Do you awaken a napping DC if it's going on for a long time and may affect bedtime?

[magnoliaparadise]

Hi,

My 5 yo kid was exhausted today after having a very full day yesterday, going to sleep very late (we saw a show), and waking up too early.
There were many reasons that I took my kid to see the show which I won't go into, but lesson learned: this kid just needs to get to bed on time.

So she had a very tough morning - lots of drama and aggression and she wouldn't/couldn't calm down. I finally got her to sleep after lunch.

That was 4 and a half hours ago and she is still sleeping!

Her regular bedtime is in less than 2 hours. :)

When your baby, toddler or elementary school kids nap, even if as a one-off, what do you do when the nap goes on and on into the evening?
Do you wake your DC up so that they can get on a good sleep pattern and go back to sleep at a regular time?
Or do you let them nap until they naturally awaken?
If they were sick and napped, I assume that would be completely a different story?

At this point, if I don't wake my kid up, I will have to make her go back to sleep shortly after she wakes up! She will likely refuse to go back to bed, so I'll have to keep her up for a few more hours in order to get her tired again, ugh!

At the same time, I'm hesitant to wake her up from sleep she obviously needs...

Even if your responses might not get to me in time for this nap, this does happen every so often, so I'd love your views!

TIA

[ArizonaGirl]

Hind sight is 20/20 but I would probably have already woken them, otherwise (at least for my kiddos) it will just make a viscous cycle even worse.

OTOH sickness is different and I would let them sleep whenever and however.

Again tho this is just me.

[SnuggleBuggles]

I probably would have woken her up a while ago since you have such an early bedtime. However, if you don't have anywhere to be in the morning, I'd have let them nap and just adjusted bedtime.


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[georgiegirl]

Yes! I always woke my kids up. Mine were never big sleepers, and I knew they would be up until 10PM+ if I let them sleep too long.


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[Simon]

I would wake just before dinner and expect to delay bedtime by maybe an hour OR to do something very tiring after dinner (bike ride, swimming, etc). My kids sometimes stayed up later if they napped long/late but other times they were able to turn around and go back to sleep 3 hours later.

In general, I think its worth it to be a little off on Sunday night because the forced wake up for school on Monday generally gets my kids back on track.

ETA: I've also just let my kids go all night after a late nap and two of my three boys have slept from 4 pm (or so) until 6 am the next day, only waking up to use the bathroom. I was nervous the first time we tried it but it turned out to work well for both of them on more than one occasion.

[doberbrat]

I'd probably wake up..... expect her to be a grouch and feed dinner and hope for the best.

I've gone both ways with my kids but usually spend hours while they sleep having the very same discussion with my self. Do I wake or let sleep......

Good luck

[PZMommy]

I usually wake up them up after they nap for 2 hours, unless they are sick, in which case I let them sleep until they wake up. If I let them sleep too long, they don't go back to bed on time. There have been times my youngest has fallen asleep after coming home from school (4:30ish), in which case I just let him sleep until the next morning.

[trcy]

I'd probably wake up..... expect her to be a grouch and feed dinner and hope for the best.

Good luck

Yes to this!


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[specialp]

I won't let them nap for more than 2 hours.

[TwinFoxes]

I don't know how old your DD is, so this is based on my almost nine year olds. If by some miracle they had napped, I would have woken them in mid-late afternoon. At this point, I would just let them wake up naturally (since it's only two hours until bedtime) and know that my evening was going to suck. Honestly, if you wake them up now, it's going to suck, most likely.

[DualvansMommy]

My kids are young; newly just 6 year old rarely naps those days. Even when he napped last year or 2 years ago, 2 hours max is time of nap I allow to let on if he wasn't sick. That way, I can easily just push dinner back to 6pm instead of 5, and do a busy activity after dinner. Then it's natural to wrap up for bath/bed by 8:30-9pm depending time when he woke up from his nap.

On other hand, with my 3.5 year old who gave up the traditional naps in his crib. He's sleeping in a full size bed, and dropped naps. He only falls asleep if I'm driving anywhere from 1:30 to 2:30 which last 20-25 mins which is perfect for him. If he falls asleep on couch some afternoons after really tiring busy days, I let him sleep 90 mins max and still get him to bed with 30 mins pushed back successfully.


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[gymnbomb]

My 3 year old typically doesn't nap when at daycare, but naps most days at home from around 12:30 or 1-3. There have been a couple of days recently, including today due to a birthday party, when he went down for his nap at 2-3 instead. We let him sleep until around 5 then got him up. Bedtime is usually 7:00, but we will push it to 7:30 if he naps really late.


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[bisous]

It would depend on so much for me! My two youngest need their sleep so badly. DS3 would occasionally sleep from 4 in the afternoon until 7 the next morning when he was tired! But that was when he was only 2. All of my kids had longer than 2 hour naps and would not have been happy to have been awakened.

[AnnieW625]

Nope. We just adjust bed time if needed. My kids have never been 6-6:30 bed time kids even as babies, 7 or 7:30 was more like it so it is hard for me to imagine a 5 yo routinely going to bed at at that time.


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[magnoliaparadise]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your responses.

I decided not to wake up my 5 yo (partly because it was so late at that point, as some people mentioned). She ended up sleeping 5 hours in that nap. She woke up just before 7 pm. I normally try to get her to sleep by 8 pm, but had to push that back a couple hours. Not ideal, but I'm happy she fell asleep at that time pretty easily.