Napping hell with overly sensitive baby...anyone else?

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My DD is coming up for 6 months and has always ended up napping on us. She sleeps between 30-45 mins every 2 hours but not without a huge fight and elaborate standing up bouncing singing holding dummy routine she swipes at her face with her hands and knocks it out and screams! She's getting too heavy for me to keep this up and it's getting both frustrating and upsetting to see her so upset at naps unless fed to sleep which doesn't always work. In Pram I have to stop and feed a bit to comfort then move off again. I'm not at all comfortable leaving her to cry (no judgement at all on others who've tried CC or CIO I'm just not for it) so settling her in cot or pram is equally hard/impossible as she wakes as soon as her bum touches the mattress. I think I need some gentle 'phased' steps but moving slowly as she goes from fine to inconsolable within about 30 seconds and I struggle to calm her down. The whole thing is getting ridiculous so I'm wondering is anyone else out there with a highly strung baby tackling the same thing with some success?
Background info- she had a bit of silent reflux until about 3 months old due to cows milk intolerance and I'm struggling with anxiety so it's just all been muddled through up till now.
I'd love to get some ideas....

My first thought was that's quite a lot of daytime sleeps. By that stage (my third is now 9 months) I think all of mine have settled to a morning short nap and a long 2 hour afternoon nap. Perhaps baby isn't quite tired enough to go to sleep by themselves.

If you're looking for techniques I found the baby whisperers methods a nice gentle method that don't require you to leave them to cry but do in time teach them to self settle x

My baby was on the sensitive side. I found that the best way to settle him to sleep was to do the nap routine - bedroom, curtains closed, nappy change, gro bag and a short book (Happy for all of that)

Put him down
Leave the room

He went crazy for 2 minutes crying then would calm down a bit
I'd then go in and shh him a bit and he'd fall asleep.

Eventually I stopped going in to resettle and he went over in the same time tbh

Do you think she's getting enough sleep or could she be over tired? It sounds like plenty of rest but your description of her when you are trying to get her to settle sounds exactly like my 7.5 month old dd when she's overtired. My dd has always been a bit of a drama queen, she had colic for 8 weeks (which was fun ) and screamed non stop for 7 hours a day. We have a lot less screaming now but it's almost always when she's tired.

I try to watch her like a hawk for sleep cues and put her down as soon as I see yawns or 'distracted' gazing but it is really hard. She's trying to drop a nap at the moment so routine is totally out the window (not that we've ever really had one). Maybe you could try getting her to consolidate down into 3 naps a day but aim for a couple of sleep cycles (2xs 45mins) per nap instead? You might find that she's actually sleeping too often for her to be tired enough to nap efficiently if that makes sense?

Are you sure her reflux is still ok.... my dd had silent reflux and was on medication until about 9 months but even past then he was still having issues.
I was always a bit unsure if he had it or not until an incident at the age of about 7 months - he was sat up and acid trickled out of his nose (I somehow got it flicked in my eye and it bloody stung).

He too was a dreadful napper and his reflux never was fully under control as certain foods would set him off (dairy but also acidic stuff like tomatoes, pineapple and oranges!). It was a nightmare.

In the end I had to be really militant about his diet and I had to train him to nap in a cot. Your dd is old enough to sleep on her front - this was the breakthrough for us. Once ds slept on his front his sleep massively improved.

To get him in the cot, I basically settled him to sleep as normal (on me) then put him in the cot for every nap. Sometimes I'd give up as he'd wake but I kept it up and he eventually got there. We still had to resettle him occasionally but slowly it improved.

I also had to make sure he (and dd) were properly winded even at that age! Otherwise that more often than not would wake them

I have a one year old, she almost never naps for more than 45mins, certainly never more than an hour.
I wonder if you would consider removing the dummy? I have a friend who had similar problems to yours, and she discovered that the dummy was actually causing more problems than it solved.

Also at that age mine had three naps a day. The two hour rule went out the window.

So it was more like first nap within two hours of waking. Then next nap after 3 hours then a power nap about three hours after waking from the last one.

