Hi,
Bit of background. My DD is 6 months and until about a month ago napped only in a sling. This was getting impossible and unfair for my nearly 3 yr old son so I decided to stop this. DD now sleeps in her pushchair and carseat (YAY!) and I do regularly try to get her to nap in her sidecar cot.
Problem is that she simply goes ballistic whenever I put her down. I'm always lying next to her, stroking her, holding her hand, but she just shrieks. Sometimes, after 5, 10 minutes she will drop off and I sneak out - she wakes 30 mins later but that's another problem.
If she doesn't fall asleep within say 30 mins I give up and we go to plan b.
At night she feeds to sleep and will more readily go down but this is very longwinded and generally never works at naptime - I'm unhappy leaving my son alone downstairs with cbeebies during this whole process.
My worry is that this amount of distress at naptime just isn't right. I hate hearing her cry but don't understand why she wont be calm and settle when I am right there and never leave her. Also she never lies still, so I often feel that I'm "restraining" her, which also makes me very uncomfortable.
Anyone else have this problem?
How do others get their children to nap??