Napping in pram

[blushingmare]

24wo dd, formerly known as non-napping Nancy is this week I hardly dare say it lest we tempt fate finally seeming to "get" the daytime sleeping thing. She's going down pretty well on a regular basis and without battle when I put her in the pram, cover it over and rock it for a bit. Happy mummy!!

Now, all my friends with babies a similar age seem to be very keen on getting their babies to sleep in their cots during the day, but I can't quite work out why. The way I see it, she goes down happily in the pram with minimal crying and it means if we need to go out I'm not tied to the house. But am I missing something - they all seem to be at it - "training" their lo to sleep in the cot! Why is it better? I can't see any advantages, but perhaps you wise mumsnetters can enlighten me!

I have given up on it. The only advantage I can see is that I can leave him unsupervised asleep in the cot and go and have a shower. But he will not go in the cot in the daytime. He has only just got the idea of staying in the cot at night. In the day he will only nap on the go - in a sling, being pushed in the buggy, in the car etc. Just do what is easiest for you.

Hi there,

I'm currently dealing with this with my very own Non-Napping Nancy!

Until 9mo her naps were all over the place (and few and far between), went on holiday and all naps were in the Maclaren - magically 2 hours in the mornings, then 1.5hrs in the afternoons - AMAZING.

Carried on putting her in the buggy when we got home and it worked a treat (most of the time)...

However, I've now got 2 weeks left of mat leave and then she's starting nursery where they nap in a cot so today I tried to put her down in the cot instead of the buggy. Cue 45 minutes of her sobbing and spluttering, a dirty nappy and quick change, a bf, and now she's not crying but chattering and strangling playing with all her teddies. In the cot. But she's not sleeping. It's 1hr 35 mins since I tried to get her down and i'm MNing to distract myself

UGH.

So anyway, I guess the point of my post is that unless for some reason you can forsee it'll be a problem for your DD to nap in the buggy, I'd stick with it... If my DD wasn't starting nursery I wouldn't be bothering with Operation Cot Nap.

Am so torn between sodding it off and putting her in the buggy so my last weeks of mat leave aren't stressful and letting nursery deal with naps however they see fit, or persisting with trying so that I don't have to struggle deal with an overtired DD apres nursery.......................

My DS 2 nearly 20 weeks still will only sleep on me or on the go during the day so I just relax and go with it do what ever is easy and enjoy.

Bbbum, my DS 1 went to nursery at 9 mo and its like they have magic power over them, they all slept in a row on mats. It's amazing what they will do when not in the charge of there mummy's.

That's good to know thanks - I thought Zi might be overlooking some important reason for getting her in the cot, but I agree taking the path of least resistance is by far the happier solution all round. She will be starting at nursery in April, but bbb I've heard so many people say that their LOs just nap at nursery as if by magic, that I don't think I'm going to stress too much about it. If I were you I'd make the most of enjoying your last few weeks of mat leave with her!

Yes. This morning was horrific - took 2 hours to get her down for a 35min nap :-( Usually she'll sleep for 1.5-2hrs so am feeling v frazzled and guilty right now. I've also heard that re nursery, will be interesting to see if it rings true for DD!!

If it works - it works! As they get older they tire themselves better..so I would not worry much.
My nursery allows the buggy in at nap time for DS who was only just settling in when I got back to work. He would sleep easily and long in there..but I don't know what other nurseries are like and if the cot can then become an issue..

Oh that sounds miserable - not what you need! Good luck with starting nursery - let us know if they have the magic effect on her!

Dd always napped in her buggy from 6m so that I could distinguish between naps and bedtime. Also, I usually have the pram with me when out and about and not the cot so.I am.not.tied to the house.

I know plenty of people who train their babies to sleep in their cots who end up tied to nap times at home because they won't sleep elsewhere. My first two would really only fall asleep in pram or car-but around eighteen months or so would be transferred easily. So I could have home nap or away-brilliant.

It's great if they nap in the pram. If you do ever want to get them sleeping in the cot you could try putting them to sleep in the pram with no rocking so they learn to put themselves to sleep. Might take a week for them to learn how to do this. Once they can do that they can transfer to the cot fairly easily. Then you have the best of both worlds! DD was a pram napper til about 5.5 months and while it was great I do love that I can now put her to sleep upstairs during the day.
Nursery staff totally have the knack, though, let them deal with it!

Not so great if they only nap in the pram and you live in a first floor flat and need to go out at sleep time. Or are out and about and need to get home because its pissing down with rain or you're cold and have to keep walking the streets until they wake up.

Nursery staff don't have to deal with a struggle at bedtime or night wakings or early wakings due to being massively overtired during the day.

FWIW - DD doesn't need rocking in the buggy, 9 time out of 10 she goes to sleep as soon as she's put in there.

Oh bbbum I have been there with the walking in the rain for the duration of the nap, it's so dispiriting! Also, I always needed to go to the loo as soon as we went out walking and I was always on my own...it was a case of do I try to hold on or do I go home early and suffer the consequences of a less than full nap?

Do you ever put her in the pram at home rather than go out at sleep time? That's how I started weaning my one onto the the idea of an at-home stationary nap I used to just zip her into her snowsuit, i.e. recreate the ritual of going out, put her in the pram in the kitchen, and then turn on some white noise. Once it worked I could sink onto the couch gratefully with tea...

And then eventually I started zipping her into a sleeping bag instead of snowsuit, and stopped the rocking but kept the white noise, and then it was a really quick transition to the cot. I'm making it sound so easy, I honestly thought she'd be in the pram until the age of 4 or something. She was a nightmare!