An Advance in Napping

I have to admit, napping gives me the willies. Or just bedtime at all. It is the part of parenting that is most likely to make me call my skills and decisions in to question. I always feel it should be easier to put a tired child down for a nap, or to bed; that I should be doing it differently, or that I made a mistake.
Jarrett has never been a good napper, or all that good about going to bed at night either, unless it is pitch dark in the room. Certain times of the day, or even the year, that's an impossible requirement unless we are staying in a hotel. However, even though he fights sleeping, he is generally pretty cheerful about being in his bed, or previously, his crib. He's just not quietly cheerful.
Cara is a whole different ball of wax. She is at best, deeply offended to be placed in her crib;, and at worst, beside herself with grief. At naps and at night, we have had to rock her to sleep and then sneak her into her bed. When she wakes up and screams bloody murder, we have to get her out. Not a big problem at naptime as she will generally sleep at least an hour and a half; but at night, she wakes up about 2 am and by the time we get to her, she is so upset that she doesn't settle back down into a deep and non-tossing sleep for hours. And, since she is in our bed by then, no one does.
I've been thinking a lot about this, feeling kind of badly about sneaking her into her bed, sort of deceitful really. And also worrying that for the long haul, we are not setting up good habits of her not knowing how to go to sleep comfortably in her crib. So today, as naptime approached and I was filled with dread, even contemplating just skipping nap, or laying down with her. She was exhausted, but I wasn't and really was looking forward to a couple of hours to do something I wanted to do. So, I trudged up the stairs with her and as I got to the landing, I had an idea to rock her, read her a story, just like we do every day but instead of rocking her till she was asleep, I placed her in her crib fully awake and spoke to her cheerfully and rubbed her tummy then walked to the other side of her room and began to pick up toys and put them away. She began to cry, but without conviction, she mostly looked and sounded confused, since this was a new approach. Then I left the room to go to Jarrett's and she cried a little louder. I finished what I was doing there and returned to her room and spoke to her a little more and rubbed her tummy again, and restarted the cycle. We went through this over and over for about 10 minutes till she was nearly calm and the upstairs was picked up and then I came downstairs. As I descended I heard her crying increase again, so I took something to the kitchen where I couldn't hear her and then returned upstairs, to find her sniffling in her sleep. I put a few more things away to see that she got to a deep sleep, totally calm, untricked!
I won't say she went willingly to it, but I can see us getting to that point from here more than I can if we continue to trick her into sleeping in her crib. I feel pretty good about this, and I feel really good that we can practice it at naptime when the daylight has the room illuminated enough for me to see to do a little clean up and when Jarrett is at school and not adding another distraction.