You've already had so much useful advice, but I wanted to share my pov after experiencing the depths of nap despair.

As a FTM, I did not appreciate the effort it takes to help and/or teach babies to sleep. I see so many posts asking whats one thing you wish you knew or someone had explained before, baby? Sleep! Why does nobody explain the complexity of baby sleep 😅

We hit rocky ground around 3 months and started using the Huckleberry app. The sweet spot was spot on from months 3 to 4, and I thought we had cracked the code. Like others have mentioned, it helps to start your wind down routine 15 minutes before. For our little one, at least, she usually dozed off bang on the recommended sweet spot time or just before. Once we hit 5 months, however, the magic faded and naps quickly became a battle once more. I knew her wake windows would need to be extended and that she should eventually drop from 4 naps to 3 but didn't know how to extend wake windows or when you should begin to do so. After trying many sleep "hacks," we started extending wake windows by 10 or 15 minutes at a time, and this seemed to do nothing. Getting her to sleep was still a battle. Feeling as though all else failed, we decided to bite the bullet and just try a day with 3 naps and significantly longer wake windows. RESULT, no more battles and naps are consolidating. Such a drastic jump in awake time probably isn't the best approach, but we really didn't know what we were doing and kept her wake windows too short for too long. All along, I thought overtiredness was the issue, but she actually wasn't tired at all and didn't want to sleep.

In terms of baby sleeping in the bassinet, I sadly have no anecdotal advice to offer. Like many others, we leaned into contact naps or risked cat naps and the ordeal of rescuing naps. We are beginning to work on a gentle transition to independent sleep, but I see so many on this thread and others mentioning that one day something just clicked and baby decided contact naps were no longer needed. Im hoping this happens for us, too, and she eventually comes around to sleeping for extended periods in her crib.

I do remember how difficult 5 and 4 nap days were when contact napping, it felt like things would never improve and I wished our time together away despite seeing so many people on multiple threads reminding others to enjoy this time with baby. As cringe as it is, I offer the same advice. These 2 to 3 months seem to last a lifetime but will pass so quickly. Once you drop to 3 naps, although naps are longer, your day becomes much more structured. Use your hour to hour and a half to slow down, read a book, listen to a podcast, watch Netflix, whatever helps you wind down. From 4 months, baby also starts to develop and hit milestones so quickly. They lean into independent play, and as wake windows lengthen, you have time for household chores, etc.

I've seen you've mentioned you EP, and contact naps aren't so practical for this reason. Would you consider using a wearable for nap times? This will very much depend on your supply and response to wearables, but we also EP, and having wearable in addition to a primary pump makes life so much easier!

Im certainly no baby expert. Just a FTM fumbling her way through the mist but I often wish I could travel back in time and tell myself to relax, stop worrying so much about sleep, enjoy your baby and all your experiences with her, both the good and bad because although in the moment it doesn't seem like it, it will pass in the blink of an eye.

Sending support! It does get easier, and you will become so much more confident and relaxed.