Putting a baby down for a nap

[Zaurak]

Ds, 5 months.

Crap sleeper. Will not nap in the day. The only way I can get him to drop off is by taking him to bed and feeding him. This takes an hour normally.
If he's put down in his cot awake, partially awake or awake he will just look confused and cry.
When he does finally fall asleep he wakes twenty minutes later, regardless of if I'm there/have snuck out/am poised ready to resettle him etc.

So how do I get to 'feed, short pre nap routine, baby down in cot sleepy--> sleep?' Walk me through this, because he just will not sleep unless I feed him.

He can't keep a dummy in (I've been trying since month one) won't sleep on the pushchair any more and I can't use a sling.

[luckiestgirlintheworld]

Why not do this...
2 hours awake.
Feed to sleep.
20 minute nap.
Repeat.
Sounds fine to me. Think it would work?

[ppeatfruit]

Does he sleep well at night? If he does I reckon just go with it, all babies are different and some need naps , others don't so much.

You could try getting him to do lots physical stuff to wear him out I suppose. If you're desperate for a 'break' or a nap yourself .

[starfish12]

5 months is pretty young to be able to drop off for a nap on their own...

When my 8.5 month old was 5 months all naps were in the sling. We progressed to cot naps around 6 months but I still have to rock him and put him down asleep...

I assume you have tried rocking, white noise, ssshing pat etc?

[Zaurak]

Luckiest, that's pretty much what we do now. I hope over time he'll extend the naps but it does mean I have to be with him constantly- I want him to nap in the cot because eventually he's going to be able to roll off the bed if I nip out for a wee.

He doesn't sleep great at night - my one success is a set in stone bedtime routine so he does go down at 6:30 and tends to sleep until 10 then wakes, very hungry. On an average night he will wake 3-4 times to feed and he is genuinely hungry each time. I try to get more calories into him in the day and I'm not sure I could feed him any more. Last night for example he had a bowl of porridge and about a third of a banana and avocado mashed up, then a good long feed on the boob. He's still a low weight.

Shh pat seems to piss him off but we do have a white noise app (which I think works actually..)

So it's just time needed then? I might start being more structured with nap timings and pre nap ritual and see if that works.

He's not a fan of the sling - hates being confined in anything plus my back is shot. Shame as I think slings are ace .

[ppeatfruit]

I always used to feed mine to sleep it's just what babies do.

Babies need feeding every 3 to 4 hours on Formula and lots more when bf. Just go with the flow and relax I would say.

[newmumwithquestions]

I'd not worry if you feed to sleep - do whatever works. With dd1 I despirately tried to get a pattern of feed, awake time then sleep and it didn't work, Dd1 pretty much refused to nap properly until 11 months. I should have just gone with it and let her sleep on the boob. Dd2 is totally different, so dont worry if you can't force your LO to a 'typical' routine.

Make sure your DS is getting a proper feed if falling asleep on the boob though - wake him up and get him to keep feeding (take him off and burp to wake up, stroke head/ears/shoulders when feeding, etc). I weirdly also found that feeding less frequently helped DD1 (who was lowish and decreasing weight centile) - if I let Dd get hungry rather than just offering the boob automatically she took a better feed - I guess with more of the high calorie hind milk.

Personally I'd work on trying to extend the length of the nap - 20 mins sounds like 1 sleep cycle. Do they go for a longer sleep if in the pram? Will they self settle if you leave them for 5 mins?

[Zaurak]

No he still wakes after 20 mins in the pram. It used to be the magic bullet but it's stopped working somewhat.
Very very occasional he will self settle. I can tell when he will because he's more grumbly/chatty in his noises. If he does that I tend to leave him to it for a bit.
But when he wakes mainly it's with a start and a loud, very very upset wail. If he was older id be thinking he was having bad dreams or night terror type things.

[ppeatfruit]

IMO you're putting him down for nighttime too early. I used to put mine down about 9 to 10 and at least we'd get more time to sleep in the small hours IFSWIM.

I gave them their supper at about 8pm. or later and they slept through till about 5amish or later.

[luckiestgirlintheworld]

Your nights look pretty normal too for that age. I think you might be worrying over nothing. You've just got a baby who sleeps in short bursts in the day. He'll grow out of it. They'll consolidate into one or two big naps in a few months. A few months is nothing really.

[FreeButtonBee]

This period is soul destroying but agree that 2 months will see you through it. At 5m ds was the same. At 7m we get 1.5-2hr naps fairly regularly and although not perfect or set in stone, we're down to 2 naps a day.

[OhShutUpThomas]

Some babies just don't do the 'put down sleepy then go to sleep' thing. They just don't. Neither of mine did.

I just used to wait till they got tired then feed to sleep.

They both go to bed awake absolutely fine though now they're a bit older.

[EsmesBees]

Agree with free, give it 2 months it might sort its self out. 5 months is still pretty tiny.