Napping (3 months)

Meo sleeping in his crib alone for the first time (13 weeks old)

Almost always, I put Meo to sleep by nursing him. Then, he either sleeps in my lap, or if we are in bed I lay down beside him. Lately I have been trying to roll away from him so that he sleeps by himself in bed sometimes. I feel like it's important for him to learn how to fall back asleep (because babies wake themselves up sporadically throughout naptime) without me nursing him, and I know this is a good age to start letting him figure that out (3-4 months). Since we cosleep at night, he is used to sleeping in our bed and I have been having pretty good success at sneaking away for short periods of time, especially at night when he goes to bed earlier than us. But if he wakes up, I usually end up having to nurse him back to sleep, though occasionally simply laying my hands on him and "shhhhing" him before he fully wakes up works as well. During the day however, once he stirs and starts to wake up, it is much more difficult to get him to fall back asleep without nursing because he's not necessarily as tired as he is at night time. I also am starting to try to lay him down in his crib sometimes during nap time so he gets used to sleeping in places besides our bed. But this has only worked a couple times. The trouble is, once I've nursed him to sleep and either lay him in the crib or leave him from the bed, he's already been sleeping for about 15 minutes (you have to wait until they are in a deep sleep, otherwise they will just wake up). So then, if he wakes up, and I spend a good 20 minutes trying to get him back to sleep without nursing, nearly an hour has gone by and he hasn't had much sleep at all. Then it gets to the point where he is wide awake and either I can nurse him back to sleep and try again, nurse him back to sleep and just let him sleep, or let him stay awake because he's not tired anymore and have him basically miss a nap. This independent nap thing is tricky business!

Honestly, I love just laying next to him and reading a novel. It has become one of my favorite parts of the day. He usually sleeps for about an hour and a half if I just stay near him. So he ends up being a happy, well rested baby, and I end up being a happy, well rested and well read mom. But I also know this probably won't fly forever, and if I ever want him to nap on his own, or without me there to nurse him, it is important for us to keep practicing. At least that's what I think, perhaps all this practicing is useless in the end.

Everyday I take a walk with Meo, usually after lunch time. I wear him in his Moby wrap; facing towards me if he seems sleeping, facing out if he seems wide awake. Often times he is asleep by the halfway point of our walk. So he ends up getting to sleep 15-30 minutes while I wear him. Sometimes I extend the walk just so I can let him sleep longer without interrupting his nap. But like I said, he likes to sleep for about an hour and a half, and that's a lot of extra walking! It is really difficult to remove him from the wrap without waking him up and impossible to take him out of his warm clothes without him being disturbed. Today we had good luck at getting him out of the wrap without him waking (probably because he had a crummy nap earlier when I tried to get him to sleep in the crib), and I was able to lay him down in the crib without him stirring too. But now he is in his crib sleeping with his snow suit on. Robbie says its fine; that its like wearing a safe blanket. But get worried he is going to overheat. So what do I do? wake him up so that he's not in his snowsuit? Or just let him be and take advantage of this opportunity to let him sleep in his crib all by himself? Today I'm letting him sleep in his snow suit. I just will check him periodically to make sure his head doesn't feel too warm I guess.

Mattimeo napping in his snowsuit after falling asleep during our walk

What do you do or people you know do to get their babies to sleep without nursing? Is it so important to try to get them to sleep independently at this age? Or will they eventually do this on their own? What are your thoughts about nap time?