Infant nap/sleep...why cant he sleep when we are out and about

My DS (5 ½ months) doesn’t sleep anywhere but his crib. He will not, for the life of him, sleep when we are out and about and it gets really difficult to deal with him because he gets overtired so quick. Sometimes we don’t really go anywhere because he NEEDS naps or he is miserable, but in the same aspect I don’t want to be stuck in the house all day neither does my 2 year old. Example: the other day we went to White Post Farms and spent a good 4 hours there and he didn’t sleep once and towards the end of the day he was miserable because he would go to sleep. It doesn’t help either that he wants to be held constantly.

Please tell me that I am not the only one that has a kid like this.

Re: Infant nap/sleep...why cant he sleep when we are out and about

My babies will only sleep in their cribs. Sometimes they will fall asleep in the car if they are very tired.

Re: Infant nap/sleep...why cant he sleep when we are out and about

Nope, yours isn't the only one. My family lives on LI out east, and when we go out there we always leave at her morning naptime hoping she will sleep in the car. Nope, and she is a miserable kid because she is so tired. She will only sleep in her crib sometimes the pack and play if we are at someone's house (it's always in my car), but even then it's like pulling teeth to get her to sleep. No matter how tired she is, she WILL NOT sleep unless she is in her crib. And it has to be HER crib too.... which is part of the reason she does not nap at daycare either.

While it could be worse and it's a blessing she has been sleeping in her crib since she was 3 weeks old (she's 8 months old now), it also has it's drawbacks as it makes it IMPOSSIBLE to go anywhere with her for an extended period of time.

Re: Infant nap/sleep...why cant he sleep when we are out and about

dd is like that - she's too interested to sleep when we're out. i've found though that if i put her in a carrier or my wrap she passes out right away, so that's been our routine when out and about.

Re: Infant nap/sleep...why cant he sleep when we are out and about

DS is the same. He sleeps in his crib and will fall asleep in the carseat as well. When we are out, he does not nap and gets so cranky!!

Re: Infant nap/sleep...why cant he sleep when we are out and about

Both my children were like this. Neither of them can settle to sleep anywhere but home. Both would often fall asleep in the car but will never transfer or stay asleep so it's really no help to running errands.
I've adjusted and just work around DS's naps for now. I keep reminding myself it's not forever although sometimes it feels like it.

Re: Infant nap/sleep...why cant he sleep when we are out and about

Both Hannah and Jack are the same way. It's awful. Everytime I come to LI they never nap - maybe 20 minutes of the 1.5 hour ride! It's so frustrating. The only good thing now is Jack is on one nap and they nap at the same time so I'm always home from 1 - 3 unless we are travelling. It's hard, but you are going to need to at least give him a good morning nap or deal with a crankmonster!!!