Napping advice for 8 month old?

[amyboo]

DS is 8 months old. He has always slept quite well at night, and currently does 7pm-6am ish with a dreamfeed at 10.30pm.

However, during the day we have real trouble getting him to nap. If we try and get him to nap when he shows signs of being tired (eye rubbing, etc) he'll usually try and resist of cry. The best way we find is usually to just carry on talking, reading, etc and sit with him next to you. He will then generally fall asleep, but sometimes it can take a long time. If we put him in his cot, even drowsy, he is all of a sudden awake! He doesn't cry, but will just be wide awake and roll around, etc. He will nap in the pushchair and carseat, but we don't like having to take him out just because he needs a sleep.

The problem is, in creche (4 days a week) he naps fine! In a cot, in a sleeping bag!

So, I guess what I need is some advice on how to tackle him napping in his cot in the day at home. Should I make it dark (with blackout blinds) and put him in his sleeping bag like at nighttime? Should I try putting him down when he shows tired signs and just leaving him? Should I try and settle him to sleep first?

Any advice gratefully received. It's not a massive problem, but I just would really like him to nap a bit better on the days he's at home, especially as I think it makes him sleep better at night when he's slept well in the day.... Thanks!

When he's at crèche do they watch him for tired signs or do they put him down at the same time every day?

I do a bit of a mixture with my 8mo DS. For his first nap of the day I look for tired signs as it is really obvious (yawning, eye rubbing, nuzzling into my shoulder) and then put him down awake. For his second nap the signs aren't so clear so I do it by the clock, ie, about 3 or 3.5hrs since he woke up. That is a lot longer than he used to manage but I think I was trying to put him down too soon which he resisted.

I've also start doing a small naptime routine just to see if that reinforces the naptime message. We go in the nursery, close the door, close the curtains, turn on night light then nappy change followed by a cuddle then into his sleeping bag. He sometimes starts to cry as I walk out but stops when I close the door so I just have to walk out and not look back!

HTH

In crèche they do it with tired signs. So, he doesn't nap at "set" times. Some days he needs more sleep than others, as it depends on when he wakes up. The first nap of the day is usually OK (although he doesn't always have it as it depends on how tired he is), but the worst one is the lunchtime one - usually around 11h30-13h00...

I might try introducing a routine like you suggest... I think I just need to try, as I'm sure that's probably what they do in the creche!