My son is 10 months old and cannot fall asleep being held. He does most his naps in his crib, and can sleep in his car seat. I'm not sure about the stroller, he isn't it it enough to fall asleep in. We were at a play group yesterday, and I knew it was pushing his nap time, but I figured he'd be distracted enough and want to play to make it to the end, but he just lost it, and no matter what I did he wouldn't fall asleep on me, so we ended up leaving early and he passed out within 2 minutes of hitting his car seat. I thought by now he'd be on a solid 2 nap schedule, but he's still on 2-3 so I'm kinda bummed that we may be pretty much hotel bound on our trip in 2 weeks cause of napping. Any tips for napping on the go? Or do we just have to suck it up, work around his naps, and stay close so we can go back and nap.
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In your case I would have put him in stroller, walk around until he falls asleep then you can stay to chat. Same for your trip...stroller naps.
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My third is like this and also has a hard time falling asleep in the car until she’s beyond exhausted. It is definitely tough at times! Can you do carrier naps? It takes some fussing but I can sometimes get her to sleep there on the go. Every baby is different but we can flex the duration of each nap and get by also. So take a short morning nap (wake them up), or even a little earlier than you usually would, and then get out. Aim for a longer pm nap (or vice versa). We do that a lot as I have to drag her to sibling activities etc so she gets what she gets.
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@PurplePumps: I'd practice stroller and carrier naps before you go. Our 15 month old doesn't nap well on the go, but we've learned that she will nap in the carrier if we are walking, and just recently she actually fell asleep and napped 2 hours in the stroller on 4th of July for the first time.
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E is generally a crib napper as well but will nap in a stroller or in the car seat if needed. She used to nap in a baby carrier being worn but generally doesn't much anymore. I would see if a stroller nap is an option for your kiddo.
ETA we would often aim for 1 stroller/crappy nap 1 longer more proper nap and often an early bed time. We would plan our day around this switching up if morning or afternoon was the proper nap depending on what we wanted to do. -
Yeah my two fight car naps and I'm like whhhyyy it's like the best place to just naturally drift off to sleep!
For us it has always been 90% carrier naps and 10% stroller naps (we just don't really use the stroller that much).
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Thanks. Sounds like most babies can sleep in a stroller. Maybe we'll take him out for a day in the city and see if he can do a stroller nap.
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After about six months DD was horrible at napping on the go. Once she was on a two nap schedule we tried to always be home (or hotel) for at least one nap, generally the afternoon one. And would attempt to nap on the go in the morning, if we had something we really wanted to do. We had a portable white noise machine we would clip on the stroller. And would drape a thin muslin blanket over the seat, it was thin enough so air could still move through but she couldn't see out. We could generally get her to fall asleep but for only 30-40 minutes instead of the two hours she would sleep in crib, so for a trip or something special it was fine but not something we did day to day.
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My LO won’t sleep in her stroller. Granted, we don’t give her the chance often but she is a crib napper. However, at 10 mos she would still sleep in the ergo if we walked with her. So maybe try that instead of the stroller?
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Carrier naps were always way more successful on the go for me and both my kids at that age and up to 1.5 ish. Stroller naps were pretty risky for them once they passed 8 months old and I also don’t have good on the go nappers and definitely couldn’t hold for a nap past that age. They don’t sleep in the car, but take great naps at home in their own bed.
I find it’s much easier to control the environment when they’re in a carrier and it gives you more freedom than a stroller.
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Stroller for sure would work. Even my 3 year old fell asleep in it yesterday. Carrier also knocked my kids out. Even my first who never would nap on me fell asleep his first time in the carrier at 9 months old. Good luck!
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@graceandjoy: @JJ2626: @Petitduck: @Mrs. Champagne: Thanks! I'll definitely try the carrier too. Did you find that front or back carry worked better? I use the carrier to go to the grocery store and stuff with him, front facing me, and he's always trying to claw his way out. I'm guessing back might be better for napping?
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@PurplePumps: I never back carried my kids before they were 1 (I’m a big rule follower and that’s what my Tula recommended haha). so front facing for naps for me, with the hood on, my kids were also on the smaller side weight wise. Sometimes I’d throw a receiving blanket over the hood and sides until they passed out to make it easier to fall asleep. I find it’s more cozy sleep wise for them to be curled up into you on your front.
We recently went on a trip where we couldn’t have put 2 year old nap in a bed so my husband wore him on his back and he slept for about 40 minutes.
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DS is newly 11 months and for the last couple months on the go naps have been harder. He had to do a lot of on the go napping with taking DS1 to school and picking him up. At about 9 months he wouldn’t just fall asleep in the car. He’s always fought naps in the carrier. He has to be super tired to fall asleep in the stroller. Today he was fighting naps like no tomorrow so we took him for a walk. It took a bit but he did finally fall asleep.
I hope you are able to get some on the go naps while you are away. Even if they are shorter. If that’s the case hopefully you could just do an early bedtime.
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My first would ONLY nap in the stroller or car, the second only naps in her crib. We are going away in a few weeks and deliberately picked a hotel with stuff to do so we can follow naps and one of us can take the four year old to the pool. We’ll probably do one carrier nap in the morning if we can swing it and still try to do an afternoon nap. Honestly, the way we travel has really changed with kids - I prefer to stay in places with nice relaxing settings so I can chill and read during nap times, instead of trying to do All The Things. I find that just getting to hang out or nap myself is still a good vacation activity.
