Baby refuses to nap on her own

[SunnyRoseSloth]

Hi

My baby is 6 months old and from 2 weeks old she refused to nap on her own. I've tried to get her to nap on her own on and off since she was 4 months but I kept losing my patience and giving up. Now she's 6 months and I mentally can't do contact naps anymore.
For the past 2 weeks I've been working on her nighttime sleep by letting her fall asleep on her own but comforting her as she does it. This has worked really well, and more or less when she wakes in the night, she has a bottle and goes back to sleep on her own with little comfort required.
We've also been working on naps, I've refused contact naps so have either been walking in the pram or attempting to get her to sleep in her cot. She can sleep in her cot for her morning nap but any other nap, she needs to be in the pram or car for. As soon as the movement stops, she wakes. Regardless of how she naps (unless it's on me) she wakes after 30 minutes. Yesterday I walked for 2 hours, she fell asleep after 2 minutes at first, woke after half an hour then took another half an hour to get back to sleep for just half an hour.
If I try to put her in the cot for her midday or afternoon nap, she screams the house down. I've tried drowsy but awake, awake, asleep. I've tried to let her cry it out, to comfort her as she is napping but she just won't give up.
Please can someone help as I don't have it in me anymore to do contact naps, it's also not sustainable to walk round for hours with the weather we get.
I've paid attention to wake windows and to sleep cues but we're literally getting nowhere. I can't carry on contact napping as she is a clingy baby anyway so my housework suffers, I can't get myself dressed properly for the day and it has a knock on effect.
Because her naps are so short, she has to have a early bedtime which means she's waking at 5:30am/6am which again isn't sustainable

[TinyTeachr]

When you say contact maps, what are you having to do? Can you settle hrr next to you in bed and then sneak away? My eldest was a nightmare for naps at this age .

[SunnyRoseSloth]

@TinyTeachr I have to rock on the rocking chair and sit there, can barely move. I have tried her in bed but she won't do that. I think she's getting worse for naps everyday to be honest. When did your oldest grow out of bad naps?

[angelpie33]

I can't help with settling in the cot for naps - still mostly contact naps or pram naps for my 1 year old! But just letting you know that 30ish minute naps are still quite normal at this age. My daughter didn't have any longer naps really (1 hour+) until she dropped to two naps at around 7 months old and I think that's quite common. So I wouldn't stress about that in particular as long as she has a good amount of sleep overall in a 24 hour period.

Will she sleep in the pram in the house if you rock it back and forth?

[arlequin]

Oh gosh I'm so sorry that sounds super tough.
Promise promise I'm nothing to do with CSS but if you have the disposable income, contact Nicola at Child Sleep Solutions. She helped me with both my boys and got them sleeping really well. Or someone similar that will be able to talk it through with you and help.

[Rowen32]

Half hour naps are normal at this age in my opinion, don't push for more or have an earlier bedtime..

[Rowen32]

My experience - 2 half hour naps and bed at 8:30, sleeping till 8:15 with maybe some settling/feeding needed in early morning..

[Flittingaboutagain]

I suggest you wait until she's fed, changed and clearly tired then go out in the pram with white noise playing and a Snooze shade over the pushchair. I have succeeded with cot naps less than 10 times all in with my two babies/ now toddlers. Pushchair or car are my go tos if I can't feed to sleep then contact nap.

[0rganisedchaos]

Hi OP my sister's first held her hostage for a year with this so when her newest ds was born I bought her a rockit it pretty much does what it says on the tin, you attach it to the pram or crib and it rocks it for you while you get on with your day. She pops baby in pram in her living room for naps and lets it do the work for her.

[Stonehill]

It sounds like she is sleeping very well, actually - she has a nap in her cot once a day, and sleeps all the way through to 5.30-6am in the morning? I think you are maybe trying to make her sleep when she doesn't need to. Anyway, I didn't put babies in a room on their own to nap at this age, they napped in the room I was in.

[Jk987]

You could try an electric baby rocker - eBay/Vinted will have them.

Failing other suggestions, try and make contact naps more enjoyable for you. Have food and drink next to you, iPad, TV remote etc. Or just drive and put the radio on loud. Go via a dive thru for a lunchtime treat for yourself!

[Jk987]

The other thing I meant to suggest was a sleepyhead.

[TinyTeachr]

@SunnyRoseSloth

@TinyTeachr I have to rock on the rocking chair and sit there, can barely move. I have tried her in bed but she won't do that. I think she's getting worse for naps everyday to be honest. When did your oldest grow out of bad naps?

You won't like the answer.... bugger all improvement till 10 months. Not really good until 14/15 months. She had one good nap in her room EVER. -

It was tolerable because the weather was ok. Id take her in the pram and she'd wake after half an hour. But at 10 months she started nodding back off again as long as I was still walking and then STAYING asleepfor 2 hours. I'd park her in the garden. By 14 months she'dbe asleep before we got to the gate and would sleep for over 2hours with no need for walking. Aroundthat time I could also feed her to sleep and then slide her onto the sofa and she'd do 2 hours.

Some babies are BAD at napping. My 2 boys were hugely easier, and have always napped well. I didn't do anything differently.

[TinyTeachr]

On the bright side, I think the twice daily walls were good for my mental health (in good weather!) And i was in great shape by autumn

[Abracadabra1]

It's really normal for babies to need movement to stay asleep, it's hard but normal. A 6 am wake up is also really normal for young children, they sleep later usually once they are much older. I'm not sure there's much you can do to fix it and it's frustrating trying to fix it when it's normal. Have a look at Sarah ockwell smith sleep stuff, it's useful.

[Everythingwinniethepooh]

Can you try a wrap or a sling? My almost 5 month old only naps in her Mobi wrap - I pop her in for a breast feed, do a bit of singing and walking and she then falls asleep. Once she's asleep I can usually adjust her to a safer position (guidance is head close enough to kiss), re-tighten the wrap and then move around, get some jobs done etc while she's asleep (with a bit of shushing or singing if she stirs!) We have a sling and cloth nappy library near us where they give advice, let you try out different wraps and hire them for however many weeks for a small fee which is fab too.

It's still a contact nap which I know you said you don't want, but it does allow for some moving around (assuming you've the energy/ability to carry her) - I've even managed chopping veg for dinner or doing a food shop with her in it! (I'd have preferred the pram for the food shop but she wasn't having it that day haha, so the shopping went in the pram instead 🤣 )

[SunnyRoseSloth]

Thanks everyone!

Things have settled down a lot to be honest. She still naps for 30 minutes but she's now used to not contact napping.
We had to stop contact napping in the first place as I felt as if it was affecting her nighttime sleep, there was a while we had to get up at 5am with her and hold her whilst she slept. She also would wake up in the middle of the night and be up for 2 hours and nothing we could do would get her back to sleep.
When I posted this thread, she just flat out refused to nap and slept generally well through the night but was up a couple times and was awake way too early, only for her to be cranky not long after waking. But over the past couple weeks, I've just accepted the short naps. She's now used to her cot and has started sleeping through the night. So although there will be hiccups along the road, I'm just happy to finally be getting a couple hours morning and night to do what I need to do. The naps I'm sure will get there over time but the main thing is that she isn't too cranky and is enjoying her wake time playing with me.
I've just learnt to be more relaxed about things but also not give up