Tips for transitioning from contact napping to crib naps?
Hello has anyone successfully transitioned their baby from only contact napping to being able to take a nap in their crib?
My 6 month old has only ever napped on me, in a carrier, or in her stroller/car seat when we’re out of the house. It’s really taking a toll on me to never be able to put her down in her crib for a nap so I can have some time to myself, so I’m hopeful someone has suggestions of things to try.
For background I can get her to sleep nursing or rocking her but no matter how carefully I try to transfer her to the crib once asleep she wakes (can maybe get her down without waking 1 out of 25 attempts), then I can’t get her to resettle in the crib. I’ve tried putting her down drowsy but awake, but again she will not settle. Anytime I try to settle her in the crib it is usually 1-2 hours of trying and then I give up (either just get her up and skip the nap or give into her sleeping in my arms). I try setting her by shushing, patting her, or putting my hand on her chest. I’m not willing to just leave her crying, and I don’t think she would do well with that strategy even if I was willing to. She does sleep in her crib at night, but getting her down at bedtime is also very challenging.
I know it takes consistency, but I get more frustrated trying for hours day after day than I do just letting her contact nap.
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Have you tried feeding her to sleep laying down and then rolling away when she’s asleep.. we have a floor bed,
We managed this through a very gentle version of the pick up put down method (we didn’t know that’s what it was at the time).
I would breastfeed her, sing her a song and then put her down (crying or not, drowsy but awake). If she was crying a lot I would pick her straight back up until she was calm and then put her down again. If she was calm/whinging/not crying much I would then pat and shush her tummy until she fell asleep. If she started crying a lot again I would pick her back up and repeat the process until she fell asleep while in her cot. It did take quite a long time to start with, and in the early days I think she would just be so tired she couldn’t fight it anymore. It didn’t feel like sleep training because I never left her and if she got too upset I would just pick her back up again.
We did it because she started waking up for the day at 4.30am and I desperately needed to be able to get a good sleep during her naps. Xx
that’s a good idea. I haven’t tried that for naps, but I have done that a few times on the floor of her nursery on nights when getting her to bed has been excessively challenging 😂
Following… I’m exactly the same with my nearly 4m old LG. A little Velcro girl 🙈❤️
I feel like that’s similar to what I’ve been trying to do. How long would your daughter take to fall asleep and how many days would you say it took until it started to get easier 😂? Also were you doing it for every nap?
Initially I think I made sure she was very ready for a nap before starting and it probably did take take 40 mins-1 hour. I think it took 3 ish weeks before it got to the point of putting her down and with a bit of patting she was fast asleep. I started with just her first nap, as her second or third were often out the house anyway. Xx
Whenever I tried to transfer my daughter to her crib she would either wake up or her nap would be short. It just worked out after I did sleep training with her (Ferber method)
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