Baby won't nap unless he's on me - help!

[Newmum1219]

My 15 week old will not let us put him down to nap. We've tried dark rooms, swaddles, rocking to sleep, putting down awake, sleepy or fully asleep, but whatever state as soon as he starts to leave my arms he cries.

He occasionally naps in the pram(seems to be luck of the day) but never lasts more than 30 minutes even if we keep moving. Even when he's sleeping on us he'll often wake after 30-45 minutes even if the environment hasn't changed. He won't co-sleep either.

The funny thing is he accepts going to bed at night. So I'm assuming we've developed a bad habit somewhere along the way for daytime napping.

Trying to train him to nap in his cot is just delaying nap time and I end up with an overtired baby.

Any suggestions.. ?

Completely normal for that age.

let him nap on you.

Mine are 19 and 22 now - I look back on those lovely cuddles with nostalgia!

My DS is 11 weeks and does the same! I just count my blessings he goes down at night and use it as a good excuse for cuddles! Hopefully they'll nap better when older x

Completely normal. I couldn't put lo down for naps until much later and I had to work for it to get that x

Don’t worry, you haven’t developed a bad habit! They are so different at night and day and that’s actually good, it shows he clearly knows the difference if you like.

I worried about this and I also to be honest wanted a little bit of time to myself in the day while he napped. But at four and a half months he tolerated me lying down in bed with him then slowly edging away and then at five months I could put him down to nap. So it definitely gets better!

Just go with it! My DD went through quite a long phase of this and I just embraced it. Watch something on your phone, listen to podcasts, read, enjoy not feeling like you have to be productive during nap time! Eventually they stop napping entirely and you look back enviously on those days!

It's not a bad habit; he's a tiny baby and wants to be close to his mummy.

Nope, no bad habit. Keep on going what you are doing and soon the daytime naps will happen too.

I would say let him and enjoy this time if you can.

If not lay him on the top you've been wearing so he can smell you, see if that works

Also, white noise (womb sounds on YouTube)

Thanks! This helps even if being a full time pillow is driving me a bit insane. Not sure what I'll do when I need to go back to work... Here's hoping he'll have grown out of it

@Newmum1219

Thanks! This helps even if being a full time pillow is driving me a bit insane. Not sure what I'll do when I need to go back to work... Here's hoping he'll have grown out of it

Aww I felt exactly the same. They do grow out of it promise! But then you'll start wanting the cuddles back!

DD was still contact napping when she went to nursery. They got her to nap there on the first day with no issues. They are wizards!

Completely normal at this age. My son continues to do this until 9 months. They just want to be near you. I did. Feel very tied down for a while however but just accepted it and waited it out.

Enjoy the cuddles! The washing/dishwasher can wait. My daughter grew out of cuddles for naps at about 4 months old and very quickly, I really missed sitting down and enjoying that time doing nothing but watching tv.

I could have written this about 17 w/o DS! I'm enjoying the cuddles and assuming he'll grow out of it, but I am finding it hard to go out and about. He needs a nap every 90 mins or so, and he can get upset if we're in a cafe and he's tired. He'll cry and I have to stand up to try to jiggle him to sleep. He won't sleep in his pram unless we're walking. Im feeling a bit housebound as a result!

Have you got a sling? I used to put DC in and have a jiggle, they went off and I could get on with things or gently sit and get the telly on. I'd even use the sun shade flap on the sling to catch biscuit crumbs :)

I felt exactly the same at this point with my DD. She’s now nearly 6 months and honestly the only thing that’s helped is me changing my attitude towards contact napping. I felt like it was a bad habit too but it’s not. As evidenced by this thread so many babies do it and lots of mums embrace it. I stopped worrying about what others were doing and accepted that that’s the way my baby likes to nap and realised that I’ll miss it when she grows up and doesn’t want cuddles anymore! It’s way more stressful trying to implement changes when babies not ready. Now I look forward to watching a box set on Netflix during naps!

Oh and with night time sleep, apparently sleep pressure is different and we have melatonin on our side (the sleepy hormone) which is released at night (I think baby starts making it around 3 months) so that explains why things can be different for night time sleep.