Naptime Routine

I am a slave to the daytime routine on the days I am here by myself. Admittedly part of the reason I am so rigid regarding naps is that I crave a few minutes to just zone out. However, it is also crucial that the little people get the sleep they need or they turn into whiny PITAs. And I say that as only a mama who loves them can. So the double whammy of no time to myself + whiny children is enough to push me right over the edge into screamy mad mama behavior.

I have documented the Peanut's sketchy daytime sleep record here many times. I seem to have hit on a delicate formula that works. After lunch I nurse him and put him in his sister's old car seat, yeah it is pink gotaproblemwiththat?? He doesn't know and I try not to take too many pictures... ahem. I have to turn on a specific episode I have TiVo'ed of Classical Baby and then I get his sister ready for her nap and we go upstairs for me to tuck her in. Yes, believe me I have tremendous guilt for essentially strapping my poor baby in and forcing him to watch TV but it is the only way he will sleep for any length of time. If I tuck him in upstairs in his room (during the day only, at night he's fine) he wakes up after 15 or 20 minutes and will not fall back asleep. No amount of crying, playing, cajoling, nursing, or witch doctor-y will change this fact. I wouldn't let him cry it out anyway because that isn't my thing, but believe me, not gonna happen. This little guy is STUBBORN. The show is 20 minutes long, I have to manually restart the damn thing (TiVo doesn't have a repeat function, although I can't really imagine why it would..) and if I accidentally let it run out some damn Elmo commercial comes on that is loud as hell and wakes him. Then it is game over. So I spend his entire nap (which with this plan lasts 2+ hours) keeping a close eye on the TV and restarting as soon as it nears the end with bomb squad precision.

What quirky rituals do you or your children require?