Hellobee Boards

We do a combination. We've found DD sleeps better at night if we get her 1-2 "legit" naps each day where we swaddle her and put her in her crib in her nursery (just like she sleeps at night). The rest of her naps are wherever (rock and play, play mat on floor, car seat or carrier while we're out and about, etc).

DH and I agreed to the same routine for every sleep (nap or bedtime). We checked the diaper, swaddled or put him in a sleep sack depending on age, sang the same 2 songs while patting and swaying, said a short prayer out loud for him, and then put him down in his crib in a dark room with his Marpac Dohm white noise machine going. We say "have a good night night S, Mommy/Daddy loves you." As he got older, we also handed him his lovey as we left. The only difference between nap time and bedtime is that bedtime had a bath beforehand.

This way he had consistent cues about sleepy time. Even now at 11 months, DS cries/whines when we put him in his sleepsack because he knows what's coming (doesn't want to miss the action and go to sleep), but as soon as we go into a dark room and start singing his songs, he settles down and usually goes right to sleep after whimpering or crying for a few seconds.

The nice thing about this approach is that we can replicate this environment (with a PNP and a Dream on Me PNP mattress) just about anywhere we go. We just haul our PNP, sleepsack, and white noise machine in the trunk and if necessary, tape some garbage bags over a window.

DS usually can't sleep in any other situation however, but he was pretty much like this from the start - I don't know that our routine had anything to do with it.

*ETA: Our son is a schedule baby and we prioritize his sleep over just about everything. If we are going to mess up his schedule, we try very hard to preserve his morning nap because a bad first nap tends to derail the whole day.

6 weeks.