Won't nap unless held

[AMagdalena]

My DD is 12 weeks on Sunday.
She has only napped when held ever since birth. She's not a great sleeper in general, to be honest, but is capable of doing a 5-6 hr stretch in her cot.
When I try and trasnfer her into the pram, she immediately wakes. This is an improvment, though as she used to instantly scream blue murder at every attempt of doing so. She will now happily lay awake in the pram for a while.

She's EBF and I feed to sleep pretty much all the time, but she has fallen asleep with a dummy when rocked a few times.
I have try to lay her down awake/drowsy. She screams within 10s (she doesn't just fuss, she actually screams with face red etc.) and she's too young for any sort of CC etc.

Her naps very rarely last longer than 45mins, too. I try and send her to sleep before signs of tiredness appear.

Is there any hope for us to make her naps last longer and perhaps not on me all the time? I don't mind as such, but if she's only managing 45mins, then it's not really helping that much.

As others have said it all sounds normal. Do you have a sling or carrier? That can help if she needs to nap while you're out (and also if you want to potter at home). It was a lifesaver for me

My son sounds like he was very similar to yours OP. At around 8/9 weeks he stopped napping in the day unless he slept whilst I fed him (we EBF). As he got a bit older I tried putting him down for naps at certain times (say 10am and 2pm), sometimes successfully sometimes not. All of a sudden he just “got it” and from around 8 1/2 months old has been having a decent post-lunch sleep (1.5 to 3 hours). Next time round I definitely won’t worry like I did this time. Just do what ever you need to do atm (be it feed/rock to sleep) and it will all come good in the end as they get older and a little bit more aware. Xx

Thank you everyone for the reaasuring comments.
It's encouraging to know my DD's sleep patterm is normal.
I think I will just go with the flow for now

teaandbuiscits She will be 8 monyhs when I go back to work and won't be going to nursery. Hopefully her grandparents will be aware of her various needs by then.

My DS is 5 and a half months. I have the same worries as you. He is ebf and fed to sleep for naps mostly. I can now transfer him. Sometimes he wakes after half hour, sometimes after 2 hours. It really depends. All I can say is that the transferring gradually gets better - my DS is much more accepting of it. Sometimes he wriggles like he wants to be put down.

I try and get him to nap himself but it takes ages and I end up feeding to sleep then feel a bit rubbish. I think I need to just embrace that he just wants more comfort for now and not get too stressed about it.

I used to line the moses basket with a fleece blanket, it's warm to the touch so DS2 didn't notice the transition. Then I would swaddle him in it. I think sometimes it's the cold of the cotton sheet on their head that wakes them.

I tried the hot water bottle but was anxious about it being too hot, so of course it wasn't hot enough, but that's just me, I would recommend you try that too.

Probably not what you want to hear but DS never napped without major assistance from me/DH (sling/movement in pram) until he went to nursery at 1 year old. Didn't know many folk whose babies napped reliably (apart from one who daughter used to go for 3 hour naps in her cot every day - amazing!)

My DS only napped on me until he was 18 months old. If I put him down he would either wake instantly or have a 20 minute nap. I never got anything done. Between 3 and 5 months I held him in my arms between 7pm and 7am and slept sitting upright. After that he would sleep next to me in bed and woke every 90 minutes-2 hours, again until he was 18 months old.

Once he got to 18 months he started to suddenly have 1-2 hour naps and now only has one wake up during the night (he's 2).

Just to say some children take longer than others to sleep by themselves, if yours is sooner then that's great, if it takes a bit longer it's ok, that's normal too and you survive (somehow!)

Enjoy those cuddle, my DS cant sleep in my arms anymore - but when he was small i loved him sleeping on me all the time. Now he only sleeps in his cot/car or push chair