What's wrong with lap napping?

[ClareBos]

Hello sleepy people
My 6 month old ds sleeps through the night (please don't throw things - it's not my fault, I think it's the soya formula). He does wake up sometimes, but only when hungry. He settles like a dream at 7pm and usually gets us up 11-12 hours later. However, he hates to nap during the day. And I mean he screams and kicks and cries and has taken to punching me if I even look like I might put him in his cot. This means he spends most of the day in a terrible mood and is prone to screaming fits for no reason. If he does sleep it's for 30 minutes max. And he wakes up rubbing his eyes and burying his head in my chest. By 7pm he's usually hysterical.
I've tried CC, but never, ever again - worst weekend of my life. And I'm currently trying NCSS (which is a joke because we've all cried since we started doing it). And yet there is a tiny tempting light at the end of the tunnel, he will have lovely long daytime naps on my lap (only discovered this last week when he was sick and I wouldn't let go of him).
So here's the question (finally) what's wrong with letting a baby sleep on your lap during the day? Does it have a bad affect on the littlun? Would it mess with his great night time routine? I know my Mum did lap napping with me and I can honestly say I've never had any problems with sleep, I'm neurotic, but that's not really related. I'm off to ask the hv about it now, although the access we get to hvs here is really limited and she does have people with real problems to deal with.
I look forward to your insights. Mumsnetters helped me diagnose ds's lactose intolerance, I have faith in you guys.

I did it all evening too - until I went to bed and carried them in with me.

DD never had her naps in her cot. As she didn't sleep so well at night I was keen to try and distinguish between night and day as much as possible, so no cot and dark for day time naps for DD. She slept wherever she was during the day - baby bouncer laid flat, play mat on floor, my lap, someone else's nap, pushchair, etc. Never affected her day time napping at all.

DS loved his lap-naps! The pity of it is that he grew out of them. He still needs motion for naps though - pushchair or car. But he's nearly 2 now and the days of napping are numbered so it isn't a problem.

I would say that you shouldn't sleep yourself while your DS is napping, but you probably already know that.

if a child cannot nap in his mother's lap then where in the world would he be allowed to just fall asleep.

What a lovely way to put it, Kiskidee!

I love it when DD2 falls asleep on me.

She's so peaceful.

Yesterday she fell asleep on the couch drinking her cup of milk - her little legs all bowed, one fat arm down by her side.

It was all I could do not to smother her with kisses and wake her up.

DD did this a bit when she was small - I used to worry about it, but now it's lovely if she sleeps sitting on my lap (apart from the fact that she's 3 and weighs about 2.5 stone). She was always a horrible daytime napper - in the car, in the pushchair, on a lap, anywhere but the cot. With a few blips though, she's been a good nighttime sleeper since quite smaller, didn't sleep through till nine months but was always quick to settle. I swear sometimes you get a different child in the night to the one you spend the day with.

Daytime sleep has always been different at nursery - the golden age was the room prior to the current one, when she spent a good six months dropping off during quiet time and sleeping for up to two hours. The worst was going through the day on a twenty minute nap for most of her time prior to turning one, but it never seemed to do her any harm.

Amazonian - I had really good HVs, how's this for pragmatic and common sense:

Me: Can I get her to go longer between feeds.
HV: Yes. But there will be a lot of crying.
Me: Hm. Perhaps I won't bother.

DS generally lap-naps. You just need to learn to type one handed, and get your puter, drinks and snacks all set up and within reach first

DD would never sleep during the day bar 45mins in my arms.

It worked, I went with it. It also meant I sat still for that time.

My ds now 3.3, recently stopped afternoon naps, but almost always we went down together for a nap, either on the sofa or bed. He slept peacefully and woke up happy and we were both refreshed! I particularly welcomed this as I'm about to have another baby and it gave me the rest I desperately needed! My dh napped with him at the weekends, and looked forward to it all week! I think if you've got the opportunity (i.e no other kids or committments) it's wonderful. It hasn't affected his ability to sleep in his own bed at night, either. I'm an advocate of 'if it works for you, there's nothing wrong with it!'

all dc lap napped, not sure what happens in nursery, but that is not my problem......
oh and all co-slept

(anyone who wants to buy a cot that has never been used?)

Gosh I am glad to have found this; my LO is 5 weeks + 5 days and does not nap after 6am unless he is on me - mostly in my sling, sometimes in my arms.

What I want to know is, does anyone know why you're not supposed to sleep with LO on a sofa?

Mixed, how big is your cot? We're about to need one but it can't be longer than 1.2m (tiny bedroom!)

don't sleep on sofas with a baby/toddler because they are soft, and babies can slip between you and the corners of the sofa and suffocate. (actually more dangerous than them falling off the sofa and waking up with a thud, i believe.)

a high proportion (i think near or more than half) the supposed co-sleeping deaths are actually sofa-sleeping deaths but have been erroneously recorded as bed-sharing deaths.

Read this as "What's wrong with lap dancing" and was ready to launch into detailed arguement -

Must concentrate more

(millie - that's what i read too!!)

my DS is 20mo and he still sleeps on me occassionally. (at night too!) he sleeps longer that way. and as others have said it's an enforced sit down time for mom.
get V+ or sky+ so you have lots to watch!

Lap dancing? Hopefully I've got another 16 years before I have to worry about ds and that

Meanwhile he's been fabulously contrary today and had a huge (for him) hour and 20 minute sleep in his cot this afternoon, followed by a power nap of 20 minutes on my lap.

And I think that's what I'm going to encourage, the kind of halfway house that makes health and childcare professionals tut and roll their eyes. Sometimes he'll sleep in his cot and sometimes on my lap. And that's as final as it's going to get.

I'm pleased that we have invented the term lap-napping. And I'm also comforted that so many of you have similar issues.

phdlife, cot is 127cm long (from mothercare).