Contact naps
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I still contact nap my baby unless she falls asleep in her pram/car seat. She’s 5.5 months old, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If it’s making him nap better then keep doing it if you can x
My baby wouldn’t do anything but contact naps; I put it down to a mixture of him being a preemie and our downstairs being very cold and him wanting the warmth. At 4 months old he went through a sleep regression and I decided to really push for a routine and tried to start off with just one independent nap. At first he hated it and also kicked off but I tried different places for naps and found what works for him. For the most part he now naps independently although only for 30-45 minutes. It’s unpleasant to hear them cry but maybe try putting him down for a nap and giving him something soothing like a dummy or put a T-shirt down under him that you’ve worn. We also found he liked rocking and the dark for naps and white noise really helped too. It is hard and I was the same with how upset I was getting but after around 2 days, it seemed to work well.
I don’t think it’s something they just stop doing or grow out of, it’s more of a transition from one to the other, at least it was with us! I started with my now 5mo at about 3 months putting her down for naps and it didn’t always happen but now she goes down for every nap and puts herself to sleep if she hasn’t already fallen asleep during a feed! We just persisted with it until she got used to it😊 Maybe try rocking to sleep and then transferring to the cot or staying in the room til they fall asleep, both those things helped us!