Trying to put a 7 month contact napper in a cot for one nap a day?! 💤

[LazyGreen]

DS will be 7 months old later this week. He will nod off in his pram or, occasionally, in the car, but at home he will only contact nap.

He is getting very heavy now, and I have no time in the day when I am not right by his side, so I would like to try and put him on a cot for the first nap of the day.

However, previous experience shows that he will either wake on transfer, or wake within 5-10 mins. My worry is that then he will only have napped for 15-20 mins or so, whereas in my arms a contact nap can last up to 1 hr 20.

I’m worried that this will then set the day off on the wrong foot - he’ll be very tired and grumpy for the rest of the day.

Has anyone tried this? Should I do it with the second nap rather than the first?

Hopeful bump for fellow contact nappers! 😊

I kept the first nap as a contact nap to make sure they had a good start to the day (and protect my sanity). Then started trying with the second nap. There were a few days of shorter naps and a grumpy baby but it has evolved into pretty decent cot naps. Good luck!

First nap of the day is generally the easiest for any kind of sleep training

I'm in a similar situation. Love the cuddles but I've recently realised I need to get baby sleeping in her cot as it's impacting night sleep and my ability to get anything done during the day. Will your baby sleep in the cot at night or are day naps the only problem? You could try the first nap of the day when there is still some melatonin present, and if baby wakes try settling again or go for a pram nap.

Could you try by staying with him in the bed (completely next to him) and once he falls asleep after a while you remove yourself from the bed. I had to do that with my DD and after a while she got used to sleeping by herself.

Fellow contact napper here but we’re at 10 months!
I keep telling myself once we get on top of overtiredness or teething we will start but that day just never comes! I did just go for it last week out of pure desperation for some time to myself and she went down two days in a row 2nd nap on both days in crib for over 1 hour! Then the next day I tried again but we had work men in so the noise was to much and I gave up again :( but I’m taking the positive in that she can sleep without me in the day it’s just timing it right with sleep pressure, actually giving her the opportunity to do it often and keeping the routine and environment the same everytime.
I think no matter what, we are going to have to go through some not great days and a tired aggy baby but we have to just start somewhere don’t we :(

If I take last weeks 2 successes though maybe we will surprise ourselves?
I think the main thing is sticking to the routine as babies are so resilient they just need some adjustment time.

My plan is 1st nap as I read it usually is the easiest but to not go off wake windows and just watch baby for sleepy cues to make sure it’s exactly the right time to try.

Planning for when we get some crap UK weather for a a few days and just staying at home where it can be the exact same routine everyday for a good 5-7 days.

On the successful ones I did these things different to previous times:

Had quieter play towards the end of a wake window or when I knew she would usually be getting tired…. We walk in the garden together cuddling for 10 mins
Put baby into her sleep bag instead of just wearing her daytime clothes
Added a book into our nap routine
Kept the majority of her feed in a separate room - Still ended up feeding to sleep in the end but held her for 20 minutes before attempting to transfer
Transferred at snail pace! Like slower than ever ever before! I’m talking move millimetres every 30-60 seconds lol.

Her eyes did open both times but I would usually pick straight back up to save the nap but I just trusted she was tired enough and committed and she just closed them again and drifted back off

Our nap routine looks like:
Nappy change in nursery
Put baby into sleep bag
Try give baby the majority of her feed
Read her book (added this step in to try separate the feed and sleep)
Go into my room (baby is still sleeping in my bedroom) with the waves on the sound machine
I then try to cuddle and rock gently but usually then have to feed to sleep anyway (I’m hoping sticking to the feed in her nursery one day we go in the room I can just put her into the cot)

This is all relatively new but it did work on the two occasions so I plan to stick to it for a good week when we don’t have any commitments x

Hope this helps someone, I just need to commit to the change now!
Secretly just going to miss our cuddles and to scared for an overtired baby Xx