Help! My baby won't take daytime naps

[LifesQuestions]

I am really struggling to get my 16 week old baby to take naps during the day at home for anything longer than 10mins. She generally has no trouble sleeping through the night in her cot but she just does not know how to nap during the day unless she is in motion in the car or in the pram. I can see she's tired but she just fights it and is grouchy as a result, and I feel like it's getting progressively worse because today she didn't sleep longer then 30min even when she was in motion in the car, and then wouldn't sleep at all when I was pushing her around in the pram. It's really starting to stress me out, does anyone have any advice?

Will she sleep on you for naps? That's the only way my boy would nap for longer.

We had the same issue but it was just something that got better, so no real advice for you sorry! Is it a new thing? I wonder if it's a regression

This is the reason I walked for miles when oldest was a baby. She either had to sleep on me or in the pram when it was moving. I think it's a personality thing as second child would nap anywhere, including the cot at home.

Just do whatever works.

Mine was exactly the same. It’s a vicious circle, they get overtired and then sleep even less

The only remedy is to ensure they get as much sleep as you can manage even if that means walking round and round with the buggy or long drives.

The good news is that at 16 weeks you should be mostly through the worst

You’ve got a 16 week old who sleeps through the night, a lot of parents would kill for that.

We had exactly the same as what you have plus they didn’t sleep through for 3.5 years 😬

She would sleep on me for naps for longer but she gets hot easily so I don't think it's pleasant for her

I would have given anything for my child to sleep through the night, didn’t happen until school age.

Will she sleep in the pram with one of those rocker things?

It's been at least a month now that she's been doing this so I don't think it's regression

She does still wake up 2-3 times for feeds

She sleeps when I'm walking outside with her in the pram. I don't bring the pram indoors

When did your little one start having day naps if you remember?

I just find it strange that she manages fine at night but not during the day. And I'd be ok with it if she wasn't so grouchy and clearly tired during the day.

My DS was like that, still doesn’t sleep through the night at 4. Had to walk him in the pram for hours at a time or have him nap in my arms in the daytime while I watched a film or read a book. On the plus side it kept me fit!

Any reason why you can't give it a go?

Because I don't want to, the wheels are not clean

Do you have a good daytime sleep environment? As dark as you can make it, with white noise absolutely blasting, dummy if they like it.

It doesn't always work for every baby though, so no promises! But my older DD definitely had a 3-4 month transition period when dedicated sleep environment at home went from unimportant to critical. My current DS is just over 16 weeks, goes to sleep in my arms in bedroom and then I'm able to move him onto the bed for the nap about 50% of the time. If he wakes, then I generally keep him in arms/baby carrier for rest of the nap and then try again next time.

So this morning I tried something new. When I noticed her eyes were looking glazed, I took away any stimulating toys from her and let her sit in her bouncer whilst she watched me eat breakfast. After about 5min, I carried her upright to the bedroom and sang a soft lullaby for about a minute and put her in her swaddle and into her cot. I also shut all the blinds. She cried for about 5mins which automatically turned on her white noise machine and then she was out like a light. She slept for 2 and a half hours! Let's hope this method works everytime... thanks for your advice everyone!