Settling 4 month old for naps is a nightmare

[k80pie]

Settling my baby for naps is just such bloody hard work. Just came out of the room after a 45 minute battle. She didn't feed to sleep so I stood up and played the song we play and swayed around and bounced and she just fussed and fussed and I shushed and shushed. Tried side settling her in the cot eventually, she fussed - picked her up again, more swaying/bouncing, more constant FUSSING.

My partner can settle her in about two minutes flat with the same song and the same swaying.

I would just like to hear from any mums who have gone through this and what did you do about it? I don't know whether to just persist cause this is what it is? I feel like I've tried everything. My second baby by the way - had similar issues settling. Feeding to sleep is no problem - but I don't want to keep doing that anyway long term, would just like my baby to be able to fall aleep on me without constantly crying and fussing :(

When my 5 month old is like that I take her into a different room and we look at the birds etc out of the window...I talk to her in a really calm voice telling her what I can see. After a few mins we try again in the bedroom and it seems to work! It's like thr distraction helps or something!

I wouldn't be putting a baby that age down for naps, they just fall asleep as and when, where ever they happen to be

Is there a toy she likes that isn’t too stimulating? My six month old doesn’t like to be fussed, and really struggled to be patient through any kind of settling until I started giving her a blanket with little ribbon tags on. She has a bit chew on that while I sing etc and it distracts her from the fact that she’s being soothed to sleep.

We had this - after about 5 months baby settled much better for DH than me. I think because baby was getting very heavy and I started struggling to rock her for long. We sleep trained 🤷🏻‍♀️ Now I just put baby in her cot awake and she goes to sleep after a couple of minutes

My older daughter was a nightmare for naps etc just wouldn't give in ever.
I just had to contact nap or pram until I went back to work.
She also settled for dad as he was out the house for 12 hours a day.

My son who is 8 months is the opposite and happily goes to bed himself.

He has a cellular blanket which he loves to touch and uses it to fall asleep and a dummy.

Does your DD have a dummy or anything she might just want something to suck on to
Help her fall asleep.

OP how are you getting on? I'm the exact same boat. Boob no longer works! I think we've entered a sleep regression :) my eldest was like this too and like others I'm just more chilled out about it now BUT I totally get your struggle. Hoping it's just a phase and passes for both of us! Let us know if you found something that works x

Not a lot to add except for my four month refuses to nap as well (I’m careful with wake windows etc etc etc etc etc) and the feeding to sleep no longer works for naps either for us unfortunately (still works a treat at night though!!). Hopefully it passes too!!! I currently have to rock her to sleep for her naps but she protests SO MUCH. Plus my arms kill 🤣

I've just created a post about this exact thing for my 3.5 month old. I'm so glad I'm not the only one! She also settles far more easily for her dad too!

I get so disheartened when I go to baby groups and see babies quietly fall to sleep in their mum's arms whilst I have to wrestle with a screaming baby 😳

I don't have any suggestions, but just wanted you to know you're not alone! If you do find anything that works please let me know because I'm at my wits end lol

I get what you mean OP. My LO was similar age around this time last year and was similar in that I would have walked around for ages shushing and rocking, trying to get her to nap.

In the end what I did was put her to nap in the pram, in the kitchen with me whilst I got on with stuff. I always put the extractor fan on and she might have fussed for a while but it got her used to sleeping on her own albeit with me in the room. A bonus too was that she then had her familiar pram for naps when we were out and about too, so we didn’t have to be in the house for all naps.

Might not work for every baby but might be worth trying? x

Ooo yes this was me too! (I now have a 7 month old). I still gawp at younger babies snoozing peacefully at baby group not jealous at all.

My 7 month old still isn’t a fan of naps but it’s become much less of a problem as she needs to nap far less now (she naps only twice a day now) so getting her to sleep constantly no longer takes over my day.

Hang in there in a couple months time I promise it won’t be such an issue 💪🏽