Sorry in advance for the essay, ftm so probably overthinking this.
I have read the many woes of babies sleeping in slings from previous posts and have a couple of questions as I am finding sling life very restrictive.
My son is now 10 weeks old and at the moment is a goodish night sleeper. We will get from 7/8pm until about 2am and then he wakes around 5/6am. He will remain in his snuzpod during this time. He also naps well in the day. He has a very short comfortable wake window and after about an hour of awake time I pop him into the sling and he can sometimes do 2/3 hour naps with jiggles to keep him asleep at various points. We don’t really want to rock this boat and mess this up.
From 5/6am onwards he then plays by “daytime rules”. He will not sleep unless he is in the sling. Transfer out of the sling into cots, prams, etc leads to him being awake usually within 10-15 mins tops. So a poor nap and him getting overtired. In past threads people have suggested getting him to sleep in the pram, bouncer, with dummy, etc to avoid transfer. We have already tried these and been completely unsuccessful but I will certainly keep giving these a go, especially for the first easier nap of the day. Perhaps as the fourth trimester ends he will be getting more independent with his sleep (wishful thinking?). He did just one day decide to accept the snuzpod at night.
However I am struggling when to call it a day and get him back in the sling if he won’t nap. For example I had him in the bouncer with a dummy and kept going for 30 mins. I have also been on hour long walks in the pram and he lies there having a jolly time but no sleep. By this point he was past his short wake window and verging into overtiredness. Should I keep going as eventually he will sleep (it didn’t seem like that at the time as he keeps finding his second, third and fourth wind). In the past he is able to push through hours on end without a nap and then has a complete meltdown at some point. If sleep begets sleep it seems counter intuitive to be trying to get my overtired baby asleep by a method he isn’t used to.
Im currently spending 6+ hours each day in the sling and feeling rather trapped. My partner works long shifts but over the weekend I will be having stern words about him taking on the burden more! However I cannot help but feel non stop sling is a solution we are still not happy with. At most he could do 1 nap either first thing or last thing depending on his shifts. This leaves a whole day of me still rocking, swaying etc for hours. If this was just a fourth trimester/early months thing and I knew for certain developmentally he would move on then I could probably suck it up and power through, but I have seen threads were 18 month olds are still in them and I’m not even sure I can make 18 weeks! I just want to be able to have the freedom to pop him in the pram whilst I meet people for lunch or the cot whilst I unload the washing machine.
TLDR: how long to persevere with each slingless nap before calling it a day?
Is this even a battle worth having as perhaps he isnt old enough for this and/or 4 month sleep regression could throw any progress into chaos anyway?
Has anyone successfully got away from sling naps and if so how?!
TIA!!!