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My son has always hated napping in the carrier and loved napping in the stroller. I think it varies a ton from kid to kid, if other things aren't working definitely experiment with the stroller!
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@PurplePumps: I actually rarely back carry, mostly b/c I want to see easily if they're sleeping haha. A huge reason I prefer my Ergo original to my Tula is b/c the Ergo has the biggest hood/flap thing and I use it to shield them from outside distractions so falling asleep is easier.
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@PurplePumps: we did front carry, facing in for naps. We did a lot of shooshing, kept walking, and sometimes put a muslin blanket over her. But carrier naps didn’t really work after she was 1 year old, I think bc by then she was too aware of the world around her. Now we are in crib nap jail!
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Yep, as others said, stroller and babywearing naps.
For LO1 (he was big/heavy) I loved my 2nd-hand Baby Jogger City Mini because it had the option to lay down almost completely flat, and had a HUGE sunshade. I got it for like $60 used, maybe if your trip is worth that to you, think about it.
For LO2: She still falls asleep with continuous walking in the Ergo, front facing, holding her head to my chest, then I put the hood on after she falls asleep.
For both kids, I have a white noise app on my phone, I put my phone on airplane mode, turn the noise up, and slide it in the stroller or in the Ergo pocket.
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Ok now I’m thread hijacking because I’m wondering if maybe we gave up on stroller naps too quickly for our LO. She’s 18 mos and had basically never slept in the stroller. If we want to try, should we push her past normal nap time so she’s really tired? She sleeps on her tummy which is why I’ve always assumed stroller wouldn’t work. She will nap in car seat only if extremely tired!
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@Petitduck: oops! I had no idea you're not supposed to back carry until 1!
@Ms.Mermaid: oh i hear ya!! Our usual vacation is (WAS) on the go must see all the things, but this is a fairly lazy beach vacation (Bermuda) since it was the only thing I felt like I could do with him. But even at home, it's hard to get him out to the market and back home for a nap so it's gonna be hard to even get to a nearby beach!
@DesertDreams88: I actually just bought that exact stroller 2 weeks ago! I was debating between bringing that or my Summer Lite 3D. Leaning toward the GT just for the shade, but you've completely convinced me now.
@JJ2626: My LO sleeps on his tummy too most the time! That's a good question,, I hadnt considered if he'd be able to falls asleep on his back in a stroller.
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@DesertDreams88: I do the same with white noise on my phone. @PurplePumps: so have whit snooze handy too if that’s something you use at home. I think they suggest 1 as a general rule just to make sure your kid has adequate neck and trunk strength. I’m sure I could have carried both kids on my back before 1 just fine. My friend has been doing so since her kid was 6 months ish because her kid is so big.
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So I’m going to be the dissenter and say that both of my kids were never great with stroller naps. Probably in big part because we never really promoted them (crib naps are way more important in the day-to-day so that’s what I promoted) , but also partly because they are very alert and social and being outside with so many distractions it is very hard for them to calm down and fall asleep. They sort of have Fomo. Lol. So beyond 3-4 months, getting them to sleep in the stroller was really hard. Or they would fall asleep but it would be like a 40 min nap, they woke at the end of the first sleep cycle and because there was commotion couldn’t connect.
So when we travel we just know that naps are going to be a part of it.
We always make sure to get a room that has a separate area for them to sleep and us to hang. Or two rooms connected. If it’s a warm/beach location we try to do a balcony.
We take turns being held captive. Sometimes we both stay and hang out but often I’ll schedule a massage or go to the pool alone (ahhhhhhh the best) and DH will stay and usually sleep too. Lol. Because that’s a vacation for him! Naps and relaxing
and then for another nap I’ll stay and read on the balcony and drink coffee in peace and he’ll go and get lunch and a beer or the pool. Whatever.
Now that we have 2 there’s less indulgence. Usually one of us will stay with napper and the other takes the 5yo to do something fun (pool, beach, attractions). Which is still great! Actually like that less because one of us is always missing something fun with the big boy. But it is what it is.
We’ve never felt like it was less of a vacation that way. And we know it’s just a season of life. Right Before DS2 was born we were finally enjoying vacations without naps. Lol. So we saw the light at the end of the tunnel.When they are really young (IMO less than 2 years) doing all of the activities we want to do on vacation is way more for us than them. My 18mo would be just as happy toddling around the hotel pool or beach or walking down a sidewalk window shopping and grabbing an ice cream as he would a zoo or an amusement park or whatever. We always felt that at this time in our lives, his schedule is more important than doing a lot of stuff that he won’t rememebr anyway. We adjusted our expectations for a vacation and know that in 3 years we can just ditch naps and do “more”. Does it kinda suck in the moment? Sure. But a lot of parenting does
doesn’t mean you can’t still have fun and enjoy the time together. My two cents! Zero judgement for people who do the stroller nap thing, I am sometimes jealous of the good stroller nappers. Just wanted to add a diff perspective for the good crib nappers out there.
and then for another nap I’ll stay and read on the balcony and drink coffee in peace and he’ll go and get lunch and a beer or the pool. Whatever.
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