To wake a baby from a nap?

[Peaplant20]

How long would/ did you let a 4-5 month old nap in the day time? I used to never wake her from a nap but recently her night sleep has gotten so bad I wonder if I’m letting her sleep too long in the day? She will often sleep 2 or 3 hours on me if I don’t wake her (although by then I often have to as I need a wee or something to eat).

Could the long naps be affecting her night sleep? For some context - she showed promise of sleeping through the night before we hit the 4 month sleep regression, then it was back to every 3 hours. She was then managing a 5-6 hour first stretch but the last few days she doesn’t seem to settle at all for most of the whole night (but could be due to teething and she has a cold at the moment).

At that age I tended to let naps take their course but would wake if necessary to end the last nap, so that bedtime was fixed at the end of the optimum wake window - so eg when she was 5 months and going to bed at 7.30, I would wake if the afternoon nap was going past 4.30 so she had 3 clear hours of awake time before bed. Her other two naps I just let run how she needed and jiggled the day around accordingly.

Their sleep changes so much and I used to get so stressed trying to interpret it all the time, so I ended up letting him sleep whenever and for however long. I figured he needed it.
Not much help, but waking every 3 hours at night sounds perfectly normal for a 4-5 month old.

We're in the same kind of situation. I've started slightly disturbing at 2hrs to see if he's ready to wake or still nackered.

Thanks for the answers so far all, really helpful. I don’t mind the every 3 hours so much but the last 2 nights she’s been so hard to get to go to sleep and then she’s basically seemed u settled and fussing the whole night and seems in a really light sleep. She seems to need my hand on her much of the night and I’m only get an hour or two here or there a few times throughout the night. I can’t nap in the day as she will only nap for 20-30 mins on her own in the cot so I can’t fall asleep fast enough.

I’m really struggling at the moment as once she’s up past 4am it’s basically impossible to get her back to sleep in the cot, whereas once upon a time when she was a newborn she’d keep going back in until 10-11am (when she had a later bedtime). I think the clock change hasn’t helped and the teething and her cold but I need to feel some hope that this night sleep will improve.

4M is like witching hour. Its the coldest part of the night and couple that with the early rumblings of hunger and its classic time for night waking.

Are you feeding her at 4am?

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz great username! Urghh it really is! So I used to feed her and very time she woke as she would only wake once or twice in the night. Now the last two nights she’s woken sooo much that I just feed her if it’s around 2-3 hours since the last feed. So this morning that worked out at 4.30am and yesterday 4.15am x

Does she fall asleep on her feeds?

Usually in the night yes but not at that 4am ish one! She will be up for a while until I can get her back to sleep eventually on me but then when I transfer she wakes straight up whereas in the middle of the night I can transfer her without her waking