Exclusive contact napping parents

[Sahmcharlie]

Hello!
im looking to hear from parents whos babies have previously exclusively contact napped, were up to 5 months at the moment and as much as i don’t mind Infact actually quite enjoy it, im just looking to hear your experience of how and when it stopped, thankyou :)

Hi there! Big contact nappers here (6mo currently contact napping for the last 90min). I love it and do it as much as I can (did it with my first as well, who is now 4). I use baby carriers when I need to do stuff or go out and about, and it helps having much longer naps and I also know this won't be forever. I know I'm in a privileged position as I have a long mat leave (almost 1y) and I have a very supportive partner who wfh and does his fair share of parenting.
I've only started to do some cot naps/early nights when my 2nd turned 6mo, a couples of weeks ago (I did the same with my 1st) but I don't force anything. I just sometimes decide to put him fast asleep in his cot, put the baby monitor on, and go about doing things around the house. When he wakes and cries for me, I go pick him up and calm him down. If it's a nap, then that's that and he's then awake, if it's the beginning of the night he usually falls back asleep on the boob, and I either go to sleep too, or take him with me downstairs to finish watching tv (while he's asleep, he's not watching of course).
Usually, contact naps can last 1h or 2 while cot naps will only last 30-45min, but that's just the way it is, I don't really care (I use to reeeeaaaally care with my first and it made me absolutely miserable trying to have her sleep long naps or all night in her cot, it just doesn't work with my babies, I made peace with that). My now 4yo has a really good relationship with sleep, bedtimes have always been super easy since she's in her own room in her own bed (from about 12mo) and she's been sleeping through the night consistently since about 3yo.
Sorry, just dumped my life story here 😆 ask away if you have more qs.

Just to add: The putting them down "drowsy but awake" has never worked with either of my babies, I've always had to wait for them to be fast asleep to transfer them in their cot. Slowly but surely, months after months, they will sleep longer stretches in their cot/bed until it'll be all night/longer naps. In the meantime, I try the 1st bit of each sleep in the cot (starting from around 6mo as I was saying) then I bedshare from the 1st wake.

Contact nappers here too! DD1 i stopped when she was about 9months in preparation for going back to work. DD2 is currently 8months and thinking I'll maybe the same with her? This time DH tried to push me to do cot naps much earlier on but this is probably my last baby and so I'm very keen on soaking up all the snuggly cuddles as often as I can. I've had to do a few more pram naps since we started weaning, as otherwise there just isn't time in the day to get out and do jobs, but I think we are still probably about 80% contact naps ☺️

Also to add, my 4yo is a very happy, confident, sociable child. She strong willed and very clever, is very capable and not really a mommy's girl (although she's become much much more clingy and needy since her brother was born, but it's more about now needing more reassurance and connection than anything else).

Mine contact napped (I didn’t even know it was a name at the time!) every nap that we were home until 1 and then probably many after that to a point. They started nursery 11 ish months. Nursery transitioned to naps on a mat. It was no big deal. We didn’t really ‘stop’ as they just got too big or we were out and about. After awhile all naps were either in the pushchair or in the car because we were out during the day. Except for a few times when they were ill, they never napped in a cot as I didn’t want to have to be stuck at home. So unless it was on me, they napped while we were out until the naps dropped.

My second baby is all about contact naps so far 3 months in.
With my first I worked tirelessly to get her into her bed for naps and I had success at home but she never slept in the pushchair or the car or in family homes in travel cots, and she slept terribly at night.
eventually it all amounted to nothing because she turned 1 and never napped in her cot again so it was a daily contact nap from then on, I’d rush home after work and BF her to sleep on the sofa and sit there for the next 2+ hours. I HATED it, cuddles are nice sure, but I could never get comfortable, she used to sweat all over me, and I would always always need a wee. And I’d sit there thinking about all the things I could be getting done during her nap.
I hated it, but it was what it was, I shouldn’t have bothered putting so much effort into her naps in the first place because it didn’t stick in the long run.

DD1 did. She was a rubbish sleeper in the night so we both used to nap for two hours every afternoon in my bed until she dropped her afternoon nap when I was pregnant with DD2. It's what kept me mainly sane. She's at university now, pretty independent and can sleep through thunder storms without stirring so I don't think it's caused long term damage 😁

Breastfed and contact napped to sleep or in the pram/sling until around 6 months, then I was finding I'd like to get a few things done while she slept, and I wanted her to sleep in the cot in her own bedroom in preparation for moving out of the next to me. So I did the first nap as BF and put down when asleep and thankfully most times she stayed asleep. Second nap was a contact nap. She then decided to switch and wanted the first nap as contact and second one as in the cot. Dropped second nap quite early on so then was one nap in the cot.
Is almost 2 now and still rocked to sleep, until recently then she was asking for the cot but I still sit with her until she goes to sleep. Sleeps through fine, naps out and about in the pram fine so been happy how we've done things :)

Just when the naps stopped.
I tried every trick and bit of advice. Nothing worked.
In the end they just got older and the naps stopped.