Naps - should I wake a sleeping six month old?

[HairyMaclary1]

I'm trying to get my 6-month-old into a routine - at the moment, he wakes up every couple of hours during the night. We've had absolutely no routine up to now, and his bedtimes have crept later and later - I've only just got him off now, for ex, and it's 11pm!
Two questions:
He sometimes sleeps for over 3-4 hours (in total) during the day. What experiences have people had ...
1: trying to wake a baby who naps this much?
2: trying to stop a baby going to sleep after a certain time of day?
Also,
3: What do people think about whether babies should have a 'nap routine' as well as a nighttime routine - including where they nap - or are babies fine to fall asleep anywhere, at any time during the day, in any situation?
Thanks!

1. I don't think that seems to much daytime sleep for a 6 month old really. As they sleep better at night it may lessen. I'd hesitate to wake a baby frm it's nap.

1. If my 11 month old sleeps later than I'd like on a one off occasion it doesn't seem to matter, because he generally naps at regular times each day. I work to a 80/20 rule of trying to keep him in a rough routine 80% if the time which means he seems pretty flexible the 20%. Ask babies are different though.

1. I think it depends on your baby & lifestyle. Why have a baby that only naps in it's cot if you can help it. Id say try and keep the times the same but vary the place so that the baby is more adaptable. You could always use the same blanket or teddy for consistency. However I know there are some babies who really need the same place to & so some mums find it better to keep to the cot or pram every nap, but I'd only do this as a last resort, start with fairly consistent times first.

PS- remember a lot will change in the next 4 months anyway and i'm sure you're baby will get into more of a routine naturally. One thing I found helped me at about 8 months was to have a really quiet 2 week period when I tried not to arrange too much social stuff and stayed in or near the house as much as possible to embed more of a structure. Might be worth considering later if you feel the need to.

I tended to let mine nap as they were grumpy when woken too soon. However my neighbour put hers down to nap at 11 am every day and would leave coffee mornings, friends houses early to ensure this happened. I felt this ended up being a bit anti social and the children seemed very controlled and lacking in spontaneity as they grew older. I realise the two should not go together and I am making a sweeping assumption but I think you could reduce the daytime sleeping hours if you think he will respond well to being woken up or earmark sleep periods as my neighbour did. I never felt that type of routine was for me. I hated the late nights, though, and I agree with you that this can be tiresome. When they use up more energy moving about you may see earlier bed times but I would try and move bedtime half an hour earlier each week and see how you get on.

My dd is 6 months old and she has a loose nap routine during the day. She naps every 2-2.5 hours during the day. most of the time her nap is between 45mins to an hour, although occassionally she'll nap for longer. If I'm at home, she naps in her cot (she sleeps best in her cot). If I'm out and about, I do struggle a bit more as she only tends to sleep in her pram or the car seat (if the car is moving) - so I do try to loosely schedule my day around her nap times to make it easier, but not to the point of restricting myself going out somewhere. She goes to bed at 8pm, so I try to get her to have her last nap no later than 5-6pm (this is something I am quite rigid about, so won't travel in the car from 6-8pm for example, as I know she'll fall asleep). She sleeps from 8pm to around 7ish in the morning.

I never wake her from her naps unless we need to go out somewhere. If I do need to wake her, I try to do it 'gently' by opening the curtains to let light in (if she's in her cot), gently calling her name etc.

I agree with Kippy - if you want to try to get a nap routine in place, wait until after the christmas chaos is over and try to have a quiet couple of weeks to get into a good routine.

I wouldn't wake from a daytime nap - it's perfectly normal at this age to still be waking several times per night to feed so changing his nap routine might not make any difference to that anyway. Things will settle down more after solids kick in at about 9 months and you could night wean then.

You do need to find a routine that works for you and I always thought more about days having a pattern than a routine, which frees you up a bit and takes the pressure off.

I found that if they had a morning nap and an afternoon nap then they would sleep better at night. However, in your shoes, I'd probably wake them after an hour or so, if you can. The best way I found to do that was to change the nappy!" Then feed.

