LO won't nap very long unless in carrier or held
dodgerfantobe
member
My little guy is 12 weeks old. He sleeps well when we are out and I have him in a carrier (2 hours or more) - and he sleeps well at night (~7 hours) and usually 2-3 hours of sleep after his early morning feeding.
But if he is napping at home (in a Rock and Play, swaddled), he sleeps for about an hour and then wakes up. Replacing the paci doesn't work. He hasn't taken to a noise machine yet (it was magic for my daughter). He's not ready to be awake - when I pick him up he goes right back to sleep. When I try to put him down again after letting him sleep about 10 minutes, he's back up within 10 minutes, sometimes right away. Sonetimes I do put him in carrier at home, if it's getting to be dinner time and I need my hands, and he's back to sleep.
I've always feared 'the baby who needs to be held to sleep' - certainly I don't mind holding him. I know it's too soon for him to really be able to seelf-soothe back to sleep, so just looking for any suggestions to help him nap better at home. I was wanting to get his naps improved before transitioning out of the RnP, but maybe I should just do that now, try to change everything at once.
Re: LO won't nap very long unless in carrier or held
Same here. My LO is 10.5 weeks and the only time he naps more than 20 minutes during the day with me is being held or in the carrier. He won't even fall asleep anymore in his bouncer or his swing. But if my parents are watching him, he will sleep fine for 2+ hours in the bouncer or swing!!
Luckily, he sleeps in his crib at night - although he does need to be held by me or MH initially for him to fall asleep.
We are having the exact same problem (except he sleeps swaddled in the crib). DS can absolutely put himself to sleep - I'd say he does it about 70 percent of the time (day and night). I read somewhere that if they only sleep 45 minutes they were overtired. Not sure if that's true. If it's true for us, I don't know what to do. I've tried putting him down at varying times and it's always the same. Hope someone replies with some help!
After I responded, DS woke up after his 45 minutes and I unswaddled him thinking I'd give that a try... he's been asleep for about an hour now. Maybe it's worth a try. I'm going to try that for his later nap too. Now I have to wake him up to eat (gah... of course after he starts sleeping!)