD managed absolutely fine without me, the reason I sent her was because she was pretty much feeding all day at home. With naps they tried to get her to sleep on the mats, but she wouldn't. She took matters into her own hands one day, climbed into a random buggy and fell asleep. (She napped in a buggy at home)

They can surprise us sometimes.