Waking a sleeping baby?

[Daisysimply]

Hi just looking for a bit of advice.

My daughter has been fighting her naps during the day so I’ve tried looking for a nap schedule to follow to try help with this. One I’ve found has said to allow baby to have 3 naps a day. First 2 naps should be 1 hour and the last nap 30 minutes. Yesterday my daughter slept for over 2 hours for her first nap then refused to sleep again until late in the afternoon but again slept for close to 2 hours. She fought her sleep all afternoon and ended up being awake for nearly 6 hours in total which I know is way too long for her age (she’s 7 months). I’m wondering whether it’s best to wake her from her naps earlier so that she might resist her naps less? But then I assume if she’s having a long nap it’s because she’s tired and needs it and heard to never wake a sleeping baby. I don’t know what to do!

Never wake a sleeping baby is right! Believe me my baby has 2-3 naps a day of 15-20 mins and then still fights like a demon at night. Haven't found any way to change it, totally knackered. Does she sleep at night?

She was like that with the catnaps until a couple months ago until she randomly started sleeping longer in the day so I guess it just improves with time but now she’s fighting naps altogether so it’s hard to keep up! No she sleeps terribly at night. Wakes minimum of 3 times up to about 7 times and she’s gone through a phase over the past couple weeks where she’ll wake between 1-3am and be awake for hours. Totally knackering!

I think it very much depends on your little one’s personality. I’ve often capped my little boy’s naps to make sure that his other naps and bedtime aren’t pushed back too late and that has worked well for us, but he’s generally quite chilled out. If he was upset at being woken then maybe I would have felt differently.

Everything you've said here points to her being ready for 2 naps. 7 months is a normal age to drop the 3rd nap.

How is your DD at bedtime?

How is she for the rest of the day? Does she seem happy and content or wired/distressed?

Mine used to have 45 mins in the morning, about an hour and a half at lunch time plus another 45 mins in the afternoon. I did used to wake them if they didn't wake naturally.

She’s definitely very sensitive so I feel she’d be distressed if I woke her early which is why I’ve been putting off trying it

I did wonder if she was ready to drop to 2 naps, will try this tomorrow and see how it goes! She’s generally very tired and irritable by bedtime. Throughout the day depends really, she was fine today until I tried to get her to sleep then she got irritable. Most days she acts like she’s tired when she’s due a nap (irritated/ rubbing eyes) but just won’t sleep still

Never wake sleeping baby, it's when they're brain develops and they process also grow. Baby will get into a routine in time :)

I had to when my baby was premature as she had no energy to feed and couldn't rouse herself too. (She had jaundice too) so in emergency I just encouraged her... took blanket off, put her down gently on mat so she could slowly rouse herself slowly. Gently stroking her too.

Yes it sounds like the PP is right and she might be ready for 2 naps. It's a minefield trying to figure out what they need. Those templates for baby sleep don't suit everyone either and that can be really confusing.

I follow a sleep account called Little Nest Sleep on Instagram and have found the page and her podcast reassuring.