Daytime naps in cot

[fruityb]

DS will have a nap in the morning - sometimes two if they're short ones - then a longer one In the afternoon followed by a tea time power nap and bedtime at about 8. He sleeps through till about 7 and is no problem at all in his cot at night. He usually falls asleep with us downstairs and we put him up, he's in his pjs and grobag and just sits on the sofa with us until he dozes off. It's nice 😊

However I go back to work in 8 weeks and am concerned about his habits. Some days you can put him in his cot when he shows sleepy signs and he'll doze off happily: other days you put him in there and he'll scream blue murder. I posted on here about leaving him for a couple of minutes and the general consensus was that was a massive no at six months. He's seven months in a week or so. He'll snooze on me fine, I don't jiggle him we just cuddle, and I can put him in his cot after and he'll carry on most Of the time, sometimes he won't have a bar of it. He's pretty predictable in his patterns so I can tell childminder whenabouts he'll need to sleep but i don't expect her to have to sit and snuggle him till he does. She might do lol but I'm trying to get him to sleep on his own accord without shrieking the second his bedroom door clicks shut. If I stay in there he won't sleep either - he just sees me and wants up!

Do I keep putting him in there when he dozes off and sticking to it? When he was four months you could put him in there and he'd nod off fine but I think he's struggling with separation anxiety at the mo! It's always me and him in the day - we do go out shopping or baby groups but I am really the constant in his life until daddy comes home from work. Is it a case of putting him in there with his dummy and his ted and sticking with it till it becomes more comfortable?

[FATEdestiny]

The childminder is likely to need to put him to sleep in a pushchair. Assuming she has other charges to look after, she may well need to be put out and about - at toddler groups or school runs etc. So it might be more useful (and easier) to teach pushchair naps, stationary or being moved.

In terms of going to sleep in the cot, the idea would be that you reach baby to go from awake to asleep in the cot. Not falling asleep and then being transferred into the cot.

I'd start with bedtime for that. It might need you standing next to the cot or leaning into the cot as baby goes to sleep. But then no reason for baby to get upset, just keep reinsertibg dummy, patting and wait until asleep.

[fruityb]

Thank you. Well give that a go later on. He can go to sleep at night in his cot but it's keeping him down to allow dad to spend some time with him but maybe reality needs to kick in. He'd be able to do that I think. He naps in his pushchair or car seat easy.

By bedtime he's usually zonkered so will give putting him to bed awake a go

[fruityb]

He shrieks the freaking house down if I put him in there during the day - the second I close the door it starts and no amount of shushing or rubbing tummy or soothing calms him. It's the most god awful gutteral noise I have ever heard. He. Will. Not. Sleep. In. There.

[FATEdestiny]

What about parking his pushchair on his bedroom for nap time, as a start.

[fruityb]

No that's far too big a ball ache lol. There wouldn't be much room for anything else 😄 It'll be fine

[milpool]

My daughter has never napped in her cot. Certainly at that age she didn't nap independently at all. She used to just either sleep on me or her dad.

When she went to the childminder she adapted; the childminder started by cuddling her to sleep and then putting her down, and later rocked her in the pushchair. She's 21 months now and still sleeps in the pushchair there now (she goes to it wanting to sleep, even).

[fruityb]

Thank you that's reassuring: today he just doesn't seem to want to nap at all! He had a snooze this morning and a snooze this afternoon but in total no more than about 2 and a bit hours since getting up at seven. His latest thing is when I'm holding him is to either shriek and flail about, or to wave one arm backwards and forwards hitting my chest or trying to pull my glasses off!! He's been a blooming pain today lol. Even the music that normally knocks him out isn't working today. I've taken to holding his arm as he's knocked his bottle out of my hand as well as clonking me on the nose.

I think I'm suffering with Groundhog Day problems today as well as being fed up of being skint on maternity pay and envying my other half who gets to go to work with other people on a daily basis. Today has been hard.

[thethoughtfox]

Mine slept in her pram. It meant that she could fall asleep while I was there so she wasn't distressed and alone if she wasn't quite ready to nap and I could push her out into the hall or her room if I didn't want to creep about like a mouse!

[fruityb]

So I don't need to worry as much as I am? Mondays and me do not get on - I've got myself in a right state today about everything. Just let him sleep where he wants to! Me and sleep and baby have always been a pain and he's slept through since he was four weeks old. I've really got to behave myself lol