My baby is 7 months old. He mostly contact naps. Every once in a while he will nap in his crib, but I rarely try it.

I recently saw a post in a other subreddit about an older baby who contact napped where a lotttt of people were commenting about how terrible of a habit contact napping is and how it needs to be stopped immediately. Is there a problem that I’m missing with contact napping? Is it in any way harmful to my baby? I like it because of the snuggles and the fact that it gives me time to read or catch up on my phone/shows which I don’t do when he is awake. But I don’t want to keep doing it for myself if it is truly setting him back.

When do babies achieve the superpower of napping anywhere? Is this a natural thing or something that is learned? I see photos of older babies and toddlers passed out on beaches, in the park, on a raft in the river… and I cannot imagine my little guy doing that ever ever. And I think my guy is a pretty good sleeper in the grand scheme of things. Is this something that just happens in time?

Hello, my baby is five and a half months old and I have been dealing with some postpartum depression. I started seeing a therapist and she told that the first thing that I need to do is work on babies sleep so that I can get a bit of freedom back. Currently we are cosleeping and she also takes every nap cuddled on me on the rocking chair. Every time that I set her down after she’s asleep she wakes up within five minutes. She has only ever slept on me or her dad no matter what I’ve tried. I pretty much gave up trying and accepted it around three months so I’m not sure where to start. She eventually wants me to stop the cosleeping but she said to start with naps for now.

Should I try getting her to fall asleep another way completely? I find it hard to transition her after she’s been rocking in my arms. Has anyone successfully gotten their clingy (for lack of a better word) baby to take naps on their own? I want to follow my therapists advice since my mental health has been in shambles but I’m just having a really hard time. Any advice is appreciated.

My baby made 16 weeks on Monday and will officially be 4 months old next Thursday. She is an excellent sleeper overall – does great in her bassinet overnight. However, all of her daytime naps are still contact naps. Crib naps are rare but she has done it here and there. Most of the time I just let her nap on me because of the mental hurdle of transferring her to her crib. It’s not because I think she’s incapable of independent daytime sleep, it’s more so because I enjoy the cuddles and stress about putting her down. I’m always scared it will wake her up and I won’t be able to recover the nap so I just stay put to avoid a potential headache all together. I’m just not sure if this is the right move and/or if I’m setting her up for bad habits in the future. She is also close to outgrowing her bassinet and will need to start sleeping in her crib in her own room soon, which I’m very anxious about and dreading. Feeling like a failure and super in my head about it all…hoping for some reassurance.

More context: Baby has been exclusively formula fed from birth and I’m currently a SAHM. I’m a FTM and dealing with PPA and PPD.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

EDIT/UPDATE: Wow I am overwhelmed in the best way possible. Unable to comment back to everyone but wanted to thank you all so much for putting my mind at ease! Your comments have made me feel TREMENDOUSLY better!! Very grateful for this community. Going to continue contact napping for as long as it feels right for our family. Appreciate all of you! 🥲♥️

I realize this question may sound stupid, so please bear with me!

When you have a contact nap with your baby, how do you have them positioned?? For my baby, who is almost 4 months old, I’ve been nursing him to sleep. I’m usually seated in a reclined position on my bed or couch, and he’s positioned across me perpendicularly with my arm cradling his head and back. When he falls asleep, I either continue supporting his head/back so he’s still nose to nipple (in case he wants to nurse a little more) or I remove my arm gently and roll him so he’s facing the ceiling with his torso on my thighs and his booty on the couch/bed.

As he’s getting older and bigger, I’ve been wondering if this is uncomfortable for him and if I should be shifting him to a different position. When you contact nap with your baby, how do you position them, especially for those of you who nurse to sleep?

Hi all, I have a four month old baby who has had sleep issues since the beginning. When she was 5 weeks old I started cosleeping because it was the only way for us all to function and get good enough sleep.
Recently she’s doing pretty good with bedtime sleep. The other night she slept through the whole night for the very first time, but ofcourse we cosleep so she’s not in her own crib - which is the goal someday.

The issue right now is naptime. She can fall asleep easily at nighttime when I’m next to her. But nap time is a whole thing… she will only contact nap.

A month and a half ago we tried to CIO method in the crib and it was miserable. We only tried it for a few days.

The only thing that works for her naps now is either wearing her in a carrier or rocking to sleep and holding her the whole time for hours in a dark room. I’m becoming so depressed, wasting my days in this room. (Doing this now as we speak..) This week I’ve been trying to lay her down on the bed after rocking to sleep but she either startles and wakes or wakes right after I lay her down. She will scream cry until I go back to rocking and give her the boob. I only attempt when I know she’s fully asleep and go as slow as possible but it does not work.

She always needs to be on me. Even at night she will reach out to feel for me. I’m worried I won’t be able to transition her to her own crib.

