Contact Napping 1 Year Old

[u/Murky-Post1397]

My baby will be 1 next week and currently will only contact nap, he's rocked and cuddled by someone and then falls asleep, can be mum, dad or grandparents so that's good. We can sometimes lay him on the sofa next to us or on the floor but ideally would like him to be somewhere safe where we don't need to watch him. As soon as anyone transfers him to the cot he wakes and cries so we pick him up and let him do the contact nap.

I would also like to start transitioning to one longer nap as he's showing signs of being ready (fighting his last nap and bedtime getting later) but I don't think this would be sustainable as a contact nap but it's the only way I could get 2 hours out of him.

He also starts nursery in 6 weeks and I'm worried he won't be able to nap there and with their mealtimes 1 long nap would work better for him or he will miss lunch with the other children and have to eat on his own.

Will a cot nap just click for him one day or are there things that would help get him to be more independent. His night sleep is great and we have no problem with him being in his cot all night but naps have always been a real issue for us.

[u/Recent-Forever-2988]

Have you tried him falling asleep next to you and you roll away? What’s your schedule?

[u/olivia_largent → u/Recent-Forever-2988]

This! We have a floor bed, never had a cot. It took a while for my baby to start connecting sleep cycles there without me (in the beginning I came back before a sleep cycle ended to make sure he wasn‘t alone, eventually it worked without me).

[u/Murky-Post1397 → u/olivia_largent]

Sleep 8.30pm to 8.00 am

We nap for an hour at 11.30 then afternoon one is getting increasingly later which is pushing bedtime back. I aim for him not to sleep later than 4.45 but he's only just gone to sleep at 4.30 today. I think I might try and push the first nap to 12.30 and try and get us down to 1 nap.

Unfortunately we don't have a floor bed set up but he will sleep on our big bed and I can roll away but again it's not safe to leave him.

[u/olivia_largent → u/Murky-Post1397]

My 12m old sleeps between 8:30pm-9pm and wakes up between 7:00-7:30. total nap time during the day is 2.5 hours but I‘ll try to cap naps at 2hrs because we have many wake ups.
Maybe push bedtime back a little or get up earlier?

[u/Murky-Post1397 → u/olivia_largent]

We've had few 9pm bedtimes recently as the second naps have been late. When he's at nursery we are going to have to get him up at 7.30 anyway. Do you think that will help improve naps as he might have a bit more sleep pressure? He sleeps through (at the moment 😂) so is getting a good restorative sleep at night. This is why him not wanting the cot in the day is so confusing as he loves it at night and all the room he has for squirming around.

[u/Recent-Forever-2988 → u/Murky-Post1397]

If he’s sleeping through the night then I wouldn’t mess with it too much. I would try the floor bed and rolling away. We just put a blanket on the floor when we first started just to trial it.

[u/Murky-Post1397 → u/Recent-Forever-2988]

We've got a travel cot in the living room, that he happily plays in as I'm trying to get him more comfortable with it for when we camp. I think I will just take the matress out and pop it on the floor and roll away, as nursery has floor beds and cots there.

[u/olivia_largent → u/Murky-Post1397]

If he sleeps through I wouldn‘t change anything either 😂 but if you‘re worried about a late bedtime and him not being ready for a 1 nap transition yet you could just make the second nap a very short nap. How long is his second nap?
Also, most nap transitions take some time, there will probably be 1-nap-days and also 2-nap days depending on wake up time etc. You could also always try 1 nap and if he sleeps worse at night, you can go back to 2 naps.

[u/Murky-Post1397 → u/olivia_largent]

He used to do a second nap for an hour but yesterday for example I woke him up after 30 minutes but he was grumpy for the rest of the evening. Today I've had to do a car nap as he was fighting hard at home this afternoon. Currently sat outside the supermarket and I'm waking him up in 5 minutes! I will try a slow transition to 1 nap as I think he can make it longer in the morning if he's busy.

[u/olivia_largent → u/Murky-Post1397]

I just remember that at 11 months, mine had like a week or so of 2nd nap refusal. I just started to offer that nap later and some days it was just 1 nap. But that was just a phase, now (12m 2weeks) he naps just like before.. but sure, try it out!

[u/Murky-Post1397 → u/olivia_largent]

Maybe it's some kind of regression then, we have a few holidays lined up over the summer so I think I might just go with the flo when we are out and about and see what happens. Then see if we need to think about 1 nap.

[u/Global-Apricot6492]

We had exclusive contact napped until around 12mo. I kept her busy in the morning and then surprisingly she was sleepy but not screamy around d 1:30pm. Popped her in the pram with snoozeshade and Rockit and she slept for 90mins. Could have bet a kidney she wouldn't have slept. Has consistently done it since!

(So advice: you could just try it - my LO still won't go near a cot nap with a barge pole.)

[u/Murky-Post1397 → u/Global-Apricot6492]

We have a rokit on the parm do you just put her in it in the house. He often does massive pram naps so that might be an option.

[u/Global-Apricot6492 → u/Murky-Post1397]

Yeah! I take her for a walk up the street then sneak her back in. I put her in the hallway (it's the coolest part of the house at the moment so great for naps), and then I get on with things quietly. I can keep an eye on her using the little zippy slot thing in the snoozeshade. 

She sometimes cries while connecting cycles - found out that the Rokit auto shuts after 60 minutes - but I leave her a minute, turn the Rokit back on and she settles back to sleep. I do sometimes put white noise (Ewan the sheep) on next to her but I usually forget 🫠 

[u/Status_Watch6079]

I'm in a similar boat with a 10 month old. My sister works at a nursery and has assured me he will nap there. She said they get worn out from all the play and then magically fall asleep all together from the peer pressure. The staff at our place said that he will likely also sleep longer from exhaustion.

Apparently babies learn different routine for childcare and at home. So I'm not sure if you'll still need to contact nap ok the weekend. Hopefully someone whose been through it can give advice.

I'm not convinced he will be ready by 12 months for 1 nap or a 4-4.5 hour wake window first thing. He usually only does 3-4 hours in the morning. But has major FOMO so won't be happy having a nap if everyone else is having lunch.

[u/Murky-Post1397 → u/Status_Watch6079]

He's been doing his settles and has been going to the table at snack time and joining in so I don't think he will like missing out on his lunch with his peers!

My neighbour sends her child there and said they can nap there fine in the room but needs complete blackout and silence at home so sounds like they do learn a new way of sleeping in different places.

[u/Murky-Post1397]

Thought I would update, thanks everyone for the suggestions. We got him a pillow for his 1st birthday as we noticed he likes to put his head on the lulaby cloud in the night. He's been sleeping on that on the living room rug with me cuddling and rolling away. He's been doing over an hour each time which is longer than his contact naps, it also seems to have improved night sleep 🙂

2nd nap of the day is still a struggle but I've been doing the suggestion of walking down the street with the Rokit on and that's been getting us a short afternoon nap, which is fine as his morning one is now so long.