I've been finding it increasingly difficult to get 19m DD to nap. The only thing that gets her to sleep is rocking and music/singing, but she will often initially fight being rocked and whines and thrashes around until I let her off the rocking chair. I usually give in, since I hate to hear her cry and restrain her against her will. So then she starts running around the room and jumps on the bed, getting more and more hyper, and I get frustrated and basically rock her against her will for a few minutes, which usually puts her to sleep within 5-10 minutes with a minimum of crying (maybe a minute of thrashing around and fussing) and will sleep for a solid 2 hrs or so.
I probably spend 45 minutes getting her to sleep on an average day, 20 on a super day where she just magically goes to sleep with no fussing at all, and 1.5 hrs or more on a really bad one. This routine leaves me in a terrible mood. I hate fighting her, physically restraining her, and feel that it just creates a vicious cycle of more agitation around naptime. I feel totally inept because I usually just can't seem to calm her down without fighting her.
I would love to just lay down on the bed with her until she drifts off to sleep, but she just gets more and more riled up, jumps off the bed to start playing, etc.. I have tried bribes like "we only sing if we're lying down", but that has very limited success and she just won't lay still long enough to calm down.
Any suggestions about what to try next? I am starting to really dread naptime. I've been trying to keep the pre-nap hour calm, wind her down slowly, and start naptime before she's overtired, but nothing seems to really make much of a difference.
One experiment that I was thinking about trying was just lying down with my eyes closed and hope that she just decides to join me in the bed at some point. I've never tried this for more than about 30 minutes since it seems that it just doesn't work with her, but maybe I just need to stick it out a little longer?
Thanks in advance!
I probably spend 45 minutes getting her to sleep on an average day, 20 on a super day where she just magically goes to sleep with no fussing at all, and 1.5 hrs or more on a really bad one. This routine leaves me in a terrible mood. I hate fighting her, physically restraining her, and feel that it just creates a vicious cycle of more agitation around naptime. I feel totally inept because I usually just can't seem to calm her down without fighting her.
I would love to just lay down on the bed with her until she drifts off to sleep, but she just gets more and more riled up, jumps off the bed to start playing, etc.. I have tried bribes like "we only sing if we're lying down", but that has very limited success and she just won't lay still long enough to calm down.
Any suggestions about what to try next? I am starting to really dread naptime. I've been trying to keep the pre-nap hour calm, wind her down slowly, and start naptime before she's overtired, but nothing seems to really make much of a difference.
One experiment that I was thinking about trying was just lying down with my eyes closed and hope that she just decides to join me in the bed at some point. I've never tried this for more than about 30 minutes since it seems that it just doesn't work with her, but maybe I just need to stick it out a little longer?
Thanks in advance!