However if you don't feel comfortable waking him, don't. He will sleep better at night given time especially once solid food is established.

I never wake 20mo DS from naps, and he can have 3 hours at a time. I never woke DD either when she napped, they slept for as long or little as they needed. I found the sleep of both DC improved when I followed their own sleep routine rather than what I thought they needed to be doing.

I read a good point on a thread earlier this week about waking babies from naps - effectively they said we wake babies up from naps and disturb their sleep so that our own sleep isn't disturbed because disturbed sleep makes us tired and miserable. But if broken sleep makes us miserable, it makes sense that it makes a baby miserable too.

What time is the last daytime nap? It could be that baby is getting overtired so misses the window for sleep so to speak I know this has happened to us.

At that age dd2 would wake from a nap at 5.30 or later and still be ready to sleep again at 7.

Apologies if repeating another poster havn't read the whole thread.

I'm not sure I agree with that Flisspaps. In the dim and distant days before DD, I used to sometimes have daytime naps if I was really tired, and I found that if I slept too long in the day then I'd be really restless and uncomfortable at night - and that felt much worse than if DH popped his head in after about an hour and woke me.

I guess it's a matter of thinking about it - e.g. are they ill and need more sleep, how is it going to affect the rest of the day - and maybe trying it once or twice to see how your baby reacts.

I sometimes wake my DD (11 months old) if she's having a particularly long nap, and I do it by going in and opening the curtains and moving around a bit to wake her naturally. If I've got it wrong, then she's grumpy. But if I let her sleep too long and then she can't nap again later, then she also gets grumpy. And if I've got it right, then she wakes with a smile and the day goes much better. It's a journey of discovery!

Ooh no, I'm definitely in the 'do not disturb' ilk of sleepers - wake me before I'm ready at your own peril

I always went by the mantra "never wake a sleeping baby".

We're big on routine in my house! Tbh, I always pooh-poohed having a set routine before I had my DD.

Then my SIL followed the Gina Ford books with her first, and I was AMAZED! We don't follow it as closely as the books say, I think times are important for naps, rather than locations (who wants to be tied to the house for 2 hours every afternoon?!).

She slept through from 6 weeks (she's 18mo now) and has always had set naps. She sleeps a lot longer if we're home and she's in her cot, but is equally happy to nap out and about.

The key for us when we first started getting the daytime routine (once the nighttime was well established) was not to let her nap too late in the afternoon. I made sure her last nap was no later than 430, to make sure she'd be tired enough at 730 to go to sleep. It didn't matter how long she slept during the day, but she wouldn't go down if I didn't do that.

To be fair, she's always liked her sleep - when she was born I got in trouble repeatedly for letting her sleep through feeds! In fact, we were kept in hospital for 3 nights because she was sleeping instead of eating! So... maybe we had a good start lol

xxx

It's very bad for newborns to sleep through feeds - they get dehydrated and literally can't wake up because they don't have enough energy to eat. That's why you got in trouble - they sleep too long because they're starving.

ZuleikaD

Agreed- this advice of "never wake a sleeping baby"- can be very dangerous.
At 6 months I wouldn't say there is much risk but certainly for a baby in the early stages it can be vital to wake for feeds.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say we have had a routine for 19mo DD since she was about 3-4mo (although it has evolved, of course) and it has worked so well. I wake her from her nap most days at the moment - she sleeps noon-2.30pm and 7-7 at night. We quite often have to wake her in the morning too (it goes in phases).

Having said that, you can't force these things, but DD seemed to thrive on routine and consistency. At 6mo, iirc, she would be up for 2hrs and then have a nap, rinse and repeat 3 times a day.

I don't think 3-4 hrs total is too much for a 6mo, but you might think about waking him if it gets too late as it will affect his night sleep.

I had a nap routine for dd- in some respects more important than the nighttime routine as found that too much day sleep meant really bad night. Was a bit trial and error but got to know what her optimum amount of sleep was and adapted as she got older. Made things much easier when I went back to work and my dm was looking after dd. Both knew the sleep pattern and could plan the days etc. I also had to wake from naps or dd would have gone nocturnal!