4 month old will not day nap!!!

[Claree11]

Hi everyone!!
so my 4 month old has always been a terrible sleeper in the day even at 5 days old he was awake for 7 hours !! Night time is okay! He sleeps 9.30am-6am with a night feed , sometimes after the night feed it does take a lot of work to get him back to sleep! But in the day it’s a whole other story! Every nap he will fight!! I’ve tried following his wake windows. I’ve tried after one hour to get him to sleep, 1.5 hours 2 hours etc! Each time is a battle and he never shows any signs of tiredness! 😭 he can fall asleep on a bottle and wake up instantly! I’ve tried contact naps, wearing a baby carrier, swaddling (HATES SWADDLING) dummy (will not accept) rocking etc! And all he does is scream!? I’ve tried lieing him down in his crib in a dark room with white noise on… he doesn’t cry he just lies there kicking his legs smiling and once I left him for around 90 mins and he was still awake smiling!! Not crying. I don’t know what else I can do! He gets to a point after 3.5 hours he gets over tired and is hysterical! He always has a clean nappy and is full before a nap! I’ve bought the “Rockit” and that made no difference.. when I’m out and about he screams it’s like he doesn’t want to sleep or miss out!

he likes the car seat and may fall asleep briefly but if the traffic stops he just wakes up screaming. I can’t go to baby classes or out because his either over tired and wont sleep! Or I have to attempt to get him to sleep and then he screams and screams!? Anyone got any suggestions 😢

Put him in a pram and go for a big long walk

He hates the pram, kicks the covers off and screams 🫠

My two both had long wake windows from birth – trying to get them to nap according all the advice, sleep schedules, etc. was an utterly lost cause.

If he hits 'overtired' at about 3.5 hours, I'd try putting him down around the 3 hour mark. If he's happy to chill in his cot for a bit with white noise, if you time it right so that he's tired, hopefully he'll smile and kick his legs and send himself off to sleep. Similarly if you go for a drive around that time, hopefully because he's actually tired, he'll drop into a deeper sleep and not wake so easily when the car stops. You'll likely need to try the new pattern for about a week to see if he settles in to it.

Are you still using the carrycot or do you have a lie-flat seat that's suitable for this age? My extra-nosy one was using the seat laid almost entirely flat by this age if we went out when she wasn't due a nap, which let her see enough to be happy. We also went with pramsuits and the like rather than blankets.

That sounds really tough. It sounds like you’ve tried a lot of things, but have you tried one thing consistently?

At this age, a lot of sleep is about creating routines. I don’t mean, forcing a strict schedule, but creating sleep cues that you follow every single time consistently. Decide basically if you want a baby who sleeps on the go or at home. Personally, I preferred one that slept on the move so I was never trapped at home due to naps. Put baby in the pushchair, after a feed, tuck in nice and cosy, put on a podcast to listen to for you and go for walk for 2 hours. Every day. Make walks about sleep. Do that every single day for say 2 months. Don’t try to switch it up because it’s not working fast enough.