Right, DD is now 15weeks old, about time we started helping her learn to nap! a few weeks ago for most naps it just took swaddling and popping the dummy in and off she'd go - she's now fighting the swaddle and sleeping much better at night without it, but have lost a cue for helping her nap.
I also think it might be about to time to see if we can encourage longer naps (she rarely sleeps beyond half an hour at a time and is normally fine with this but in the last week has woken after half an hour desperately needing more sleep).
I can't bear routines because they (well, the books) robbed me of any confidence in my instintcs when DS was a baby so I've steered well clear this time and as a consequence am much more chilled out with DD, but I do recognise some sort of loose pattern being adhered to will probably help her out. She seems to feed roughly every 3 hours during the day and needs to nap within an hour of waking in the morning, then slightly longer increments throughout the day (so next nap within 1.5hours,later on within 2hours but rarely longer than this)
I have no idea what we did with DS! DO I need to work on creating cues for her? I'm fine spending a few days doing this for say a long nap around lunchtime (DS is 3.5 and just dropped his final nap but still needs downtime around then so fine staying at home to give him that as well) but ultimately cannot spend all day every day in the house for mine and DS's sanity.
ANy ideas on where to start? Would be great if I can gradually teach her to self settle (with or without dummy is fine at this stage)