What the .... Is a contact nap?

[MakeMineALarge1]

Seriously just seen a picture of someone on mat leave, her baby is asleep on her, she's calling it a contact nap?
What the actual fuck, surely baby's just gone to sleep on her.

I think the term is quite twee and I wouldn’t say it. And no I’m not old and feeling superior

I didn't think there was anything odd or unusual about it. One of mine is a contact napper, won't sleep without being held by, or lying against, one of us. The other loves his own bed, we have two polar opposites!

Oh OP I agree. Find all the terms really annoying. In the same league as:

-baby wearing

• sling mamma

And all that sort of thing

I call it the nap trap 😂😂😂

I've heard the term, it doesn't bother me but I don't use it. I just say 'baby is asleep on me, I can't move, bring biscuits'.

Raging ?

Literally this

"I practically tore my clothes off after I gave birth so I could have my baby as close to me as possible. If that makes me an attention seeker then so be it"

It doesn't make you an attention seeker but it is a bit odd! Tearing your clothes off? Really? I was content to just hold my DC as they were given to me. I believe they were swaddled and I had a gown on. I was still very emotional and cried with happiness. We just didn't need to be naked for that to happen.

It's just a descriptive name. A contact nap is a nap where the child sleeps on the parents as opposed to a nap, which can happen anywhere.

I'm not sure why people are getting upset about it or calling it performance parenting (now that's a term I really hate. It's something only extremely judgmental and nasty people use. Ugggh.) Your question is like asking why is it called vanilla ice cream? Why can't we just say ice cream?

I am sure I am not alone in wondering exactly what you were wearing when you gave birth. Were you in a soap opera so were fully dressed for the five minutes from your waters breaking to delivery?

Why is it twee?

Why is performative?

I understand why some people might find the ‘mama’ type terms twee or annoying.
I know that there’s some baggage inherent with baby led weaning - though I don’t have a problem with it myself. And all the descriptors like gentle/ natural etc could imply a value judgement that people don’t like.

But I really can’t see what there is to take issue with in shortening ‘a nap that a baby has whilst in contact with a parent’ to ‘contact nap’.

If you have a baby that will nap either way then possibly there is no need for a specific term. But if you’re like me or the many other posters on this thread whose child will ONLY sleep on them, it’s quite reassuring to hear it’s something other parents experience, so much so that there’s an actual term for it.

close actually, I gave birth about 30 minutes after my waters broke 😂

My Velcro baby would only sleep if in contact with me. He's 2 now and sleeps like a dream in his cot. I really miss those lovely snuggly naps! He fell asleep on me at the weekend for first time in about 5 months and it made my week.

I find out things all the time - I don't need a special term like "school day" for it...

TBH, I think it's you lot who are all preoccupied with the name... most people just don't care 🤷‍♀️

The name my baby gets for this is whingy arse😂

Never knew it had a name, but I’d have another baby just for contact naps! It seemed like my DC4 spent my whole maternity leave contact napping on me, it was bliss!

I am not seeing why any kind of meaning or intent - good or bad - is given to "contact nap". It's literally descriptive and completely neutral. You could say (which I don't, but if you are going to stretch to connotations) something like a "cuddle nap", which people seem more ok with, is more positive and might therefore somehow suggest it's somehow superior. I don't know. But contact nap - completely descriptive.