Sorry for the length - I’m looking for some reassurance or advice. Please no theories - just moms who have had experience with their babies and sleep. :)

I have an 8 month old and have finally reached a level of confidence in taking care of her. I feel like I know her well, and where I had second guessed myself in the past about many things with her, generally feel good about our routines and such now.

Sleep, however, has been a consistent question mark. I want her to develop healthy sleep skills, but (as with most things parenting-related) find myself being tugged back and forth between what others say is correct and healthy.

So here’s what we do now for sleep:

- Night sleep with her has always been pretty easy. She sleeps in her crib. Sure, she’s had her regressions, but always seems to naturally progress in her own time. We have not sleep trained, but I also don’t just run in to her if she starts crying. I give her time to settle, try

to decipher between upset/hungry cries and simply protesting cries, and go in if I feel I should. I nurse her before bed and she usually lets me know when she’s done. She goes in the crib tired, but awake, and 90% of the time is able to fall sleep without me needing to go back in. She’s started cutting out the last night feeding and about 75% of the time sleeps 9-12 hours without needing me to come get her. She wakes throughout the night, and puts herself back to sleep.

- Day sleep is different. She rarely naps in her crib. She naps best and longest on me/in a carrier. When I put her in the crib, her naps are short to non-existent and her night sleep suffers. I don’t mind her napping on me, in fact I cherish it (and it’s often convenient to be able to travel while she naps - we are a fairly busy family). I stay home with her and so it doesn’t bother me to have some time holding her during the day. As time goes on I start feeling embarrassed to tell others that she doesn’t really nap in her crib, like I’m making a bad choice. I’ve started trying to put her down for naps occasionally, but don’t want to ruin her night sleep. As she gets older she’s more tolerant than she’d been in the past at napping in the crib, but it’s still not great. And I don’t blame her - I’ve always been terrible at napping, and we live in a city where day noises are very different than nighttime (even with her sound machine). Part of me feels like it’s ok to let her naturally progress with sleep and when her night sleep is solid and night feedings are completely gone then it might be a more natural time for her to take more naps there.

As I’ve said, we haven’t sleep trained and she’s done so well with night sleep naturally, and in a carrier (and occasionally in her crib) she takes great naps.

Have you ever been in this position? Do you think it’s ok to do naps in the carrier? If not, what have you done differently that’s worked?

Thank you!