Adventures of Rebekah: Switching Things Up

I am a firm believer in naps. I know my mother would tell you that I was not always that way. I can remember as a child laying very still in by bed when I knew my mom was peeking into my room to see if I was asleep. I'm sure I wasn't tricking her, but I thought I was pretty tricky.

When I was in college, naps were my best friend! I would try to sneak a nap in most days before heading to the pool for swim team practice. But this post isn't about my naps. It's about Rebekah's naps...or more accurately the lack-there-of.

Rebekah has been a fairly good napper in general for most of her life, but for the past few weeks she had been having a very hard time with nap time. She is a typical toddler, saying "NO" to about half of the things I asked her to do. And every day after lunch she would say over and over "no go night-night" as we started our bedtime routine.

Sit on the potty.
No go night-night!
Get a clean diaper on.
No go night-night!
Put on her zippy.
No go night-night!
Get her night-night bear and pacifier.
No go night-night!
Turn on her air filter.
No go night-night!
Turn off the lights.
No go night-night!
Sing Jesus Loves Me in the rocking chair.
No go night-night!

You get the picture. She was determined not to go to sleep. Once in her crib she would sing, play, roll, talk, bounce, and pretty much anything she could do except for sleep. She wasn't crying, and the alone rest time was good for her but she really needed to sleep.

The other day my mother-in-law suggested we switch up her nap routine and try playing music for her to fall asleep to.

I can remember listening to music to fall asleep to when I was little. I can remember napping at my Gramma Seger's house. She had 2 upstairs bedrooms, one on each end of a hallway at the top of the staircase. She would put a tape player on the blue and green hallway carpet between the two rooms and play music for the cousins who were in bed to take a nap.

Anyway, I thought it was worth a try to see if music would help Rebekah fall asleep. We started this weekend. And she napped! I tried it again on Monday, and she feel asleep for nap time for the 2nd day in a row! Tuesday was a bust because of a few different things - one of them being that her pacifier (which she called her ga-ha) broke while she was in bed...oh the drama!! We are trying again today. I played her the same CD we use in the van when it's time to take a nap. It is called Hidden In My Heart: A lullaby journey through scripture. It's just soft, soothing music with simply sung scriptures in the songs. 

How about you? Any tricks to get your toddler to nap? I would LOVE to know what worked for you!

She has been wanting to play "nap time" lately. Here is when she was playing nap time with Caleb, her baby doll and her night-night bear. 

She is very convincing, is she not?