DD is nearly 7 months and has been in her nursery 3 days a week for about 6 weeks now since I went back to work. When she started at 5.5 months we ended up doing gradual retreat to teach her how to settle herself to sleep to enable her to nap in the creche. She whinges quite a lot when getting off to sleep (not upset, just shouting and singing type noises) and I suspect that this is having an adverse effect on her naps in nursery in that the staff avoid putting her down at the same time as the other babies. Which would be ok if she got her naps, but they are completely erratic on the days she is in nursery, and she is down to 2 or 3 twenty or thirty minute snoozes per day which just is nowhere near enough for her. I think the staff just put her down when it suits them not her, and she therefore ends up overtired.
She is a great napper at home - 8.30 - 10ish, 12 - 2 ish and 4pm ish - and while I understand babies don't generally nap as well in nursery as they do at home, I wish they would just try to stick to her routine in nursery. I'm also worried she'll get into the habit of catnaps. Is it unreasonable to ask them to try to get her to nap properly and to try to stick to my routine a little more? I don't want to create a bad atmosphere with the staff as in general they are doing fine. Or am I expecting too much from a nursery setting.....