16 week old nap help

[Loumat]

So I’m a FTM and have a 16 week old baby boy. I have in the past month mastered the wake windows for my boy with the help of the huckleberry app. He seems to manage with about 1-1.5 hours awake depending on his last nap. Since we have been getting 4ish hours sleep in the day life has been a lot more pleasant!

However, the only place he will sleep is in his pram in the conservatory which is fine. I cover the pram with a snoozeshade to keep it dark and use white noise. Sometimes I’ll use a rockit if he’s fussy. Hoping to move him to his cot for a few naps soon.

The problem I have is when I put him down for his nap he protests it. Screams (not a proper cry/scream though), spits his dummy out, and I have to pop in several times to pop the dummy in and pat him. He will go off to sleep sometimes right away, other times it’s 5-15 mins of him protesting. Sometimes it’s longer and that’s when I know he’s either overtired or I’ve got the window wrong and I take him for a walk instead.

I think I am getting his windows right most of the time as he will go to sleep for anywhere between 30mins to 2 hours and he’s showing sleepy cues.

is this sort of protesting normal? I worry I’m doing something wrong if he isn’t happily going to sleep (night time sleep he settles much better). Will this pass and will he come to nap easier? Just makes me feel a bit anxious!

Kiss goodbye to your wake windows I’m afraid, this is the 4 month sleep regression. I have a 20w old and had the same. The key thing to do is to try to encourage self soothing and lower your expectations for a few weeks whilst your LO learns to sleep themselves. It won’t go away as it’s a developmental change as they move out of newborn sleep cycles. Best things we’ve done:

-tv or radio on for background noise, natural light in. It needs to be a nap or you’ll spoil your evening sleep
-expose their hands on babygros, they can suck their fingers and soothe themselves to sleep
-I mill around in the background so me LO doesn’t feel ‘abandoned’ but actually puts himself to sleep, I don’t do any rocking or shushing
-I don’t let me baby cry but do ignore a winge/grizzle as he soothes himself

Remember that this is a developmental change rather than a temporary thing so your baby is ‘learning to sleep’. If you rock or shush that’s totally up to you, but your baby will then require it to go to sleep (like in the summer when you get used to sleeping with the fan on etc) so be prepared to do it every time!

@DNAshelicase is this what you did for naps? It’s exhausting as he just won’t go down no matter what I do which makes for a very difficult day. I haven’t changed what I do so like you say must be him that’s changing then.
what did you do if yours just wouldn’t go down? How long do you try for before you give up? I’m lost