4 month old still won't nap in cot

[Chocolateyclaire76]

ok so I really am trying to persevere but it's just so tough. My LO just screams and screams when I attempt to get her to nap for any decent length in cot. She can do 20 mins but after that it's mayhem. I've tried pick up put down at 5 then 7 then 10 min intervals which resulted in her sobbing uncontrollably with a puffy bright red face! I then tried getting her up when she woke at 20 mins but she was still tired and just cried when we got downstairs. She normally has 2hrs 15 at lunch with me pushing her in the pram and she really does need it. She sleeps ok at night but just has an issue with daytime.

I just don't know what to do as I can't keep going out with her for so long every day!

I've tried patting & shhhhing but that never works as she screams even more. Today I tried to persevere for as long as possible but it was getting fairly close to her feed time which meant I'd have missed her entire lunchtime slot! I gave up with 45 mins to go and took her for a walk.

Advice would be much appreciated!

Does she have a Moses basket ?? or can you lift out the pram ?? - if so, put her in that & then put it & baby into the cot - that way she's looking at what she is used to for sleep in the day, so its less scary for her IYSWIM - after a while you will likely find she will then be used to looking beyond the moses basket/pram & will be fine with just the cot - this worked for my own DD,

Have you tried getting her to sleep on you?

DD was like this, she didn't really want to sleep in her cot, and when she did it was 30 mins to the second - I think this short catnapping is a really common problem.

I juggled the naps so that she might have two short naps on her own, and then one long one either on me or in the pushchair. On me was great as I watched a lot of telly and read a lot of books during those first 6 months! At on me meant I could catch her the second she start to stir and sort of jig her a bit until she went off again, basically doing what would happen in the pushchair.

I remember it seeming like it went on forever at the time but they really do grow out of it, at about 8mo she started sleeping for hours on her own in the cot. Not all babies like to sleep alone in the cot at this age. I found just accepting the walks and the sleeping on me made it easier, I stopped stressing about the cot.

She's too big for a Moses basket and didn't sleep in it at the beginning anyway. If I lift her out of the pram whilst asleep she wakes up immediately and then starts to cry!

She won't sleep on me either. If she starts to get a bit sleepy and I cuddle her she kicks and fights against it - she pretty much does this even if she's not tired though!

As you can see she's rather hard work when it comes to sleep!

We spent ages perfecting daytime naps so that she would sleep at night so now I'm terrified of it all going pear shaped!

My 4 1/2 month old was like this until last week. I swaddle her with her with her arms by her sides and put her in the middle of our bed. She now naps for 2 hours in the middle of the day. It used to be either 20 minutes or out in the pram.