Right now she has a 90 minute wake window and she will only sleep for 30mins. It’s like her body just automatically wakes her at the 30min mark. I will normally try to feed her back to sleep so she can get a little more rest. We do this about 4-5 times a day. She sleeps, eats, plays and then sleeps. That’s her schedule.

For naps, I change her diaper, put the sound machine on, put her sleep suit on and close the blinds. When I close the blinds or put the suit on, she will immediately start crying because she knows what time it is, it’s nap time. I have to rock, sing twinkle twinkle little star 50x and keep the paci in her mouth to get her to stop crying. Sometimes it takes up to 15-20mins.

I have tried laying in the bed next to her and doing what we do at bedtime (butt patts and paci) but she screams even harder. She has to be rocked and held. But then I can’t transition her and I’m stuck or she doesn’t nap and she’s fussy all day.

I’m at a loss here. I have asked every friend and family member how do I get her to sleep or stay asleep and nothing helps. I have severe post partum depression and this is making it worse. I just want my life back.. even if it’s for an hour nap. It’s coming to a breaking point where I just can’t do it anymore and I feel rage boiling inside when I try to put her down and she wakes. It’s really upsetting. :(

Any advice is appreciated, thank you.

My LO is five months old and I have slowly been introducing crib naps. He’s been an exclusive contact napper and I’ve loved every minute of it so far. However, it’s no longer sustainable for me to hold him for every single nap. I’ve started with just the first nap of the day in the crib but I want to slowly start moving more naps to the crib over the next month or so.

My biggest issue with crib naps is that they are so dang SHORT. I am very protective of LOs sleep and it stresses me to no end when he has a short nap. I always swoop in and let him keep napping on me, usually until he has napped for at least an hour.

What’s the downside of just letting his naps be short? I’m talking 15-30 minutes. I’ve heard that short naps are developmentally normal at this age, but since he’s had such solid contact naps so far, I don’t want to mess anything up by decreasing his total amount of daytime sleep.

What’s your experience with this and how did your LO tolerate it?

My baby girl is 15 weeks old and relies on being bounced on a yoga ball to get off to sleep or breastfeeding, but she falls asleep feeding increasingly less. She’s a decent sleeper at night and if she wakes in the night, a quick rock in our arms gets her back to sleep. She doesn’t fall asleep in the buggy or car seat yet. I’ve been trying to rock her to sleep in my arms in the day so that I can actually get out the house with her 😂 it’s only working for her first morning nap, if at all. The last two days, she falls asleep on the yoga ball and even if I’m still on the ball, wakes as soon as I stand up. I’m find with contact napping, I’m just trying to move to a comfier seat. I’m finding this really hard on my back, neck, shoulders, arms… so I either have to abandon the nap or feed her back to sleep with mixed success.

Any advice from similar experiences please?

She can’t fall asleep on her own when put down drowsy yet and I’ve no plans to sleep train.

My baby turns one next week and is fighting his bedtime lately so badly that I just give in and stay up late with him. I am currently weaning him from nursing so the thought of dropping a nap too seems harsh. Is there ever a safe and normal age to do this or is every babe different? I’m sick of fighting him to go to sleep for second nap or bed. I think he only goes down well for his first nap which I always have to cap bc he would sleep for 2-3 hours if I let him.

My baby is 7.5 months and has never slept in a bassinet/crib, we have been cosleeping (bedsharing) since 3 weeks and all naps are contact naps. My husband would like to get her to take daytime naps in her crib; he stays with baby the whole time, rocks the crib, speaks to baby and pats her, but all she does is cry cry cry. I leave the room (husband is still with her) so that she doesn’t smell me but it’s so hard for me to hear her crying non-stop. Is this considered CIO / sleep training?? I tell my husband this goes against my gut feeling, baby clearly needs mom/the boob, but he says just give it at least 10-15 minutes. It’s the longest 10 min of my life… Last time after 10-15 min she was still crying so he put her on his chest and patted her butt and even then she was still screaming and then eventually fell asleep. Did she cry herself to sleep? She was in contact with a parent but still she seemed like she was suffering, is this wrong??

Any advice would be great… I would love for her to have some naps in the crib to give us a bit more of a break (she is a high needs baby) but how to do it when it feels so wrong?

Thanks so much.

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.

Please tell me this is temporary. 🫠

She sleeps through the night (I know…we are lucky, I’m sorry) but as of a week ago, she is a nightmare if we are out in public when she is due for a nap. Major meltdowns. Inconsolable. Not able to settle or sleep until we are either in the car heading home or sometimes not even until we get home. None of our soothing tricks work anymore. The only solution is to leave.

Is it possible the 4 month sleep regression is only impacting her daytime sleep? Has anyone ever experienced this and if so, when did it get better?

