Going backs to naps outside the cot

[NewMum293]

My 14 month old is a good sleeper, down to one nap a day, normally 1hr 30 to 2hr 20 in length. However, for several months now, we have only done naps in the cot as she won’t fall asleep in the car or the buggy, and we wanted to establish a good nap routine so started only putting her down in the cot at home.

On the whole this hasn’t been a problem as we would prefer that than the other way around but I wondered if anyone who had the same situation had managed to reintroduce the concepts of naps in places other than the cot to a young toddler? It would just allow us to do a few more day trips etc now that lockdown is easing if she would sleep in the buggy.

My sister in law has a toddler and is very strict about naps only being in a cot and it has meant that her family has missed birthdays and other special occasions and I don’t really want to end up in the same situation x

I agree with your sister-in-law I'm afraid. Routine helps a toddler a lot and that includes being home at naptime, with naps in the cot.

When my children were young family occasions were always arranged to work around naptimes. Not just my children, nieces and nephews too. And for anything else, it was just accepted that from 1-3pm I wasn't available, so would arrive late or leave early to accommodate it.

I’m all for routine but some of our family live a distance away and having zero flexibility on naps out of the cot means ruling out seeing them especially while we’re not allowed to stay overnight elsewhere.

I’d be keen to know if anyone else succeeded with a slightly less zero-tolerance approach.

Just try it, stick them in the buggy a bit before nap time when they're tired but not too tired and go for a local walk. You'll never know if they'll sleep anywhere else if you don't try. With DD it took a while for us to be able to transfer during nap time from the car to sofa for example so tended to make sure we would be driving for long enough to get a full nap in.

Gave it a try and she went off fine in the buggy!