Contact napping

[CountAdhemar]

Evening all,

12 week old DD loves a contact nap on either me or the Countess. Separately, she also sleeps in her cot at night i.e. non-contact napping. But during the day she only contact naps and kicks off if put down. Only exception is very light pram sleeping.

My DM considers contact napping a bad habit (just as it's inconvenient for parents) and suggests weaning her off it for fear of setting up problems later.

I have a mountain of respect for DM's child-rearing experience, but it doesn't feel great to cause the distress that breaking the contact napping will cause, and developmentally I wonder if parental closeness is actually quite good.

What do you all think? Are we doting parents, or setting ourselves up for issues down the line?

Regards

CountAdhemar

My one year old still contact naps. Her older brother did too. He is now far and away the best sleeper in his toddler friendship group. Many of the others stressed about contact naps and sleep trained and their toddler's sleep is now awful. Enjoy the cuddles. If you're desperate to do stuff, let her fall asleep in a baby carrier so you can potter about.

I did a mix of contact naps and pram naps until mine dropped to one long nap in the middle of the day.

It was nice. He would fall asleep on me and if I was tired I could gently roll him off me in bed and co-sleep for a little nap together. Often I'd just let him sleep on me and I'd chill with a boxset series or an audiobook.

By the time he was on one long nap of 2-3 hours in the middle of the day, he was so active that he slept fine in his cot as he was exhausted after lunch.

Now he doesn't nap anymore and I treasure the nights when he falls asleep in my arms in our rocking chair rather than going to sleep by himself in his bed. We had one of those tonight. I stay with him asleep like that for a while before putting him in his bed.

Enjoy them while they last. It's not for long.

If you are happy to continue then carry on. There is nothing wrong with it. Your child is still getting used to being outside your body.

I’m a big fan of contact napping. It’s so natural, and so much of parenting is far removed from natural. Look up the safe cosleeping guidelines so you can have a nap too.

Mine both contact napped, as they got a little older they’d sleep in a pram too, which made life a bit more flexible. They also magically slept in a cot at nursery.

What worked for grandparents then isn’t necessarily what works for you today.

Our little one is nearly 7 months now. Same as yours for a while she wouldn’t nap during the day other than on us. Now she naps happily in her cot. I wouldn’t worry about it, I’m sure she will start non contact napping soon. Until then enjoy nice cuddles. That cosy stage lasts such a short time!

Our 2.5 year old has only been napping without being on one of us for about eight weeks, she still has to sleep with us at night. She also contact napped at nursery etc, in hindest we should have probably attempted to wean her off it a bit to see if it could have been done earlier.

Enjoy the naps!!

I think it's such a precious time.... I would only stop it if you're ready and want to. My little one has just turned 6 months and we've finally established a routine... the first 6 months has been completely baby led.... she now naps in her cot and sleeps in there throughout the night x when she has her morning bottle 6am she will have that in my bed and then go back to sleep for another hour or two... I believe this second sleep only happens because it's a contact one x and I'm not giving up that extra two hours in bed because my mother has something to say about it 😉 or risking putting her in her own bed to find out x

I think there is so much pressure for us to sleep separately from our babies when actually it's not what any of us really want xx

Mine contact napped for the first 6 months of his life. Gradually got better as he got older. Since he's been about ten months I just plonked him in his cot and off he went to sleep. Enjoy the cuddles and ignore everyone else if you are happy to contact nap 😊

Thanks for all the responses. We do love the cuddles, so will run with it for now!

Regards

Count Adhemar