Baby nap on you?

[AliceGeorge]

Anyone else have a baby who only naps on you and doesn't sleep well on his/her own? Would you please tell me about what works for you?

[northwoods]

Sling!

My DD has a hard time sleeping more than 20 minutes on her own. I work at home, so I put her in the sling and get work done on the computer.

I'm looking forward to the day when she naps independently, but this works OK for now.

[AliceGeorge]

My oldest never napped on his own for the same reason, but now I have two and would like to get some things done. I just find it so hard to get things done with someone in front of me like that. Do you have any tricks?

[mckittre]

Wear the baby on your back instead.

[samstress]

going through the same thing (and just responded to a similar thread in my ddc).  would love some ideas.  i love holding (and wearing) ds, but being able to put him down to nap every once in a while would be a relief.  i don't remember dd being like this.

[Amanda_Reyasmom]

I embrace it :) I sit my @$$ on the sofa and gaze at my baby.  Everything else can wait.  If I REALLY need to do something I put her on her daddy or sister. 

[mommy212]

DS slept on me, usually on my bfing pillow, for probably 6 months before he would sleep twenty minutes on his own

[MidcoastMEMom]

My DD#1 was and now DD#2 is like this! Occasionally I can get #2 to nap on her own for about 10-15 minutes, tops. (She's only 6 weeks). I am a big fan of attachment parenting - once I figured out it was really and truly OK for my babies to be "velcro babies," I relaxed and just went with it. I highly recommend a Moby wrap (my baby takes naps in it) if you want to get things done, go for a walk, etc. and an Ergo baby carrier when your baby is older. Also, I co-sleep with my DD #2 and she sleeps on my arm, nestled up, just like my first daughter did and I love it! We can sleepy-nurse and sleep really well at night. Don't stress about this - my oldest daughter is 4 now and sleeps on her own and sometimes I miss the snuggly days. It's going to go by really quickly and I can almost guarantee you that you won't regret cuddling with or holding your baby and when you look back, you'll won't say, "jeeze, when DD/DS was little, I really wish I'd been able to do more dishes." My oldest is now really used to the baby being a part of me in the Moby wrap - she's fine! After all, these little people WERE part of us for 9 months (or more!) and I think most baby "clinginess" is completely natural.

That being said, there's no reason you shouldn't let your baby nap on his/her own IF he/she will. I have a bed downstairs with bedrails and will gently lay her down on that after nursing or sometimes I nurse her there and roll away and off the bed... sometimes she stays, sometimes her eyes pop open instantly! It's trial and error. The other thing that sometimes works for some moms is to start their babies out in the sling or wrap and then when they're in deep sleep mode, lay them down then. That has worked a couple of times for me. But, patience. Your baby will be a kid in the blink of an eye! Just my 2 cents. Good luck!

Erin

[cooper1414]

Mine is like this too....5 weeks old and napping on me now.  ;) 

[Magali]

I have one!  She is 8 months old and still only sleeps when she is being held.  What works for me is passing her off to my sister.  She'll sleep for hours on my sister.  But of course my sister isn't around 24/7 so most of the time I'm stuck.  So different than my ds who used to sleep for hours by himself every day until he was about 2 years old.  I usually try to get comfy and play a video game or go online when she is napping so I am not bored out of my tree. 

[Weevil]

My 6 month old still does this.  He either naps on the boppy after falling asleep after a feeding, or falls asleep in the Ergo (I need to be moving - no standing still or sitting allowed!).  If he falls asleep on the boppy, I find something else to do - TV or online or reading in the meantime.

I kind of giggle at how shocked everyone is when they hear this- like I'm some horrible parent or what an imposition this must be on me, and this must be corrected immediately!!111!!!  That baby must sleep in his crib, etc  (haha, he's never slept in his crib more than a couple of times - for 10-20 minutes only).  I kind of like it.  It gives me good snuggle time and a chance to relax :)

[Ola_]

Yup, I have just recently been able to transfer DD (3.5 months) to the swing sometimes after she is good and asleep.  She wakes easier in it due to noises, etc than if I'm holding her but sometimes I really need to get something done.  Other than that I have been napping with her and reading.

[vegrunr]

My son was like this until about 6 months.  We just started trying to put him down for naps around 4-5 months and would re-rock him if he woke up.  At first he only slept for 20 min or so and would wake up but now he takes 2 naps/day about 1 hr each so it is much improved!  Sometimes I'd try again and sometimes I'd just hold him for the rest of the nap.  We ended up having to put him down on a mattress on the floor nestled in the Boppy.  We couldn't lower him into his crib without him waking up and still uses the Boppy to nap in sometimes.  We put a pillow at the open end and he laid butt down with head and feet kinda propped on it. 

[AliceGeorge]

I have absolutely no idea what a Boppy is. It's been a little while now since I wrote this. It's less that I don't want him napping on me, and more that I want suggestions of how to be productive, or play with my older son, or whatever, WHILE he sleeps on me. He sometimes sleeps in the Ergo during a walk, then we get home and he either wakes up, or I have difficulty doing anything with him in there, but if he falls asleep in there, I can't sit down. Usually he falls asleep and then I watch tv, but it seems that once I pick one way, I'm stuck with it, and doing dishes, etc, is too much awkward movement for him and he wakes up. Our house is an honest to God craphole right now, and I'd like to get caught up. We've had so much trouble with nursing that I've done a lot of sitting around nursing and am on Domperidone, so I've gained more than 40 pounds since he was born. Dom makes me gain, and so does sitting around, especially since I then also eat more. I feel like complete and total crap in most senses of the word. We bedshare at night with the baby, and some of the time with the older one (3.5 yrs) and did with older guy until shortly after the baby was born, so I'm certainly not against him sleeping with me. In fact, for the older guy, the only reason he started sleeping in his own bed was because we were waking him up at night when I was pumping. We offered him a new bed in his own room, with nice new sheets and such, and he's been in it most of the time since. I kind of regret it, in fact, but what I'm concerned about now is more that my watching lots of tv and sitting on my butt while the baby naps is badly affecting the older one. He watches more tv and sits on his butt because of it. I don't want him becoming sedentary because I am, especially since I'm way more overweight than I'd like to be. I want to be a better example, I guess, and at the same time do something good for myself, because being overweight and inactive is not...

[lismcc]

my 5 and a 1/2 week old will only nap on me (hes napping in the sling right now).  i use a sling and the moby LOTS, as the motion seems to soothe him.  this way i get a few things done.  otherwise we do a lot of sitting while he naps.  if he goes to sleep in moby or sling and i try to put him down he always wakes up within 10 minutes.  this is okay for now, i understand our babes desire and need to be on us constantly - they were in us not too long ago.  plus my midwife says all the touch time and holding is good for their brain development.

im curious about baby hammocks though, because at some point in the next few months it would be great to really put him down for a nap.   has anyone with a babe that wants to be held during naps tried a baby hammock?  im thinking it could be a could switchover, like, baby goes to sleep on me then i transition him to hammock.  thoughts?

[Asiago]

My son napped in a SSC carrier or sling  most of his time until 13 months. However there was a time when I could slip him into a jog stroller then stroll him to the part of the house I was in, so he was with me. It didn't last long though as soon he awoke crying a couple of times, even though I was a foot away. He still needed to be ON me, so I went back to that. Whatever it takes to address his needs.

Now he naps in the family bed (he is 20 months). I go in and nurse him every hour or so, and he goes back to sleep within 20 minutes  (his naps are 2-4 hrs).

Oh and he has always nursed to sleep, which is great and works very well.