Should I put ds in his cot for day naps, rather than the pram?

[Leah4]

Hi, my ds is almost 5 months and sleeps very little during the day. He normally has three short naps a day, which last a maximum of 40 minutes, and he wakes up tired.
If he awakes at 7.30am, he will be tired by 9.30am. He has all his naps in his buggy, which is placed in a quiet part of my house. I have to get him to sleep by singing and rocking it a bit. He will sleep longer if he is in the car or sometimes when I am out in his buggy. He used to go to sleep in his cot after a feed in the day, until he was almost 3 months. I do breastfeed him to sleep at night, before being put in his cot. He will normally stir after 10mins and cry, and my DH quickly gets him back to sleep. He wakes up a couple of times in the night and I have to give him a feed to get him back to sleep.

I would like him to go to sleep in his cot for day naps as there is more space and I am wondering what will happen once he gets bigger. This week I have tried to give him a feed before putting him in his cot but he just wakes up. I then have to cuddle him, and try again yet he awakes again.

How can I extend his sleep, and also get him to sleep in his cot for naps? Sorry for the long post! Any ideas would be welcomed.

Thanks Cruisemum. I also have the same circumstances whereby my dd would sleep in her cot and everywhere else, and napped for ages. All babies are so different. He did not sleep until I fed him after taking him out of the cot, for about 10 minuntes in my arms, and again early afternoon. I decided to just not get stressed or frustrated about it today, and took him out in his buggy for school run, and he did go to sleep after a while. So he probably slept for less than an hour in total today. Amazing how babies manage to get by on so little. He did go to sleep in cot at 7am, so I am grateful for that! He did wake up for a bit and DH settled him quickly.

Will try to go back to putting him in his cot at the same time as normal tomorrow, and just relax about whether he goes to sleep or not. Started to use dummy yesterday which helped, which he used to have sometimes, but dh worried he may get used to it too much, and then not settle without it, or wake up for it. I did have to sit by the cot and help him, so probably best not to start a new dilemea! Thanks for the suggestions.

leah - i used to try the chilled approach but it was just not in me to not stress about it! I wanted things as i wanted them and it really miffed me that i couldnt' get it right. it is great now though so just stick wtih it and i ams sure you'll get results soon

Hi Leah, thought you might be comforted to know that my daughter was very much like your baby when she was that age and would only ever nap for 45 minutes at a time. She has naturally changed her sleep patterns and now has two long naps of 1 and a half hours, sometimes longer, every day. I think this changed at around 6 months or a bit more. She's 9 months old now. I always fed her to sleep and she just naturally stopped falling asleep at the breast so I now put her down when the feed is over and she gets herself off fairly quickly. She sometimes cries but it never lasts longer than five minutes - like you, I couldn't bear to listen to it.

Hi, I am also hoping that ds will sleep for longer in the day, at some point soon, as he is so tired when he awakes from his power naps. Did you do anything Lucile to help your dd do this?

I decided to not restart feeding him to sleep to get him in the cot during the day, as I think he would just find it hard to give it up. He has had a few more naps in his cot over the weekend, and one today, yet he still cries when placed in it, and whilst I stayed with him singing and stroking his head. Took about 15 mins today for him to settle, after I picked him up and he almost fell asleep on my shoulder. Must buy a toy for his naps, which plays a soft tune as his mobile just keeps him awake. Will persevere with the cot at least for one nap per day, as we are getting building work done soon downstairs which will be very loud and awake him.