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Sleep

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Original poster

Success stories of napping at nursery please!

15 replies

pleasethanks · 26/09/2011 11:39

My 1 year old DD starts nursery 3 days a week shortly. She took a loooooong time to get to grips with napping and I can really only ever get her to nap in a dark room with soft music on, after having had a bottle. She rarely falls asleep on her bottle, but I do think it relaxes her. I have a fear about her napping once she goes to nursery as I know they won't have the time to give her one to one attention (ie sometimes I sit with her till she falls asleep if she is upset) and she is such a nosey parker she does find it hard to switch off and conk out. Any words of wisdom or success stories to share please?!

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ThatsNotMyBabyBelly · 26/09/2011 21:57

DD started nursery at 1 and had a nap in the morning and one in the afternoon at home at the time.

She never had a nap there in the morning due to nosiness, however she was that shattered she just conked out when all the kids were put down in the afternoon.

Try not to worry, I am sure the nursery have some tricks up their sleeve to get them all to sleep.

mrshotrod · 27/09/2011 20:12

This was my fear about nursery. Going to a childminder a day at week aged 12 months, it took a while for him to get to grips with napping there. (once in morning and once after lunch. After much screaming, he eventually got the hang of it. (Same teddy, same lullaby lamb, etc)
but....at 2.5 he went to nursery and I worried about naps, but he slept on his mat on the floor with all the others from day 1!! He had his bear, but no lullaby lamb, no black out blind etc etc. I was amazed. He continues to nap well at nursery. They are funny creatures toddlers!
I'm sure your DD will get the hang of it after a while too.

moojie · 27/09/2011 20:26

My ds started nursery at 1yr. Also a napper that needed dark and quiet but could self settle. I was seriously panicking and had even prepped the staff that he could sleep in a buggy if they couldnt get him to settle. Well day one he slept for 1 hr and every day since (only once a week) he has napped 2hrs and has sometimes had to be woken to go for their afternoon walk. This was a complete surprise to me but the staff explained that it was generally down to 'herd behaviour' and that they follow what the others are doing! My nursery have 2 rooms so they move the little ones that wake first into the other room so they don't disturb the others. Ds also took his own 'bunny' and his own gro bag so it wasn't too different from home.

The only thing to point out was that he never napped in the morning there but seemed to cope fine. He continued to have a morning nap at home until 20 months though.

beancounting · 02/10/2011 17:18

DD started nursery at 11.5 months, also a terrible sleeper (day and night) who needed a moving pram and total silence to sleep so I was convinced it would be a napping disaster.

However, after only a couple of days she was taking two (admittedly quite short) naps a day in a pushchair, and now she will even nap in the cot which we still haven't managed at home.

It has however gone a bit pear shaped over the last couple of weeks as she's trying to drop the morning nap but isn't having long enough in the afternoon to compensate, but I'm sure she'll get the hang of that too.

zimm · 03/10/2011 10:17

Good thread - DD is in nursery this morning for her final settling in session before going up to 3 days a week I am seriously worried about her naps to! She would not take her afternoon one there last week so they are trying with her more reliable morning nap this morning.....fingers crossed!

My friend's baby was 30 minute buggy napper until she started nursery and thanks to the nursery she will not do up to 2 hours in a cot! They do give them the one attention at nap time if they need it OP - DD's keyworker spent half an hour trying to get to nap last week but then gave up (as per my instructions - i asked them to try for half an hour only).

HerdOfTinyElephants · 03/10/2011 10:24

My first two were both a pain to get to nap at home but turned into champion nappers at nursery [proud emoticon... I feel I should get a "champion napper" medal...]. Even in the first week they went down really quickly and over the course of their nursery careers I had many comments like "Oh, X was the first asleep as normal" or "Of course, it's always easy to get Y to nap".

They can really be completely different children at nursery!

Original poster

pleasethanks · 03/10/2011 12:10

Oh this is filling me with hope. But having just spent an hour and a half trying to get a hysterical DD to sleep, I am slightly worried about nursery I must admit....

OP posts:

duende · 03/10/2011 12:20

Hi, my DS started nursery at 12months, 3 times a week. He was a nightmare to get to sleep at home and a year later often still is. It used to take us 40 mins to get him to sleep and like you I was panicking about naps at nursery. Well, it only ever takes them 10mins to get him to sleep, he practically never misses a nap there although he does sometimes at home. What's more, he needs his dummy to get to sleep at home, but since they lost his nursery one, he's fine without..

Also, when he was dropping his morning nap and sleep was all over the place, the lovely nursery staff would cuddle him for up to 40mins if they thought he really needed to sleep.

It will be fine

Original poster

pleasethanks · 05/10/2011 19:28

Two days in and she has slept. Albeit for minimal amounts, but she has slept. Thank god. She has been shattered when she has gotten home, but seems to be having a whale of a time.

OP posts:

HoneyPablo · 05/10/2011 19:32

We have ways of making them sleep

Original poster

pleasethanks · 05/10/2011 19:49

Honestly, I could not handle the pressure of working with babies and trying to get them to sleep. I think her keyworker was a little shocked and how long she would fight sleep for.

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feelingratheroverwhelmed · 05/10/2011 19:53

I have no idea how they do it, but they do. At home DS is in a quiet darkened room and always has his comforter. At nursery he naps in the room full of other children, and I found out by accident that he doesn't even need his comforter any more. I was gobsmacked! They have magical powers, I tell you!

CountBapula · 05/10/2011 20:03

My 1 yo DS has always been a bloody awful challenging sleeper (pleasethanks we've been on a few threads together ) but apparently the other day at the CM's he fell asleep sitting next to her on the sofa while she stroked his forehead.

With us, he'll only fall asleep being cuddled upright, and preferably moving about, in a darkened room. We were like this when she told us.

He's also slept through the night three times in the last week, since he started going there

Original poster

pleasethanks · 05/10/2011 20:35

Oh my word Count, how great is that?

My DD slept for less than an hour today and it took a few attempts, but I think they got the stage they knew she had to sleep. I actually find it quite liberating that it is the responsibility of someone else now! I may not say that if I have to endure overtired screamy baths on nursery days though!!!

OP posts:

Trillian42 · 06/10/2011 12:50

pleasethanks DD as an 8mth old slept in a cot in the creche within 2 days - our cot was purely decorative as she'd never slept in it They just stroked her cheek for 2 mins and she slept!!! Her naps were a lot shorter than she'd have at home though.

Now in childminders (16 mths old) and will only sleep in her buggy but the childminder said she doesn't have to push her in it any more - she just puts her in it in a separate room, closes the curtains and DD is asleep by the time she leaves the room. I still have to walk her for min 20 mins to get her to sleep

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