Daytime nap cues

[Newmum182]

Hi all,

New(ish) mum and first time poster!

My little one is 5 months old and we’ve struggled with sleep since around the 6-8week mark. He is EBF and was originally feeding to sleep for all naps and at night time. This worked fine until it didn’t! It started taking hours to get him to sleep at night and he would resist daytime naps almost completely.
I was advised that this might be the issue with his frequent nighttime wakes and the difficultly with implementing daytime naps without it taking hours to get him to sleep for a short period.
His bedtime routine is now greatly improved and he now goes down pretty easily with little input from us. The issue we are still struggling with is daytime naps, he sleeps very well in the car seat, pram or sling but not independently. So I guess im wondering how others cue to their babies that it’s time for a nap in the day? Do you use the same sleepcues you’d use at night (haven’t done so far as I’d heard of little ones getting confused between day and night)?
EDIT: at night he is put down in a darkened room in a sleeping bag, with a white noise machine. Occasionally he is read one particular story (same every night) if he needs a little more outside he’ll but he’s pretty good at self settling to sleep now.

Any advice greatly appreciated!
One tired mumma!

My kids are old now but I did the same for naps as nighttime (minus the bath and story). Carry upstairs, change nappy, into sleeping bag and asleep in a darkened room. They do soon get used to it especially if you stick to the same timings.

Thanks @mewkins think we will do the same! Just reluctant to do anything that might mess with bedtime! 😂

I think bedtimes are easier to establish (they're usually knackered enough to sleep!) A lot of sleep experts suggest sorting these and then getting them to nap by any means! as long as the nap isn't too long or late it shouldn't interfere.

I wish we had done this was ours still naps in the pram, but she's just turned 2 and down to one nap and sleeps well and independently at night so am going to ride it out, as i think she will drop her nap by 2.5 by the looks of it, as her sleep needs are not that high!

we do the same routine for naps as bed, minus the bath and milk. So upstairs, nappy change, read books, white noise on and into sleep bag in a darkened room. Once they have learnt day and night around 3 months old they won't get confused. The only thing driving them to sleep in the day is sleep pressure alone. At bedtime its the whole circadian rhythm, plus sleep pressure, plus sleep hormones, so they know it's night and they want to sleep longer. Same as if a daytime nap is disrupted because of noise etc, sometimes baby won't go back to sleep because sleep pressure has been reduced by having some sleep and their body knows it's day time so they are ready to carry on with the day.

I would use the same routine as bedtime for the middle of the day nap (ideally the longest one), but still use the buggy/car seat for the other naps.

If you can get yourself a baby that sleeps both in a cot and on the go you've won the sleep jackpot. I'd be reluctant to let him lose the ability to sleep on the go by making all naps reliant on black out blinds/white noise/silence/sleep bag etc.

Thanks @NuffSaidSam definitely don’t want him to lose that ability! It’s not really been a problem before but noticed over the Christmas period when we had family visiting that it was really hard to get him to nap but wasn’t really convenient to go for a walk every 4 hours 😂

That’s really helpful @Sagittarius25 I feel better doing the same routine now I’m a bit more confident it won’t mess with our bedtime