Tips on how to get your baby to nap in their crib?

Question

My 7 month old will only nap on me! I enjoy it but at the same time it would be nice to have some free time to get stuff done. Plus I know it’s not a healthy sleep routine. How do I transition her to napping in her crib? I’ve tried a few times and she wakes up right away and screams. ☹️

Answer

I’m in the same struggle. My 7 month old will nap only if I’m holding her. She sleeps fine at night in her crib but forget during the day!
We just started sleep training a bit, so I follow the same routine pre nap and lay her down. Then go in every 10 min to comfort her until she falls asleep. We just started yesterday and she did manage a few short naps in her crib. I’m hoping as she gets used to it her naps will get longer.

Answer

I let my daughter play in her crib.  I lay her down give her a stuff animal to play with.  Some days she plays for 5 minutes before falling a sleep and other days 30 minutes.  It started by accident when I was trying to familiarize her with the crib (slept in bassenett for first 6 months).  I put her in crib to see that it was ok as I sat in rocker and folded clothes.  On day I walked out to answer the phone and when I went back she was a sleep.  Did the same thing every day for a week and now its routine.  Some days she gets excited to go in her crib.

Answer

My baby is the same. She will cry for an hour or longer if I put her in her crib and then she is fussy because she didn't sleep. I gave up on it.

Answer

Same exact situation as you! We co sleep at night and I don’t mind that as he sleeps on his own pillow but naps he has to sleeping on my chest I tried laying him down and his eyes shoot right open and he screams. He starts daycare on Monday and I’m so scared they are going to call me to come get him because he won’t stop crying at nap time. 😩😩

Answer

same problem except every night. she can show signs of being tired, rubbing her eyes and yawning along with fussiness. so i give her the last bottle for the day, she drinks it and semi falls asleep on me. the second i put her down its an all out scream fest. for an hr... i check on her every 10 to 15 min but it just makes her scream more. after about an hr, she starts falling asleep in 2 to 5 min stints and it gradually lasts longer until she gets to about 2 hrs asleep. by then its 11pm and when we wake up because shea crying we normally pick her up and help her go back to sleep. probably my mistake but im just so sleepy that i dont think about it.

Answer

so the only thing that works for my 7 month old is if we lay her on our bed to nap..if we try the crib she wakes up crying the second she hits the mattress! but for some reason she will nap AN HOUR on our bed!! sometimes she will start to cry when we put her down, so we just put our hands on her chest until she falls asleep again which usually works. I think the shock of being lowered into her crib wakes her, our bed is really high up.

Answer

I have the same issue as you. When I’ve been able to get my 7 month old to, I’ve had to put up a baby monitor, lay him down, give him 10-15 minutes to settle down. If he gets too upset I go and get him out and try again later. If it’s been 15 minutes and he still doesn’t seem anywhere close to sleeping I go and get him. If he seems like he’s getting tired I leave him a little longer. It’s rough and heart breaking, but it works.