My nearly seven month old baby won’t nap in his cot at all during the day. He used to be a nightmare napping until he was seven weeks, then something clicked and he would nap in his bed for an hour or two, but since the four month sleep regression he’s recovered his ability to sleep in his cot at night but not in the day. As soon as I get his sleep cues we go upstairs for a relax, often his bottle is due so we’ll do that and I’ll try to put him down. The minute he’s going into his cot he starts crying and crying. I’ve tried leaving him for 5mins to see if he’ll calm down, but he doesn’t and instead gets so irate he’s coughing and spluttering. With rocking he will often just try to push me away and scream in my face. Generally I think he’s only eventually napping as he’s exhausted, which means he’s overtired and only sleeps for 20-30mins. It makes all the effort feel not worth it! And then he’s grumpy and miserable.
Frustratingly if he does fall asleep in my arms or I snuggle him in bed, he’ll be able to sleep for an hour or more.
I just feel like such a failure and so stressed out. The 2-3 times a day my baby needs to nap I absolutely dread. It’s so hard that even though I’d loved the thought of two children I can’t imagine going through this again as it’s making me feel so miserable. Obviously Covid doesn’t help as no one can come round to help and our families aren’t local anyway.
Sorry for the long one, I just needed to let it out I think as I feel like I’m being a bad mum firstly for not being able to get my baby to nap and secondly for dreading the daily battles.