HELP! I need to sort out her day time naps

[Lady M's Mummy]

Tilly has always been difficult to settle during the day. She is super fussy over where she will and won't sleep. For the first 3 months of her life she would only sleep on our shoulders...when she became too big for this to be comfortable we managed to get her to sleep in her bugaboo in a semi reclined seating position (still largely upright though).

We have tried several times to get her to sleep in her cot during the day but she goes into complete melt down which is :loco: given that we put her into her cot at night awake and she settles herself to sleep (and has been doing so since she was about 5 days old)

It is getting beyond a joke now - we really do need to get her to settle in her cot. But after so long i don't know how to begin - have we made a rod for our own backs by letting it carry on for so long or will it be easier now that she is older?

HELP! Any advice appreciated. We are desperate!

[Mrs B]

I had something similar, and turns out I was putting him down at the wrong time. Maybe wait til she is really tired and then do it, I reckon when she's done it a few times she'll feel more comfortable. Good luck!

[Twistarella]

I had the same problem with A a few months back and I was just very persistent with putting her in her cot for her daytime sleeps.

I'm trying to remember, but I think when she went in to meltdown, I stayed with her doing shhh/pat and pick up/put down until she got the idea that the cot was where she would be sleeping for her daytime naps.

[Duckie]

Why is it a problem her only sleeping in the Bugaboo for naps? Just wondering as at least wherever you go you'll always have that with you ie. if you go to a friends for the day, and you can go out on a whim if she's already asleep. Does she not sleep very long in it for example? Just trying to understand as we have a similar 'problem' in that Anna will only sleep in one place, but that one place is her cot so if we're out and about she will not sleep in the Bugaboo and only in the car if she's desperate :doh: . I was just thinking it would be so much easier if she'd sleep in the pushchair too.

Anyway, to try and answer the question - what times does she sleep during the day usually? Do you have a day routine for naps or just go with the flow? Does she have a dummy or comforter that she's attached to? Anna has been taking all her sleeps in her cot since she was about 4m when she outgrew the Bugaboo carrycot - she would only sleep half an hour at a time in the pram which was partly why I wanted to crack it as well. I put her in her sleeping bag for daytime naps after discovering she slept much longer this way, and she became really attached to her penguin comforters that were free on packs of Comfort Pure before Xmas :oops: . I say the same thing to her when I put her down too, and we've been going to baby signing classes since just after Xmas so I always sign 'sleep' to her as well - she know what it means now and signs 'sleep' herself when she's tired.

Those are a few things that helped us anyway - if you want to change things I think consistency is they key, so you might find yourself kind of housebound for a few days while you change the routine. Also, wait until she's really tired like Mrs B said, which is why I asked about when she sleeps during the day. I don't think you've made a rod for your own back, and it can be changed but I was just wondering why you wanted her to just nap in her cot (not having a go or anything, but just looking at it from my own perspective and thinking it would be so much easier if Anna would sleep in the buggy too :smile: )