Naps! Tricky for some a breeze for others but for those of us who find sort naps tough to solve, I have no qualms in using every trick (safety being paramount of course) in the book to help mums find ways of nailing naps.

 Getting your little one down for naps can be tough, perhaps due to daylight and busyness that comes with it being the day an all. If your little ones already overtired getting them down to sleep at any time can be tough but during the day it's Just that much harder. Even if you get them down to sleep, your little cat nappers eyes just seem to  pop open out of nowhere after 30 min and no matter  what you do once they're up, they're up.

 I have a couple of tricks up my sleeves for naps and my most effective one wasn't working for this one mum i was coaching and I just could not figure out what else I could suggest. I asked a colleague for suggestions. But no luck they had they same tricks I had in mind.

 So I was brainstorming and began thinking back to when my own daughter was a baby. I stared at a pic of her napping i have on my wall.

The place she liked to nap most when she was teeny and i could still dictate what she wore ( I have no say now, she’s taller than me & it’s a losing battle,I’ve let it go...no really))

Nia was always a great sleeper but I do recall a time when she stopped wanting to nap so much and I couldn't remember what I had done in addition to allowing her to nap in her chair. I’d always had her napping in her cot or moses basket during the day but  I recall around the time I'd moved out of my mums,  she was around 4 months old when she didn't seem that keen on napping anywhere but on me.

I couldn't remember how I'd gotten around it but i do remember not being able to allow her to nap on me. I was moving so  I had no free time, i needed her to nap by  herself ( yes i know a bit selfish). I had packing & boxing to do!

It was 13 plus years ago to be fair. But i just couldn’t remember why that chair was the solution to Nia’s (minor i must add) nap isssue

Anyway I fobbed it off to drink wine & watch a box set I happened to find after unpacking my last box from moving house more recently. ( I moved 2 years ago. Don't judge me!)

Sex and the city!!!! Season 5  the short one season.  Tut tut  SJP had the cheek to get pregnant whilst shooting my favourite tv series.I have every episode ( had rather) of SATC on dvd and know way to much trivia. SATC was and still is my guilty pleasure. It’s my thing………... let it go!

I got the epsiode where miranda’s baby had her ready to commit suicide.

Miranda’s baby was crying day & night and she didn't have a clue what to do. Her baby was driving her insane. Meanwhile i’m  watching trying to diagnose why brady  was yelling his head off.

 

Then i got to this scene!!

 

Miranda's neighbour rings the doorbell and give's her an oscillating chair for baby Brady.

Yes!!! Now I bloody remember!!  Nia always napped well in that chair because it vibrated!!!!!

 

I'd bought the chair on a whim when I was pregnant and never used the vibrating element because I'd never had to till that point. She was always so chilled out. But she napped well when we pressed that vibrate button on her chair and the rest is history.

Any time I couldn't put Nia down to nap she went in her vibrating chair, i cant remember if she grew out of her need for the vibes or the batteries ran out. Either way it must’ve been ok with her or i would’ve known and remembered, and she always loved napping in her chair after that right into toddlerdom

Why did the vibrating help her sleep? I don’t know! I’m going to research it now and then give my coaching client a ring see if this works!!  Kinda pleased i procrastinated now haha!

Ps. if we can’t get hold of a vibrating chair i won’t recommend what samantha did at the end of the episode. She ended up babysitting Brady, the chair broke and Samantha used her charms and “tools” to keep the little man happy. If you've seen it you'll know why haha

 

 

 

Charmaine Walters is a mum, night nanny, former early years educator and creator of The Soundly Sleeping Club, an online group programme that teaches sleep deprived mums about the norms of infant sleep & how to help their babies & toddlers become sound sleepers. The doors to the programme are currently open and helping sleep deprived mums. To learn more about The Soundly Sleeping Club click here