Hi all! Frequent reader, infrequent poster here desperate for some advice!

My 7 week old is a difficult napper. He has never fallen asleep on his own - he needs to be fairly vigorously bounced/rocked to sleep. Other than the first nap of the day, the rest are a constant struggle with alternating rocking/bouncing/paci, etc for 20-45 minutes until something finally knocks him out. I have him swaddled, in a dark room, with white noise. There is crying involved (always on his part, sometimes on mine).

To add to this problem of not being able to fall asleep without my extended help, he also frequently wakes up on the transfer to the crib/Rock N Play. I try to wait at least 20 minutes until he's in a deep sleep, but I can only successfully transfer him without him waking up maybe once a day, if I'm lucky. Even then, if I do transfer him, he'll wake after one sleep cycle guaranteed, if not sooner. Much of the time, I just hold him throughout his entire nap to ensure he gets his rest.

I'm losing my mind here as I feel like I spend my entire day getting him to sleep and holding him while he sleeps. Is there anything I can do to help my 7 week old??? Or am I just stuck until he gets older???

FWIW, nighttime sleep is better. He generally will fall right back asleep after nursing and I can transfer him to his Rock N Play.