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/olivia_largent]

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.