Thanks folks this is exactly what I'm looking for
Reflux - zero symptoms since cows milk out her system but I'm not sure. We hold upright for 20 mins after a bottle to make sure she's comfy just incase

Dummy- finding it a nightmare as she struggles to hold in mouth and now she associates with sleep it seems to piss her off even though she drifts off with it. I'm now wondering if I should try to remove and see what happens as she only uses for sleep?

Overtired vs under tired- I think she's really overtired as she rubs eyes every blooming hour but when we make sleepy moves she goes mental. She only sleeps 30 mins so she's needing the 4 naps a day just to keep going. Really unsettled sleeper at night she's definitely not getting anything close to 11/12 hours sleep during night. Should I try keep her awake for longer to see if she drifts off naturally? Problem is she's never done that it's a crying fit

She hates being on her tummy too I think a post reflux thing although will sleep longest when she rolls into her side at night. I know she needs more at night but I'm thinking I might try and tackle day naps first. She's just Woken up from a nap on me there yelling as she's so tired still!

Forgot to add she drifts off herself no problem at night after bath and bottle routine she just closes eyes then sleeps! That's why I'm puzzled about the day time
She used to do a 7/8 hour stint then a 3/4 hour stint with two feeds during night and now she's up every 2 hours then at 3am that's awake time! She's changing a lot in past few weeks so I think it's developmental but how can't she drift off during the day?!
Sorry for my lengthy posts but I'm just so confused with it all

My DS now 9 months also had silent reflux and was napping 4 X short naps a day at that age. Also fought every goddamn one of them and went from 0-60 on the scream front if we tried to lie him down. Over the last couple of months he's started to link nap cycles and literally in the last week or so will take some naps in his cot where he can self soothe or be cuddled in the chair without movement then put down. I despaired of ever being able to do this but he is getting there in his own time. If they are refluxy at all I think the movement really soothes them.

I assume by now she is a bit upright in the pram/buggy? As if not that would help? A wedge hog foam wedge for buggy/cot. A sleepyhead helped us though they are pricey. DS also self soothed for nights way earlier than days which baffled me too but a short nap routine helped here. Also start with first nap of day as that's easier.

Thanks adj and everyone for suggestions I'm definitely going to try some out

OMG hello! I'm going through this exact same thing
My dd will be 6 months next week and barely sleeps in the day
I've taken to driving her in the car
She fights etc but self settles no problem at bedtime. What is going on? She's so tired all the time
Today she's had 3 x 30 min naps but that's it
I'm hoping that when she starts crawling she will be physically tired and have to sleep?

Oh this could have been my DD at that age, she had no tolerance for being tired, but could only sleep for 30 minutes at a time so 4-5 naps a day, either on me or in motion. Also had reflux and cows milk allergy diagnosed at 9 months.

No magic solutions, it seemed to just get better over time, as she moved more (and she was late to crawl, sit, roll, etc) she seemed to get more tired and could sleep longer. Also she used to hate tummy time but once she started to sleep on her front she slept longer!

I gradually started to introduce napping in the cot about 7-8 months - it took time but I always aimed for at least one nap a day there, usually the first one (it was easiest to predict time-wise). No crying involved, just doing the same thing each time of gro bag, dimmed lights, dummy and musical owl. Often took a while to settle but wasn't upset. At first it was still 30 minute naps but she got there with extending them. Felt like it took ages but now it's just a memory. She now naps best and longest in her cot - hang in there and it will get better over time xx

Forgot to say, I still have to sit by the cot while she falls asleep or she screams, so it's not perfect, but compared to where we were before its fine with me. (She's 15 months)

Oh my gosh this sounds exactly like my 4.5 month old daughter! She refuses to nap anywhere else but on me after breastfeeding to sleep but will never stay sleeping for much more than 30/45 mins.
She has suffered with very bad silent reflux since she was born and we have just recently phased out Ranitidine although I'm not sure she's completely better but she's not as bad as before.
She's a very sensitive baby and has been difficult since birth, she jumps at any noises, gets extremely upset with anyone but me and is only really happy when we are quiet at home.
I don't believe in letting them cry it out so I just let her nap on me but it doesn't seem restful enough somehow and would certainly be better for me if she would take a nap lying down but we just can't seem to get there.
I feel your pain it's so difficult!