Thanks for your advice, Crayola. CIO is one method of sleep training and one that parents and caregivers must be comfortable with. I appreciate what you're saying but I really don't think one method necessarily works for all kids.
I actually consulted an infant sleep specialist in October as my son started waking through the night several times after months of sleeping, well.. like a baby ;-). She suggested that we ensure that he gets his two naps per day any way possible - whether we hold him, lay with him, etc. as over tiredness is often a contributor to frequent night waking. We also use white noise and have dark curtains do he has no extra stimulation. I followed her advice and within three weeks my son has been sleeping 10-12 hours per night without incident. We recently went on a family trip and he continued his good sleeping habits there as well. I hadn't planned on opening my daycare until after Christmas, so thought I would have time to work on the naps, however I met a really nice family needing daycare and I took their child on mid November. So you can see, the nap issue isn't for lack of wanting to prepare him for daycare, it's just that all of a sudden everything happened very quickly and now here I am, with two little ones who don't know how to nap.