6 mths - totally new nap pattern - should I just let it be? Confused!

[SarahCaroline]

Up till now, DD has been following a roughly Gina-Ford pattern, although she's had trouble sleeping more than about 30 mins without a lot of help. She was having 30 mins at 9am-ish, then half to 2 hours at 12, and about 30 mins at 4/4.30.

Now that she's more or less sleeping through the night, though, she's started napping for England! For example she went off at 8.55 this morning and is still asleep (10.10). I had been heeding Gina's dire warnings about not letting her sleep this long in the morning but am now beginning to be tempted just to let her find her own new pattern. No idea how long she'll sleep in the morning if I let her, but I know she won't manage 2 hours at lunchtime if I do this ... The longer lunchtime naps were useful for getting things done, but I'm having trouble weighing up the pros and cons here - any thoughts? Will a long morning nap lead, as Gina suggests, to a knock-on effect of very early-morning waking?

Thoughts and experiences very welcome.

I'd just let her - its just what my dd did and she still slept all night too.

If she wants to sleep she must need it. Just let her be.

Is that what Gina says? about the eary wakings?
My ds is now 13mo but has never slept past 7am! (well I could count the times on one hand) He has a 1.5hr nap in the morning and about 45min in the afternoon and has been doing this since about 8mo. I keep hearing about these long lunchtime naps but he never seems to do that.. I've tried waking him after an hour in the morning to try and 'predict' a longer nap in the afternoon but it never seems to happen and he ends up short of day sleep.

I think he still had 3 naps at 6mo which totalled around 3hrs of daytime sleep and then went 11hrs straight through at night. So I guess as long as she's not sleeping eg 5 hrs in the day she should be fine iykwim. Try it for a week and change it if you feel it's not working.

My dd is also 6 months and has also been following a roughly Gina Ford pattern since about 3 months, except that she needs more sleep than GF suggests. I usually let her have at least an hour in the morning and then she still has 2.5 hours at lunchtime. If I don't wake her while she's napping in the morning she sleeps from about 9 until 11.30, and then has another hour or so from about 2 till 3. So basically she needs at least 3 hours sleep between 9am and 3pm and then she manages to get through the afternoon until bed at 7. I tend to juggle things around to suit what I'm doing in the day, so for example if I want to have someone round for lunch I wake her up in the morning so she'll have 2 hours at lunch time. She usually wakes up some time between 6 and 7 in the morning, but that doesn't seem to be related at all to how long she sleeps in the day. I think the only thing you can do is experiment a bit - if she's not happy she'll tell you!

From 3-6 months mine only ever had 3 x 30 mins sleeps, you could time him and he woke once in the night. After 6 months he went to a 2 hour am sleep and maybe the odd 30 mins or more in the pushchair in the pm. He also started sleeping through the night. He has rarely had an after lumch sleep. I get all my things done between 8/9-10/11 when hes asleep (or I go back to bed too, bliss) This change has made no difference to when he woke up. Its always been about 6.30-7.

Since his 1st birthday he sometime has a short am sleep and then a long one in the afternoon, but that could be at 1,2 or 3. I just look for the whinging signs!