Hi Flo, your problem sounds familiar to what I am experiencing. My son is nine weeks old too today and he refuses to take naps. What i now do is this: In the morning, after his bath, he becomes tired and starts yawning, so I put him in his crib where he naps for half an hour. If he cries, let him cry but i stay in teh room with him. I used to pick him up a lot more too, but now I don't anymore. I let him cry a little but he seems me and that comforts him.
In the afternoon, after his noon feed, I now put him to bed in his own room. He used to hate that (stilll does) and started bawling, but i persisted and kept him in his room, comforting and the first days reading while sitting with him. I slowly built that down and now, when he goes upstairs, he knows it's napping time. I don't make it very dark in the room so he knows it's still daytime.
If we go somewhere, he sleeps in his stroller like a charm. He loves to ride out and sleeps a lot in the car too.
After his dinner, he usually has his crying hour and I walk around with him - if he grows tired, i put him in his crib and let hem cry a bit. sometimes he falls asleep, sometimes he just wants to lie on an arm and sleep there (that's what i haven't been able to deal with yet).
We now usually spend an hour or so on his play mat in teh evening, and he gets his last bottle around 9 pm. We were fortunate though - he was always a very good night time sleeper and, if he finishes his bottle completely, he sleeps until 6 or 7 am. we do notice that he gets really tired around 8 but we want to teach him now to sleep through the night, and so we try to prolong his bedtime for as long as we can.
i know that the daytime naps are really difficult iwth such active babies, but if you persist, your baby will learn. It takes about a week. Good luck!
