Making up for lost night time sleep at nap time?

[Zemmy]

Hi,

I have a 4 month old who we have just started on a routine. Everything is MUCH better for it and I'm delighted with how well it's going. My problem is when is the best time to make up for lost night time sleep?

For example, due to the heat last night we struggled to get her down and she finally fell asleep at 9pm when she normally goes off at 7pm. Today she is obviously shattered.

So my questions (and I have a lot of them) are...
Does she need to make up the full 2 hours or just some of it?
Should I let her sleep in in the morning? Add a bit onto the naps? Give her an extra nap? Put her to bed early? All of the above?
Or is it best to just stick to the routine we have, regardless?

My husband is currently trying to raise her from her nap, but it's like waking the dead!!

Any matriarchal help you can give me would be very much appreciated!

Zem

Hi Zem, I would let her sleep when she needs to and then she will probably fall back into her routine on her own. I've never been successfully in trying to manage naps when my DD hasn't slept well at night so I just let her sleep when she wants and I don't wake her up. Some mornings she is up at 5am and then back in bed at 6.30am which makes no sense but works for her!

I think, if she's tired because of a sleepless night then let her have a longer nap than normal to catch up.. (Hell hath no fury like a baby woken up before it's ready, in my experience!!!) Sticking to the same bedtime and keeping naps reasonably flexible isn't a bad strategy. During the day babies tend to grab little naps here and there when they're out in their buggies or in the car seat. But it's good to have a fixed cut-off bedtime where you get your life back for a few hours at the end of the day.

I agree with the above that she'll probably go back to her usual pattern once the weather returns to normal.

My mum always says, "let sleeping babies lie."