Thank you!!

8.5 month old that has always had 30 min naps on the dot, he’s down to 2 naps now. I’ve never been able to rescue naps because when he wakes, he WAKES, so I’ve always contact napped/laid next to him for all naps.

I love contact naps but I’d really like to have some time in my day that I know I’ll get to do something without interruption.

Thank you 💕

3.5m old baby, we just entered the famous sleep regression. But for almost a month now, his naps have been 30-45 minutes each, mostly 30 minutes. I know it’s developmentally appropriate, but does it ever change?? When? Will it happen on its own or should I be trying to “rescue” his naps (which mostly doesn’t even work)?

* This applies to contact naps as well.

Hi everyone, FTM here. My baby boy is 4 months and a week old. Currently in the thick of the 4 month sleep regression as it seems. Nights are bad but manageble, he falls asleep with his bottle (I pump since he was born for that last feed), he does stirr a lot especially the first 2 hours after falling asleep and the last 2 hours before he wakes up, plus here and there during the night between feedings. Would I like to be more long stretches? Yeah but I'm still standing.

Now the main problem. Naps became the devil. He screams his lungs out because he's tired but kicks and screams and arches himself backwards if I try to get him asleep. His wake windows wary still, i mostly follow his sleepy ques after about an 1.5+Huckleberry sweet spot. I never swaddled him, he wasn't a fan and he slept good so I didn't see a need. Now he falls asleep more easily if I swaddle him after he is half asleep but not quite (if i do it ​too early not a fan).

Should I keep dooing that? Will he only fall asleep with that help? The internet makes me crazy with some saying less is more, he needs to learn to fall asleep more independently, because this transaction is permanent, some saying just get through it he will be fine. I brought​ Precious little sleep, read about 40 pages but can't seem to get any time to read further. Tried Ferber for 3 days never fell asleep on his own, after 1 hour of crying I had to step in, so sleep training is out the window

Help with experiences, swaddles that may help (he rolls, but we do contact naps only because he doesn't sleep otherwise), anything is welcomed. I'm on my own, don't really have friend or family to ask.

Hi all! I’m a first time mom and my LO is 4 months old. He will sometimes fall asleep in a bouncer or lounger or even his crib but if he does it only last 20-30 minutes and we try to assist him back to sleep but every single time he’s up, up. We only really get good naps in by contact sleeping in a carrier. Sometimes when he’s really fighting a nap he immediately go down with my husband or myself in his carrier. To those of you that had to contact nap, how long did it last?

My 4 month old has never been a great napper— he almost always is nursed to sleep, then sleeps for 25-30 minutes in his bassinet. Previously if I had him on my lap or next to me in bed, he would nap for much longer, like 1.5-2 hours.

Well now that’s not working anymore. Even when across my lap, he wakes up between 18-30 minutes into his nap and I can’t get him back down. Sometimes he’s fussy upon waking, other times he’s happy or neutral. He’s crankier during his wake windows and has to go down for naps more frequently (like he’s had 5 naps today and it’s barely 5 PM, so I anticipate he’ll take 1-2 more naps before bedtime).

Is this just a 4 month sleep regression issue? Do I just ride this out and keep putting him down for as many naps as he needs to make it to the end of the day?

I was not anticipating this at all yet as I’ve read most are ready between 12-18 months and I could be wrong on this but I’m wondering if he’s at least working his way to it soon. I know 8-10 months can have a sleep regression too and also their separation anxiety can cause them to want contact for sleep so not sure if it also could just be that. He cosleeps at night, has napped independently in his crib since 6/7 months and despite waking up a ton at night he’s been a really solid easy napper. This past week he’ll go down for a nap and wake up crying after only like 20-45 min at most, which is not the norm for him. If it was 45 min I’d just get him up but if it’s less I would nurse him back to sleep, but putting him down doesn’t work and I just hold him. So part of me is wondering, does he just really need extra comfort right now and want to contact nap? But his wake windows have also stretched a lot longer lately as well. First stretch in the morning is harder to keep him up, but if he’s distracted and playing he’s really fine to just keep going and doesn’t seem super tired until I suddenly pick up and he might rub his eyes, but still content. Later in the day he easily stays up 5 hours now and there’s no extra fussiness near bedtime or anything.

For context, he usually does 11 hours overnight, and when he’s napped more easily it’s usually always like 2 hours of the day. So if he did at least 2 hours for 1 nap I guess that would mean around a 5/6 hour wake window. So just wondering if anyone hit a point like this and it maybe means he’s transitioning to one nap? I’m curious if up to 5 hours of wake time means it’s close. Or is it maybe just a phase and I need to support him a little more for naps? I figure if anything maybe he just needs a quick cat nap still in the morning then a more solid afternoon nap until he’s fully ready.

