My baby is such a poor napper

[RobertaSloth]

I am trying to work on my baby’s naps, which are currently a bit of a struggle. He is 4 and a half months and exclusively breastfed.

He sleeps well at night, but during the day he needs an unbelievable amount of input to fall asleep and stay asleep.

He will fairly reliably fall asleep and stay asleep in the baby bjorn on a walk outside (he won’t if we are inside). This is fine for one nap a day, but he’s too heavy for me to carry on a walk for all of his naps.

He will fall asleep in the pram but not for long - usually wakes within half an hour. Will sometimes but not always doze off again. As soon as the pram stops moving he wakes.

He will feed to sleep and then nap in my arms, but needs almost constant input - either needs the nipple in his mouth or to be relatched. He will sleep for up to a couple of hours this way but with regular short wakings while I relatch him. If I don’t relatch him he wakes fully.

He will not fall asleep in the cot. The room is cool and dark with white noise playing, but he will lie there wide awake until he gets overtired and cries. If I feed him to sleep and then transfer him to the cot he will wake within ten minutes.

He won’t take a dummy. I have tried 12 different varieties and persisted for weeks and weeks but he spits every single one out instantly and now cries if you try to give him one, so I have stopped.

How do I teach him to nap more independently? He sleeps really well in the snuzpod for long stretches at night so I know he can link his sleep cycles etc. But for some reason during the day he cannot nap for more than a few minutes without almost constant input from me.

[EL1984]

Hi, this was me!! My son is still hit and miss with naps at 8 months but I got him self settling at 5 months which has stopped the contact napping.

Take a look at millie poppins transition from breastfeeding to sleep. Is a gradual method to get him shush patting in the cot. She also has a 4-6 month webinar which is useful.

I then introduced a comforter which after a while he got attached to whilst I shush patted. , then at 5 months I started shush patting till he was nearly asleep, leaving him in the cot, cry for 3 mins, soothe, sometimes use boob to soothe but don't let him fall asleep on it, then walk out again. It really didn't take many goes , I was surprised.
Good luck xx

[FATEdestiny]

he needs an unbelievable amount of input to fall asleep and stay asleep

All babies do at this age, so don't worry.

An important thing to teach is baby going to sleep where they stay asleep. So getting baby to sleep in your arms and putting down elsewhere to sleep is the least ideal option.

For more independent sleep, have the place where baby goes to sleep be not on you. Then tgey stay asleep there. This is most easily done in something that moves

• Pram
• Bouncy chair
• Swing seat
• Pushchair

Normal that constant, even paced movement will be needed continually. Over time you will be able to gradually move the amount of movement needed and the ferocity of that movement, until just two or three bounces needed