My 6 month old (23 weeks) will only nap in cot/travel cot and has to be in a dark place

[Shannon0521]

Long story short, my nearly 6 month old is a brilliant sleeper, she goes 6:30pm/7 - 6/6:30am with no feeds till 7am. Naps are brill if she’s in her cot/travel cot at nannies but in a dark quiet room.
This is where I’m struggling, I struggle being at home 24/7, so now she’s getting older I’m going out a bit more, keeping her wake windows in check, but I don’t want to keep having to rush home so she has a nap! But will she sleep in her pram? Not a wink!
Last week we went out for 4 hours, she was in her car seat most of the day with a few stretch outs, but she refused to sleep all together, I had her dummy, blanket and soft toy but still wouldn’t nap. You could tel she was so tired too, but was happy enough.
Soon as we got home she only napped for 20 mins that was all I could get her to do, then a meltdown come bedtime because she was overtired by missing a nap on the go…

Has anyone been able to train their baby to be able to sleep wherever in the pram? I’ve refused to go out to meals simply because I know she won’t sleep and will be a nightmare later on at bedtime…

The best I have out is covering her with my cardi when out and taking it off when she's asleep I only get 45 mins this way and takes some doing to get her to sleep. That's the best I can do. Then she has a longer nap late afternoon which means I have to be home for this or overtired mess.

I do have a sunshade snooze thing, but she needs me to keep popping my hand in to reassure her when we're out. So not practical.

As someone said to me before is practise makes perfect.

Maybe try some white nosie when out to block the distractions?

Its quite frustrating at times 😔 my LO is just fascinated with the world 😂

What about a snoozeshade for the pram, perfectly safe & breatheable, and dark x

Keep trying with the pram when you’re not going anywhere: I’d replicate all her usual nap conditions, take the pram up to her room if necessary, but put her down in the pram instead of the cot and push it back and forth whilst you sit with a tea. If after say 20 minutes she’s still not asleep then give up for today, put her in the cot and try again tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll be able to train her into it and then you can start going out. But if it doesn’t work on that day then no stress as you can transfer her to her cot and bedtime won’t be a disaster.

@Pickle2021

The best I have out is covering her with my cardi when out and taking it off when she's asleep I only get 45 mins this way and takes some doing to get her to sleep. That's the best I can do. Then she has a longer nap late afternoon which means I have to be home for this or overtired mess.

I do have a sunshade snooze thing, but she needs me to keep popping my hand in to reassure her when we're out. So not practical.

As someone said to me before is practise makes perfect.

Maybe try some white nosie when out to block the distractions?

Its quite frustrating at times 😔 my LO is just fascinated with the world 😂

DO NOT DO THIS

Huge risk of overheating and SIDS

Just go with what she wants and go home at nap time? She’s tiny still

Mine is still like that at almost 2. Never accidentally fallen asleep, has to be put down in her cot otherwise no nap. I think some kids are just like this. She was also always on the lower end of sleep requirement so we’ve just gone with it. Dropped to 1 nap at 1 yrs old.

Mine were both like this. I just dealt with it until they grew out of naps. I was just happy they were sleeping tbh.

@harrysmummy246 i understand completely what your saying.

I do quite clearly say I take the cardi off when she's asleep, and ensure that she is not overheating at any point. Also I angle it so there's always gap of air going in. I'm very cautious and normally within 5 to 8 minutes she's asleep when we're out. Usually takes 2 minutes at home. My cardis all have bigger holes in them - like the snooze shade thing if not bigger holes then that.

Quite often she's underdressed as she's a warmer baby and I pop her blanket on after I taken the cardi off as she's cool.

I'm very cautious and don't let her overheat.

I'm justifying it as don't want people thinking I'm a stupid mother 🙄