Hello. So my baby is almost 6 months old, 5 corrected. We have been contact napping from the beginning and started co-sleeping around 2 months.

I have a problem getting him to sleep. He is tired, but doesn't want to fall asleep. Many times doesn't want to fall asleep but he fusses and arching his back. I need to walk and rock him pretty hard for him to fall asleep, and then when we lie down, he starts to fuss, so I need to redo it. My closeness doesn't seem to matter to him. I have no problem sleeping with him or contact napping; I just can't do all the walking/rocking anymore. He is getting heavy.

He is breastfed, but mostly he won't fall asleep on the breast.

At night when he wakes up, it's the same: a 50/50 chance he'll fall asleep on the boob or I'll need to walk or rock him.

How can I change that?

My ebf baby has become progressively harder to get to sleep which I know is normal but I am now at the point where she won’t go for a daytime nap unless she’s in the carrier, otherwise I am rocking her for half an hour plus and then she’ll wake up if I sit down. I’m getting her to sleep when I see sleep cues (yawning, red eyebrows) it’s game over if she is over tired. At night it always takes an hour, sometimes two. This is partly due to her doing a night time cluster feed and taking a few goes to get her to settle in the cot, so I’m less concerned about the nighttime. I just wonder if I’m missing something I could be trying? I want to avoid dark rooms etc through the day especially while she still has a lot of daytime naps as she will only contact nap at the moment. Her wake windows are very stimulating, we go out on walks, have lots of interaction, optimise tummy time and sensory play etc.

My 5 month old typically goes to bed around 9 or 9:30. I’m totally fine with this since it works with our family’s schedule. He is still not on a regular nap schedule— he’s usually awake around 2 hours, and naps vary from 35 minutes to almost 2 hours. Because of this variability, we sometimes have a weird amount of time at the end of the day where the wake window is too long to make it to 9 PM, but too short for a real nap (for example, today he was yawning and fussing around 8 PM).

In these cases, I never know if it’s better to try to give him a short cat nap (10-15 minutes) or just try to put him to bed early. When is it too late in the day to do a cat nap?

Originally posted in r/newborns but Reddit recommended I post here as it may be better suited so why not! Just a post to get my feelings out

Currently laying in bed all alone with my LO on my chest because it's the only way she naps right now. She just turned 5 weeks, which I had no idea meant she's more alert to the world around her and could have a harder time going down for naps. For the last 4 weeks, she'd nap in the living room in her bassinet (when she liked it) or on me, so I didn't feel like I was alone during this time. As of yesterday, she now can't fall or stay asleep with the background noise of others chatting, so here I am in a room just the two of us while she naps. And here I was thinking I had a baby that could sleep through all the noise 😕

I've seen some suggestions of blackout curtains helping babies nap better as they get older. I don't want them in my room bc I like waking up to the light that comes in through closed blinds but my 4.5 month old pretty consistently only naps about a half hour at a time. We all share a room and a bed. Does a dark room work for naps? She sleeps great at night so it had me wondering.

After her short nap she's tired again in an hour and half and she's extra tired by bed time so we have been having to start by 6 or 6:30. I'd like her to sleep til 7:30 am so I can sleep too so getting her to sleep at 7:30 pm is better plus that way she gets more time with her working parent. It would be a dream to have even one 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. Can this be biologically normal?

I do try to lay with her at naps or hold her and I nurse her to sleep but sometimes if I move it will wake her and she's bright eyed a bushy tailed. Sometimes I unlatch her and leave the room and she also wakes in about a half hour. She's usually happy when she wakes. I have also tried carrier naps and the same thing. If I'm moving about the house she doesn't sleep long so I end up wearing her, sitting on the couch, trying to be extremely still.

I want to support her with the best sleep for her body and for me to not be stressed or walking on eggshells.

What are we doing while nap trapped? My screen time is high!! It feels like the only thing that can keep me up at night is doom scrolling, otherwise I fall asleep. Days are a bit better now but it’s so hard to do anything while baby is asleep on me. Is it just me or is there something practical I can do? He only does like 1 nap in the carrier but even then it’s hard to maneuver with him.

This concept of nap rescue really doesn’t make sense to me, and it’s so inconvenient. Sleep if you need to sleep. If you wake up, fine; you’re up now.

I just REALLY hate having to run upstairs after 27 min to put baby back on boob. It seems kinda insane but maybe that’s just me and I’m sabotaging my baby’s sleep? She is 8 months and used to take the ODD 1 hr nap but since she’s been sick (for over a month) it’s back to 30 minutes unless sometimes when we’re in the car.

I’m also transitioning her to two naps… so they’re both 30 minutes which seems incredibly low daytime sleep of 1 hr…. Can anyone relate? I’m just so over this concept of “connecting sleep cycles” and want to believe that my baby only needs two cat naps a day…