Contact naps

[peonyrose87]

My 16 week old will still only contact nap, or sleep in the pram/car during the day.

She goes into her next to me great at night, and sleeps 9 hours before waking, but try and put her down during the day and her eyes open within five minutes, even when I wait long enough to ensure she's in a deep sleep.

I'm not overly concerned about it as she is a great night sleeper, and I do enjoy the cuddles, but it would be nice to be able to pop her down sometimes and have a nap myself!

Any tips? Thanks?

I read on here that they have to stay where they are when they go down for a nap, if that makes sense? I had some success with this with ds for a few weeks. I was like you and didn’t mind the cuddles just wanted to be able to get things done!

If you want baby to sleep independently (ie not on you) then I'd suggest getting her to sleep in something that moves - bouncer or pram for example.

If you want her sleeping statically, then you generally need to work hard at this. It's important not to put down baby already asleep, instead for baby to fall asleep in there. Hense it's hard work. A dummy , swaddle and patting help.

My 18 month old is currently asleep on my, and DD contact napped until she stopped napping, so I definitely have no advice seems a pain at the time but I miss all the cuddles with my DD now, and it means you actually stop and rest for a while as well!

Thanks everyone! I know I'm lucky that she goes down well at night and will sleep if we're out walking, so the contact naps aren't a huge deal. I was just exhausted yesterday and would have loved to close my eyes when she was sleeping too😴