5 month old will only nap for 1 sleep cycle unless held!

[NZBD]

I know there’s multiple threads on similar topics on here, however most relate to night sleep rather than naps so wondering if anyone can help.

My 5 month EBF baby was always held for naps up until 4 months old and had nice long naps during the day, and managed decent stretches of sleep at night with 2 feeds in between. Then the 4 month regression hit 😫. Night time sleep went crazy and after holding him half the night I decided I could no longer carry him for all naps too. Started putting him down drowsy but awake and patting to sleep with dummy. Amazingly he took to this super quick and within a couple of days he would fall asleep in 2-3 minutes. However he will never sleep longer then 35 minutes maximum!

This has remained consistent for the last month, so I have the option of either giving him 4-5 x 30 minute naps or going back to holding him to get a longer nap. I’ve tried everything I can think of, waking him briefly to interrupt his sleep cycle, starting the shush pat from around 20 minutes to soothe him through to the next sleep cycle, leaving him in the crib 10/20 minutes to see if he goes back to sleep but nothing works!

Tried a sleep consultant but didn’t get any new suggestions, was just told to work on night sleep and this may in turn improve his naps. Thing is he can get through sleep cycles on a night. He’ll have bad nights where he’s up every 2 hours but on a good night he’ll sleep from bedtime at 8pm through to 3/4am so he is able to self settle!

Wondering if anyone has any ideas? Is it a developmental thing where he’ll just get it on his own at some point? Or am I missing something? Super stressed now as I’ve got a few events coming up in the next couple months and I’m just picturing myself unable to participate because I’m sat with a sleeping baby attached to me! It doesn’t help that he’s super clingy when awake too so I literally don’t get a minute to myself all day!

Sorry for the rant, just feeling pretty desperate after shelling out more than I could afford for a sleep consultant and still being stuck with the same issue. Help!

I think I need to just start putting him down for all naps and give him the opportunity to do it.

I think that’s worth a try. At around 5 months I had to put mine upstairs in his cot to actually get him to sleep in the first place - he wouldn’t sleep with distractions anymore, in a bouncer or on me where there was any noise or light (except the car of course or his pram). It would take ages to get him to sleep. He still woke up after 30 mins in his cot, but went to sleep fast which was a big improvement. I’m not sure why he suddenly slept longer after a few months - but maybe he eventually associated being in his cot with sleep and being cosy, so even if he woke up a little after a sleep cycle he just happily went back to sleep again. He still does that now sometimes - I hear him mumbling a bit after an hour of sleep or so, go to get him and then he’s still fast asleep.

@Pinkblueberry yes mines getting to be the same now, it takes ages rocking him to get him off to sleep at all. He also would go to sleep really quickly in the cot but now fights that too, think I just need to persevere. He seems to be getting better at connecting cycles occasionally when held, where before he would constantly need rocking back to sleep at around the 30 minute mark now he occasionally stays asleep till closer to an hour so fingers crossed he can do that in the cot too.