How to get 5 month old to learn to want to sleep in cot in the daytime?

[PregnantAndEngaged]

Hi all,

I really want to train my 5 month old baby boy to learn to sleep in his cot in the day.

When he was newborn he was always transferred to his moses basket, however at 7 weeks old he stopped napping in the day and got bad colic in the evenings. The only way I could get him to nap in the day was to cuddle him every nap, and I learnt that that (at the time) made my life much easier. Trouble is, his learned behaviour is now: daytime sleep is on mummy, night time sleep is in cot.

So all day I have him on my lap which to be fair I have really enjoyed and made the most of, but now he's getting bigger I'm getting a bad back, and plus I need him to start learning that the cot is for any sleep for when he starts going to a childminder as she won't be able to cuddle him for his naps if she has other children to look after.

I do try sometimes to put him in his cot in the day but he just wakes up within a few minutes, or he cries, or he just instantly opens his eyes the second I try to transfer him.

Question is, how do I get him to learn that the cot is also for daytime naps? Anyone have experience of training babies to learn this when they have, for a long time, known different?

(I don't have him on my lap ALL day literally, just at naps btw lol).

Cuddling to sleep and then trying to transfer once asleep is your problem. The key is for baby to go to sleep not in your arms, but in the cot (or wherever they will be sleeping).

He probably will cry while this is a new change, but don't leave him an keep on reassuring him.

Butt the cot up to the side of your bed and make the mattress heights the same (you could even remove one side of the cot). This means you will be able to lie right next to him, eye to eye and lean your arm right over into the cot. If the side of the cot is removed, you can cuddle right into the cot.

The key is to settle to sleep in the cot, not transfer.

My 8m ds is the same just looks at me as if to say Mum it's not night time what are you doing luckily for me he will sleep in his pram in the day when he's tired I put him in with his blanket pull the hood up and leave him and he goes off fairly quickly