Do you ever cut your baby's nap short?

[deborah_r]

Kai is going on 3 hours here, and it seems lately if he naps this long, he sleeps worse at night. I know everything I read says sleep begets sleep, but I'm wondering if it isn't true for him. I swear if we galavant all over the city on a weekend and he only naps in little 30 minute spurts, we usually get a great night of sleep out of him.

Should I have tried to wake him at like 1.5 or 2 hours? I'm definitely going in to give him a nudge right now!

[Marisa6826]

It depends on what time Sophie is sleeping. If it's past 5-6pm, then she will be up all night, so I've learned.

Last night, she was teething horribly, and wanted to sleep 6-7. I woke her up at 7 for dinner. She was up till 11pm!!!

But if it's earlier in the day, I will let her go as long as she wants since she obviously needs the sleep.

-m

[redhookmom]

Waking up a sleeping baby goes against every fiber of my being. But, I do have a cut off time. If my dd is still sleeping at 5pm I wake her up and she will still go to sleep for the night at 7:30.

I put her down at 1 or 1:30 and she normally wakes up between 3 and 4.

[lizajane]

i do not. but i am not criticizing those who do! i just think that if he is sleeping, he needs sleep. but i also have a sleeper. his nights are better when he gets enough day sleep.

[barbarhow]

Jack is still taking 2 naps a day. For #2 he goes down around 3p and usually sleeps until 4:30p and then back to bed around 7-7:30p. So yes-I generally don't let him nap past 5p. Sometimes he'll go down late and I will wake him up at 5p. Weissbluth says sleep begets sleep-but I also think he says somewhere not to let naptime interfere with bedtime.
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03
expecting #2 around 5/9/05

[deborah_r]

Well, his naps don't go past 5 pm hardly ever, today was 12:45 to 3:45. But I can almost guarantee you he will not go to sleep until about 9:15 (5.5 hours after his nap ended - that seems to be the pattern lately. Maybe I am missing his sleep cues, maybe I should try to start bedtime earlier...he seems tired, we do the routine, we rock in the chair and nurse, and then he is wide awake.

[kijip]

I try not to let Toby sleep after 5pm. He goes to bed at 7:30-8:00 and I have found that regardless of when he goes down for the night he sleeps till the same time BUT a super long nap late in the afternoon seems to mess him up. Good luck!

[houseof3boys]

This is practically the same thing as going into Ryan's room to wake him up but, I always do something near his room like laundry or go in the bathroom and be louder than normal. I feel like this is more him waking up on his own than me waking him up.

The only time I ever did it (Ryan never sleeps more than 2 hours and he averages about 90 minutes) was when I had a doctors appointment and I knew we had to leave.

The days when Ryan has 2 really good naps, he wakes up at 5:00 am ready to start the day! I hate those days. :P

[Andrea S]

We wake Andrew up if he sleeps past 3pm (unless he goes down really late). He gets up at 6am no matter what time he goes to bed so if I let him sleep past 3pm he will not go to bed until after 9pm and then the next day is shot b/c he is tired and cranky all day.

Andrea
mom to Andrew 8/14/02