Will sleep all night in cot but needs to be held for naps

[flowerpot258]

How can I transition out of this??!

My 11 month old has a good bedtime routine and sleeps through the night but she won't go for naps during the day unless she's being held! I've tried waiting until she's asleep and then laying her down but she just wakes up.

She doesn't nap in her cot because I'm too scared to ruin the bedtime routine. I don't want her crying and being restless in her cot and then associating that with nighttime's.

Any advice ?

I might be the minority here but hold dd for her naps, enjoy it. My kids are older now, very much out of baby stage, I would love them to come and lay on me for a cuddle

No advice, just sympathy.

My DS (after sleep training) slept amazingly in his cot for night time and naps. But then just before he turned 2 he didn’t want to go in his cots for naps anymore… so we’re back to holding him for his nap.

But he does only have short naps (40 mins) so I don’t mind too much. Like you I now don’t want to push the cot for naps and then give in and take him out, because he might start fussing at night if he thinks I’ll take him out.

However when he was younger we did have a few tricky phase and persevered with insisting on the cot for naps. And it did work even if we had a few difficult days.

Do you use a sleeping bag for the naps? My DD would only contact nap for ages but when we were on holiday at my parents I started putting her down in the travel cot for naps as I quickly got sick of having to isolate myself at nap time (she won't nap with the TV on and my parents wouldn't turn it off). I continued putting her down in the cot at home (after falling asleep on me and with a sleeping bag and dummy) and it actually works although her cot naps only tend to be 30 min. I enjoyed the cuddles and we sometimes still do a contact nap once a day but it's also useful to have at least one of her naps in the cot so I can get a few things done. My DD has always been a good sleeper at nigh but poor napper and used to wake up as soon as I put her in the cot during the day so things can change.

@treebranch011 - I do enjoy the contact naps tbh but sometimes it would be useful to put her down so I can get some stuff done

@trrk - no actually I just sit with a blanket on the couch with her . I will try her sleeping bag. She uses the bag for nighttime but I could try it for naps too

I'm not sure how important the sleeping bag is or whether my DD was just suddenly ready to sleep in the cot during the day. She still needs help falling asleep for naps even though she sometimes self-settles at night. I did try with the sleeping bag when she was 6-7 months and it didn't work then.

My daughter was the same. I tried repeatedly to get her to nap in the cot, she would wake after 10 minutes or just scream and scream and not sleep at all. I tried everything.

At about 21 months we went away on holiday and when we came back I told her she was going to nap in her cot now. She cried for about 30 minutes the first day, 10 minutes the next and then has napped independently in her cot for the last 6 months. I have so much more time! I get an extra 2 hours a day to actually do things. But unfortunately I don't have a magic wand but I feel your pain.

We had this. I started around 6 months, getting him to nap next to me on our bed - I would then just potter about upstairs. After a while I started putting his cot mattress on his bedroom floor and moved naps to his room. Only did actual cot naps once we took the side off at about 18 months.
Not perfect but I had a bit more freedom.