# Naps only in carrier while walking



## fringepod (May 16, 2009)

Hi all,

So my DD is now getting on 15 weeks. She was in intensive care for her first two weeks and crazy colicky shortly after bringing her home which ended up meaning she was barely sleeping which just made things worse...etc. Somehow we figured out that she would sleep in her carrier while walking and this new ability to nap (along with probiotics) made for a much happier baby. Fast forward too now: she is still a happy kids...so long as she gets walked 4+ hours a day, outside. 

I'm getting absolutely nothing done because if I'm not walking I'm nursing and maybe making some hard boiled eggs so I have the energy to walk so many miles a day :-\ I was supposed to return to work part time working from my computer at home but so far that's been impossible. I've tried getting her to sleep outside and then coming in and bouncing on the exercise ball in front of the computer but she only lasts maybe 10 minutes if she'll even tolerate being in the house at all...

I'm hoping for some ideas on how to transition her to at minimum staying asleep in her carrier inside the house. She sometimes will fall asleep while nursing but she won't tolerate being moved off of me so I'm in the same boat as when I'm walking in that I can't work (or eat our whatever). How have other mamas transitioned their little ones from carrier to crib for example? I don't mind walking her to sleep, and I don't mind even just having her in the carrier the whole time she naps so long add she can handle diminished movement...I love carrying her but just not walking at noon in 95 degree weather and it would be nice to be able to put her down for a nap every now and then...

Ideas? Experience? Commiseration? Thanks for any help!


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## anyalily (Oct 23, 2008)

My daughter was like this. We realized that she would go down in the stroller and then we could wheel her in the house, having her in the doorway with fresh air while she napped. Honestly, she never napped more than 45-60 minutes at a time... It was rough, but it will pass!

She would sleep in bed for a while if I nursed her down, but it was not reliable for naps.


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## blessed23 (Oct 18, 2013)

I can definitely relate......!!!
My baby was/is a high needs baby. Very sensitive and colicky, and I was excited when I got 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep when he was 3 mos old...and 6 mos old...and 8 mos...lol. He's almost 11 mos and is finally starting to sleep for longer stretches @ a time, but of course we have the ever present teething situation that throws a wrench in the works, too.  
My DH and I used to take turns walking/dancing/shushing/singing him to sleep for naps and at night - multiple times during the night, actually. Honestly, he was about 5 months old before he finally started taking naps in bed by himself (we cosleep w/side car crib). 

The transition was rough. We discovered he would sleep for a couple hours straight if we performed an elaborate routine of laying him on the bed, patting his bum and shushing/singing to him for about 20 minutes. He was NOT pleased with this situation, I will be honest...he would scream bloody murder for 25-45 minutes every few nights, but then it was like he would "reset" and would sleep great...or great for him, anyway, haha!

We were graduating, packing up, moving halfway across the country, and getting ready for the holidays all at the same time. I couldn't get as much done with him in the carrier and worse, he was super restful and was getting towhere he'd wake up at every movement/noise, despite my attempts at white noise in the house.  

Anyway, he's 11 months old and now that all of the moving/new job stuff has settled and he's a little older, he's settled into a pretty decent routine of morning nap, afternoon nap and bedtime around 7-730pm. He fusses a little when falling asleep but mostly because he wants to get up and crawl around. I still stay with him after he's nursed so I can pat his little booty and sing or shhhhh him - the whole process takes around 30 minutes. 
When teething, colds or overtiredness isn't getting in the way, he sleeps sometimes 3-4 hours without waking! Haha!!! Which is awesome for him! 

Dang... there are times I start thinking, "Maybe he's not really high needs and I'm just making it up..." then I actually write down all of the stuff required to get him to sleep for a few hours...or one of my friends enthusiastically shares how her 7 week old is sleeping 6 hours straight...and I am reminded that yes, he is high needs and no, I'm not crazy. 

Oh yes... forgot to add - we do use a pacifier! At first I was adamant we were NOT going to EVER use one.. then we had tons of breastfeeding issues including mastitis, a breast abscess, oversupply, he had a lip tie and posterior tongue tie that had to be revised...and suddenly the binky situation didn't seem like such a big deal... He falls asleep with it in and spits it out in his sleep half the time. 

Sorry for being super rambly!!! This has been a snippet of how we transitioned from him sleeping in arms to sleeping in our bed and finally to actually sleeping in the crib by our bed haha! If something doesn't make sense, just let me know, because it's late and I'm tired!!  
Hang in there - I know it can be rough and some days are worse than others...just know that your hard work is so worth it! Your little one is blessed to have such a dedicated mama.


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## fringepod (May 16, 2009)

Thanks ladies, it's good to know that at least I'm not alone in this situation! I was at a baby wearing meet up and amazed to see all these kids sawing logs as their mamas stood still and talked away about, indeed, how long their LOs slept... She's pretty much been a swiss clock at night, waking every 3 hours to nurse, and I have to ever so slowly sneak her into her cosleeper after she's floppy and keep my hands on her belly for awhile, but generally she conks out fairly well at night. During the day she can handle being awake all of am hour and a half before it's time for another walk.

Great idea with the stroller in the doorway trick, I'd try it if we lived somewhere that didn't get crazy hot in the summer... And she could stand being in a stroller, she hates them. I see what you mean though blessed23, at some point I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet and stay there patting her while she screams herself out... It's just so hard after getting through those awful colicky months where she screamed so continuously, I just don't want either of us to go through it. Because she was on intensive care, with a feeding tube, she was introduced to a pacifier almost immediately by her nurses. She isn't really interested in them anymore, except sometimes on her car seat. I will arm myself though when I'm ready to try to get her down inside.

DH is a super nightowl, often staying up till 5am so is in bed until 2 in the afternoon (he teaches late afternoon and night classes) some days so makes napping where she's used to sleeping difficult, bit I can try setting something up in the living room although I can't get it very dark. We live in a 2 bedroom so the nursery is also the guest bedroom and my office and she only associates it with play time. I'm also starting to try to get her to associate a certain smell with sleep times (I made some lotion with chamomile and lavender for my arms, hands and neck) so maybe that will help getting her to sleep nap in a pack and play or something in the living room if I put a little of that on my breast pads lol.

OK, rambling over for now, keep chiming in if anyone's any other experiences with nap acceptance out of a carrier ;-)


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## EnviroBecca (Jun 5, 2002)

I was this type of baby. My mom says the good points were that she easily lost the pregnancy weight (and then some!) and became very familiar with the town where they had just moved a year earlier. She was able to eat off the counter while rocking from foot to foot.

I got better with time. Your baby will too, and she'll be grateful when she hears how you gave her what she needed even though it was annoying. :Hug


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## ChantalM (Nov 25, 2015)

I know this is an old post, but I am in exactly the same situation with my 4 month old son, so I was just wondering how your situation is now? Did you manage to transition him to the bed?


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## hfranco (Feb 3, 2016)

I started putting my baby girl down as soon as she finish feeding or before she fell asleep, then she started sleeping in her cot, instead of only in her baby carrier. 

H x


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