Nap help needed!

[Myriam84]

Son is 4m3w and has generally been a calm and content baby, rarely cries unless there's a reason. Naps have been hard though and I'm worrying that I just don't know what the right way round them is. He naps perfectly when on me, for longer stretches than he would when put on cot. His bedtime is sometime between 7pm and 8pm, bath, feed sleep ( I'm bf ) and he goes down easy and only wakes up once or twice to feed during night. He sleeps right until 830am or 9, feeds then sleeps again. His naptimes are dependent on what time he wakes up and I can observe he gets tired after 1.75 - 2 hrs of being awake.

Although I sometimes enjoy him sleeping on me or next to me for his naps, it would be nice to have him sleep in cot for loong stretches. He wakes up when sleeping on cot because he jitters after 45 min or when he hears a noise and won't go back to sleep unless I spend so much time soothing him and I feel he's missing a nap when he could be easily getting the hours by sleeping on me. I have so many mixed messages about napping techniques that I could write a book! My mom says to hold him on me as times are precious when they're so young while my MIL says to let him cry it out to teach him ! What is currently do is stroke his eyebrow while shushing him and hold the paci in his mouth until he drifts off. Nap 1 about hour and half, nap 2 about 45 mins and nap 3 from 45 mins to 2 hrs, most of them with/on How many daytime hrs should they sleep? How can I get him to sleep independently? Should he be in pitch black room or in daylight? Should I make noise while he sleeps or keep quiet?

I used to be SOOO chilled and laid back as a person and now I find myself constantly stressing about naps and thinking terrible
Things will happen if he doesn't nap right 😑😑 Your help will be so much appreciated 😃

Hi I completely feel your pain! My daughter struggles with naps. She only naps for 45 mins max no matter where she sleeps.

If you’re happy for your LO to nap on you then that’s fine but it isn’t practical (when Do you do at anything).

Have a read about 4 month sleep regression. This is when a child’s sleeping pattern changes into a more mature one (45 min cycles). Basically, they cannot transition into the next cycle without their sleep association which might be a dummy, a feed or even you! They call these associations props.

It sounds like your little one (and mine) is using you and being held as a prop for daytime sleeping. It’s recommended that they need to be taught to transition between cycles on their own and using healthy associations instead.

Different experts recommend different things but the consistencies throughout are: dark room, quiet and a short ‘wind down’ routine before they go into bed. Putting them down awake but drowsy is recommended too.

It’s hard to navigate around all the advice. I’m reluctant to try again because my LO has severe reflux which is contributing and have failed on all attempts so far.

Definitely look up the 4 month sleep regression though - some of it may be applicable. X

My DS linked his sleep cycles around 6 months. Before that it was 45 min naps only unless held or on pram or whatever. One day he just napped longer and then he settled into a 2 nap routine from there