Daytime naps!

[mamatoizzybee]

Hey!

Am after a bit of advice and suggestions on how I can get my 7 month old to nap in her cot in the day.

I am currently having to walk or drive her to sleep during the day times as I have so far been unable to get her down in her cot. It's not sustainable long term and I am wanting to seek ways I can get her to go down in her cot during the day.

She goes to bed very well at night and I have a really solid bedtime routine which I feel she is now very aware of and helps her to go down quickly at nighttime .

Should I introduce a naptime routine too? Any recommendations on what this could look like ? Should it mimic the bedtime one? I'm regretting not starting one sooner as I feel maybe this would have helped .

Any mums out there going through a similar thing ?

I have read a small nap routine is supposed to help. I used to drive my son around for naps and did this until he was 2 (I know this is not the advice you are after) but at nursery he’s slept fine, what they did was put him down with a blanket wrapped around is waste and gently rocked his back as he liked the movement, which yours might now from the car. My mum used to push him in the pram in the hallway, he got to the point where is climbed in!

Hi @Babs5693 thank you for your reply , it's good to know that I'm not the only one out there doing this !!
I have attempted a small nap routine the last two days which is a smaller version of our night routine. It took 2 hours but I managed to get my daughter down a couple of times !! One for 40mins and another for 1.5hours!! I'm takes longer to get her to sleep than she actually sleeps for but I'm grateful for a bit of time to catch up on laundry and bits!! I do wonder what I'm doing wrong though as I'm sure it doesn't take other people that long to get their child down - it's quicker for me to just jump in the car each time haha

It takes persistence and consistency and there will probably be a few tears... but after a week you should find your baby will settle themselves and sleep in their cot. I found always putting them down at the same time, in their sleep bag in the cot and then leaving was enough of a routine. But my daughter refused naps unless she was in the carrier for months, so I had to do some gentle sleep training to get her to sleep in her cot in the day. I would go in to her at different intervals when she was crying to help her learn to settle. Honestly after a couple of days she snapped into the day nap routine. Night times were a bit harder but it meant I could finally have some respite during the day.

You are not doing anything wrong, some just respond to different techniques, babies are soooo different and what works for one doesn’t work for another, like the PP consistancy usually helps and over time she should go down quicker, if not jump in the car, it’s not forever, I can vouch for that.