Do you ever wake a sleeping baby?

[MadameJ]

Dd2 is 6.5 months and although she previously slept fabulously, now wakes 5 x per night to feed. Her daytime naps to me seem quite long (although I have nothing really to compare to as dd1 only started napping at 14 months!!). She probably has between 2-3 hours in the morning and the same after lunch. I was wondering whether this was too long? And also if she was awake a little more in the day then she may also feed more? Any thoughts?

You could give it a try, it does seem to be a long time during the day. It's not always easy and never fun though!

how long is she up for in the night. If she is up playing then it's likely to be a problem. If she just wakes and feeds, it's more likely to be a growth or developmental spurt.

thats sounds like a lot of daytime sleep to me (though all babies are different: at that age my DS would only ever have four 30 minute naps per day, grrrr!).

Maybe limit each nap to 1.5 hours, which sounds more like an average amount. Don't wake her harshly,but just open her door, put lights on outside and start bustling about a bit talking to yourself/singing, clattering around in the hallway, she will soon wake up.

I sometimes do this with my son if his afternoon nap is going on too late (if he's not awake himself by 3.15pm this afternoon, i will do it) otherwise he pisses about all evening and wont go to bed!

You might have to deal with a slightly grumpy baby for a couple of hours a day, but I would say that was worth it to get a better sleep at night?

Only after 3.30pm -4pm

Naps too late meant DD1 turned her usual no trouble at all 8pm bed time into a grumpy 9pm over tired moan.

DD2 never had naps

Yes definitely. I wake my 9 month old after 45 mins in the morning and after 2 hrs in the afternoon. No sleep after 4pm. Any more than 2 hrs in the afternoon and she wants to play at 1am!
She sleeps a good 12-13 hrs at night.

Thanks ladies, I let her have 1.5 hours today at both naps so we will see if it helps tonight!