Anxious light sleeper won’t nap at nursery? Reassurance please!

[Bellsandwhistles90]

My baby starts nursery soon. He’s been a bad sleeper since birth but I’ve worked hard to get him napping well. He now naps in his cot 2x a day for roughly 1-1.5 hours each but it has been really dark and he has white noise. I also need to do about 30 mins of wind down time before a nap as he’s pretty highly strung and easily wired/overstimulated. If he’s buzzing before a nap, he doesn’t sleep well. He’s also a really light sleeper so would wake to the sound of a pin dropping. This means he’s never napped well on the go, if at all.

The nursery he’ll be going to has a separate sleep room but it’s quite bright and obviously there will be other babies there, possibly crying, and it’s very close to the play room. I’m sure he’ll go to sleep eventually as he’ll be tired but I can almost guarantee that he’ll wake after 30 mins so at best, he may only get an hour of day sleep. I dread what this will do to his night sleep, which is still not great - especially when he’s overtired!

Also, I’ve always followed wake windows which has worked well for my baby but I’m guessing he’ll have to nap at specific times, regardless of how long he’s been awake. This makes me nervous how he’ll cope too.

Does anyone have any advice, reassurance or similar experiences to share to ease my anxiety?

My son took a few days to settle for naps at the childminder. There will be a few tired days but he will get used to it.

If u want to follow what u r already doing u would need to use a childminder or nanny. Their sleeping patterns will always be different at a nursery as they will be sharing with other children, most get use to the new routine.

I don't have any advice but this may reassure you!

When my daughter started nursery she didn't nap very well there as it was so stimulating, loud, busy etc (in my daughter's nursery they nap in the same room, or at least in the baby room they do anyway)

The nursery asked for details about her usual routine at home and did their best to follow it. She was often only napping in the arms of the nursery workers and they were struggling to put her down.

They eventually found that she slept better in the pram being pushed back and forth in the garden so they did that with her and another little boy who was the same so they slept side by side and over time she got used to sleeping through the noise.

Now they've transitioned her to napping on one of those floor bed/mat things and as times gone on she's started napping for longer and she's gone from 30 mins max in the arms of her key worker to sleeping for sometimes up to 2 hours on the floor bed.

So basically all this is to say, try not to worry, the nursery will work with you on it, and your baby will get used to the environment as time goes on!

@Barrysmintybiscuits thank you so much, this is exactly what I needed to hear! He can fall asleep independently in a cot so I’m really hoping he just gets used to the noise too!

Did you find her night sleep was impacted at first, whilst she got used to it?

He will definitely get used to it over time!

The night time sleep question is a bit hard to answer to be honest as she's never been a great sleeper! I'd say that she was definitely falling asleep earlier as she was tired from her day (she goes full time), but she always woke up a lot anyway so I'm not sure it necessarily got any worse! 😂 They do pick up bugs though so illness can impact their sleep!