Waking from naps

[NoTeaForMe]

Hi all,

At the moment I let my 7 month old nap for however long she likes and when she likes. This seems to have fallen into a bit of a pattern where she sleeps for longer in the morning and then a shorter nap in the afternoon possibly 2 depending on timings etc! I seem to be the only person I know who let's their baby sleep and doesn't wake them up after a certain amount of time......is this something that is 'recommended' ? I always go by the theory that if she's asleep it's because she needs to sleep! Am I supposed to be working harder to get her to sleep at set times and for set amounts of time? (though she is actually quite routines as to when she sleeps really!) It always amazes me when people talk about changing nap times...how do you do that without ending up trying to put a wide awake baby to sleep or battling an overtired grumpy baby?!

Thanks

If things are working for you, don't change it!

I make a bit of effort to schedule my baby's naps because I need to have a routine that fits with my toddler and to be able to arrange work meetings at the times when my baby is asleep. But there is no need to force your little one in to a particular routine just because that is what other people do (or say they do!).

Yes, agree with previous poster, if it works for you then don't change!
I was forced to make changes to my son's naps because his long morning sleeps were causing him to wake up in the night. And he would then be up for up to 3 hours! He was about 9 months when I finally changed it, after I was a sleep deprived wreck! But I wouldn't have changed it if he had been sleeping through the night. Now I miss my hour of peace in the morning when I used to get everything done...

I think they sort of naturally change as they grow up IYSWIM. Mine have just dropped naps altogether and it kind of crept up, a few times they wouldn't want to sleep, or one would and the other would mess about for ages and then I'd let them get up. You'll find your dd will adjust her routine when she's ready. The only thing is, if her night-time sleep is affected, then you may want to check the naps, or if you need her to get up/ go to bed at a certain time. With our ds1 he went to bed late/ with us. Once we had the twins, we were ready the novelty had worn off to have some time to ourselves in the evening and we wanted them all in bed by 7.30/ asleep by 8pm. So I did have to wake them from pm nap so they were happy to sleep at that time. My dd's 'natural routine' would be to nap 3 hours in the pm and go to bed at 11. But I'm not really up for that!

My DS is a little younger than your LO and he does exactly the same, although for the last few days he's changed it around a bit - short nap morning, long nap afternoon and another much shorter nap. But today he's back to long nap this morning (2 hours!)

I'm leaving it as it stands for now as the long morning nap suits me fine, but when i return to work i'd prefer the longer nap in the afternoon as i'll be working from home two days per week and he'll be going to the childminder in the morning only on those days.

I did go through a stage of trying to change his napping habits when he was a bit younger, but i ended up figuring out that he does these things for a reason and is not good when i try to change the routine he's happy with! We're both much happier going with the flow and find it much less stressful. I also rarely wake him unless we're going out somewhere - he's a good sleeper and sleeps well at night regardless of how he naps in the day.

Thanks for all your reassurance, waking her up from her nap really doesn't feel good so I'll carry on not doing it!! Her bedtime is only affected if she naps after 3.30ish. Amazingly she can happily go from 2 - 7.30!! Can't go that long between sleeps at any other point in the day but that's fine with me!