Help transitioning 6.5 month old away from contact naps

[Pickles91]

My DS is 6.5 months old and exclusively naps on me, in his pushchair or in the car. While this has never been an issue – I love the extra snuggles – he is starting to resist naps and I am more than ready to get a bit of time to myself to clean, have a cuppa etc.. His night sleep is absolutely fine and he goes down in his cot with zero issues.

We have tried time and again to transition to cot naps. We’ve tried putting him down awake, drowsy and asleep. We’ve tried reenacting the bedtime routine with a change, sleep sack, white noise. We’ve tried pick up, put down. No matter what, he just screams and I’m really nervous about him creating a negative association with his cot and that messing up night sleep.

Does anyone have any advice? We will not do anything that involves crying it out (no judgement to anyone who does this, it’s just not for us!).

What are his sleep associations? I.e. exactly what do you do when he has a contact nap?

Thanks for you reply @TinyTeacher! Typically I rock him to sleep and then sit down when he’s out. He is slowly learning to self-settle back to sleep through the night, but we’ve had no success with him doing that to fall asleep in the first place

Mine is 6 month 1 week and all naps are in carrier, won't even nap just on me! Been like that since 6 weeks. Least in carrier I can move about, get drink, prep some dinner then sit down & chill whilst she snoozes... but I'm starting to think to start trying for 1 nap in her/more realistically my bed...

Several nights the last week ive managed to leave her and go watch a programme (with 1 or 2 trips upstairs to put dummy back in), that's a big milestone for us!

She's also started to occasionally fall asleep in the car lately too, so all good progress

Our only sleep association for naps, is in carrier (with or without movement) & her dummy.

Following this!
My girl is 9 months and only sleeps on me, in my bed with me or in the car. She's never slept in her pram.
My days consist of either snoozing with her or going for a drive but I have developed a very expensive drive thru coffee habit....

I started by laying down on my bed next to my baby until he fell asleep and then eventually could transfer to his cot... although now 9m and still wants to lie next to me to fall asleep 🙈

I started with just the first nap of the day so that if it was a disaster, there was still the whole day to claw life back.

I pretty much had to stay shushing and patting and rocking the whole time and would often only get 15-20 minutes at first but it did gradually improve and she became a champion cot napper.

It sounds like you’re making good progress @climbershell! How funny that she will sleep in a carrier on you but not on you without it. Babies are strange, specific little creatures.

I feel you on the coffee habit @Gmama23 😂 our walks have to end up somewhere so I’ve become a regular at the local Starbucks! It’s reassuring to know I’m not alone.

Thank you @calorcalorcalor! I have tried our bed too. It worked once (though the whole nap was in our bed) and never again. I would take naps in our bed as a win right now.

Thank you @Duttercup! First nap of the day is a really good idea. Did you have to do a lot of pick up/put down or did you just soothe her in the cot?

With mine it just worked one day. I put her down in the cot once asleep and she actually stayed asleep. Happened around 8 months. Prior to that she would always wake up within 5 min.

DD was like this but I used a sling when she got to 6 months so I could actually get things done, when she turned 12 months I started laying down with her and she started laying down and going to sleep with me. She'd dropped to 1 nap then aswell.
I was also pregnant with DS so I finally got to sleep when baby sleeps 🤣
She's 2 now and since DS came along, all of her naps are in the car as it's been impossible to get them both to nap any other way.
DS is 10 months now and his naps are either car or carrier.

It's very common for them to start resisting naps around this time as they want to be playing/exploring more. All you can do is keep trying with the cot if that's what you want.
Alternatively, get a carrier/sling and try naps that way. You'll atleast be able to have a drink and do some washing/small amount of cleaning if you need to

I never did crack it- DS is now 2.5 and making moves towards dropping the nap altogether and we’ve never managed to get cot/bed naps despite sleeping through the night independently from tiny!!

What I did do was embrace the pram- quick walk round the block to get him to sleep then park it up in the hallway and I’d have at least an hour if not 2 to myself. Also, it’s handy as never an issue if you’re out for the day and need them to sleep on the go. The other extreme ie a baby that will only sleep in their cot is far more restricting.