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How do you keep them napping without a sling?

8 replies

Annarose2014 · 28/01/2015 15:32

11 wk old won't tolerate a sling. But wakes from a nap pretty quickly in the cot, even though I swaddle him, put him on a fleecy blanket, make sure he's warm enough, only put him in asleep etc.

And he goes BALLISTIC if he's tired, really angry, no matter how early you start to settle him. He goes from 0 to 60 really really fast. Its ridiculous. And he needs to sleep every two hours. So I'm spending literally hours each day sitting with him asleep on me!

He settles like a dream at 7pm & sleeps well in the pram & car seat. But they're not practical every naptime!

Its boring as hell & I get nothing done. And its just not sustainable!

OP posts:

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Iwish · 28/01/2015 20:12

Can you put the pram up in the house?
My Ds always slept in the pram/car but my DD will only sleep in her cot xx

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Littlef00t · 28/01/2015 20:35

We did this without really meaning to until dd was 12 wks old. After that we decided the break the habit, and as she went to sleep well in the pushchair we religiously took her out in the pram for every nap, just around the neighbourhood and wheeled into the hallway when she dropped off.

If she started waking again we could push the pram up and down a bit to resettle her.

After a while (week or so) she was falling asleep quite happily and not long after she was napping upstairs in her Moses basket for decent stretches. It was a rocking one so was able to keep the movement to ease her into it.

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Iggly · 28/01/2015 21:05

What sling have you tried?

Mine didn't really do cot naps until past 6 months.

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dancingwitch · 28/01/2015 21:09

10 laps around the dining table used to get DD to sleep in her pram!

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Imeg · 28/01/2015 21:20

Erm, I still walk my 10 month old up and down in his pushchair for naps, either in the house or outside depending on what my plans are. I put the radio on for him if he's inside, he wakes up if it's too quiet.

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Katekoom · 29/01/2015 02:21

I know what you mean about boring. My dd is still just young but I get board with the constant nursing/sleeping on me scenario. Ive just got to the point where I put her down and let her cry for a few moments if I need to put some laundry in or make some lunch. I'm going to try a sling soon, wish me luck!

I've heard other mums say they had to persevere with the sling as many babies aren't keen at first. You could also try your local sling library group where you can try lots of different slings and talk to veteran baby wearers.

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GingerDoodle · 29/01/2015 07:23

I walked and took trains for hours (i mean hours - I did 2 x round trips to London daily 6 hours in total!) with DD when she was that size lol. She liked the pram and I liked the exercise.

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Annarose2014 · 29/01/2015 13:10

Thanks all - I've tried several MeiTeis from the sling library which are comfy for me but he seems to hate them. I'm going to try a SSC next month as when he was a newborn he liked the BabyBjorn (but my back definately didn't). So perhaps one of tbose will work. Fingers crossed!

We have the pram in the house but its a bit crap on carpet so is quite hard work to push inside. But its definately reassuring to hear that thats what people have to do! Its good to know its normal.

Today he had his first nap in the Moses basket and went down easily as Ewan the Dream Sheep was playing. Possibly I need to get Ewan surgically attached to me, lol.