Reluctant Napper...

My 5 month old son has suddenly stopped wanting to take a nap. I know
he's tired/sleepy because I see the "signs", but I try and try to put
him down to no avail. I've tried the swing, the crib, the PNP, and the
only things that finally get him to go down are nursing and co-sleeping
(which I'm ok with once in a while, but not ALL the time) or a long
stroll in the stroller.

I'm carless this week due to car in shop, but I know he falls asleep in
there too. But, since its a convertible seat, I can't very well bring
it inside once I stop driving.

Not teething as far as I can tell (felt gums, no drool...). No other
new stuff going on....

I know that good sleep during the day begets good sleep at night, which
he hasn't been doing either (4 hours first stretch, then up every
2!!!).

He's a very demanding/clingy boy...perhaps separation anxiety early?

TIA!
maureen

wrote:
My 5 month old son has suddenly stopped wanting to take a nap. I know
he's tired/sleepy because I see the "signs", but I try and try to put
him down to no avail. I've tried the swing, the crib, the PNP, and the
only things that finally get him to go down are nursing and co-sleeping
(which I'm ok with once in a while, but not ALL the time) or a long
stroll in the stroller.

I'm carless this week due to car in shop, but I know he falls asleep in
there too. But, since its a convertible seat, I can't very well bring
it inside once I stop driving.

Not teething as far as I can tell (felt gums, no drool...). No other
new stuff going on....

I know that good sleep during the day begets good sleep at night, which
he hasn't been doing either (4 hours first stretch, then up every
2!!!).

He's a very demanding/clingy boy...perhaps separation anxiety early?

I doubt it. I think it's very normal for babies at
this age to start resisting naps. They're finally old enough
that they *can* resist falling asleep, and they don't want to
miss out on all the fun. Mostly, you just persevere through
this, but I also suspect that you might be waiting a bit too
long to put him down. If you wait until you see signs that
he's sleepy, he's probably overtired and will have difficulty
falling asleep. At this age, I would move to being more
proactive about naps. Figure out what his general pattern
is (mine were at three naps a day at that time--about 9am,
noonish, and 5ish--with the move to two naps a day somewhere
around 7 months, IIRC), and then just have a regular naptime
and a regular routine leading up to it. At least for my kids,
it wasn't necessary to be slavish about the timing or the
routine. I just needed to be in the same general ballpark.
It's a great time to introduce a lovey of some sort (we
used blankies), if you haven't already.

Best wishes,
Ericka