in February 2025 Babies 🇬🇧

Baby only wants to contact nap

Hi all. Advice needed please. My little one is almost 12 weeks and only wants to contact nap on me/husband or in the sling. He is fine in his snuzpod at night. I feel like I made a rod for my own back as my dad passed away when baby was 3 weeks old and so for the few weeks of his we were going back and forth to my parents’ house to spend time with him and so obviously baby just slept on me at their house. Then afterwards I/we had no physical or emotional energy to try practicing putting him down. I’m now worrying about the four month regression coming up and him not being able to self settle. We have tried putting him down for the morning nap a few times but he gets so wound up. Today we took it in turns to go in and settle him but without picking him up. He cried on and off for half an hour before sleeping for half an hour. And then we did the same for the second cycle (he can’t connect them). Patting/shushing doesn’t seem to do much. We also have a 5 year old so it’s harder to find time to dedicate to sleep ‘training’. Anyone any success stories for training a velcro baby or any alternative settling suggestions without picking him up? Thanks in advance.

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Does he ever fall asleep while feeding? If so, you could play some white noise (I have Ewan the Sheep) while he’s feeding and going to sleep so he associates the noise with sleeping. If he doesn’t sleep while feeing, I guess you could try it during contact naps! It might not work of course, but worth a try!

Sling! Im loving my koala and tula free to grow. My older son (19 months) contact napped and co-slept till he was 9 months old and then we did a super gentle method and he transfered to his own room and since 10months he falls asleep on his own and sleeps through so you aren't making a rod for your own back don't worry, babies this small need to be held

You can’t create bad habits this early on. It’s just very normal for a baby to only want to contact nap at this age. For some babies if they slept all of their naps and overnight away from you it would be too much time away from contact so some/most really need this. The sling is a great option especially for looking after an older child too. It’s too early to expect a baby to self settle. You can try of course to lay some foundations but generally the 4 months sleep regression will still throw everything up in the air so also argument to just wait until that biological shift has happened. Totally get not having time to properly help settle but he does need support and to be picked up if needed. He’s too little for any more advanced sleep training at this age! A 30min independent nap is quite long for this age as developmentally naps tend to go crap. It’s great to work on naps and settling in own sleep space but he needs more support including picking up for this age.

Thanks all. Think we will work on practicing naps in the cot but with more support for now and try not to feel guilty about having sling/contact naps ❤️

i only contact napped with my first and she slept through the night from 5w old, she learnt to sit at 4m and didn’t want to contact nap from that point on, she was miss independent! we are carrier mammals it’s normal for them to settle best with us and you won’t be making a rod for your own back, being there for baby and meeting all of babies needs actually creates independent babies as you have that great bond and they have that trust in you that you’ll be there when they need you so if you can then soak it up but if not then just do what you can🫶🏼💛xx

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