naps - do you let them sleep till they wake up themselves?

[titferbrains]

DD 21 wks. just readjusting her sleep pattern after growthspurt. she has been down for a couple of hours, but was up at 6am this mornign, and didn't go down till 10 (did go down before that but woke up after 10 min) - just wondering what you all do, sometimes wonder if she needs one big sleep per day. She normally only sleeps one hour at a time so when she goes for longer I wonder if she needs it, tho books all say that they shdn't sleep longer than 3 hrs.

I never let mine sleep longer than 3hrs.

Now DS is older, we tend to leave him for 2hrs and then get him up. (14mnths)

I always let my DS nap as long as he needs to, I haven't found it affects his night time sleeping patterns. He is 19 weeks.

And horrible mother that I am, I wake my 23 week dd after an hour and 40 minutes if she is still asleep and it seems to work a treat - this is her morning nap - she tends to then nap for 45 minutes then 30 minutes after her subsequent two feeds.

21 weeks seems very young to go down to one big sleep. I think she would get very overtired at that! As far as I can remember ds was on 2/3 sleeps a day until he was at least 12 months old!

I meant one long sleep in addition to other naps. My DD isn't much of a sleeper. she only sleeps when she absolutely has to. Guess I'll carry on playing it by ear but avoiding the 3 hour max. Feels odd not to hear her burbling away for that long anyway!

sorry .. my misunderstanding! Its nice to have the 3 hour break to yourself though isnt it?

Just let them sleep, they need it, they are growing in there sleep.

At that age, let I let DS sleep as long as he wanted. It never interfered with his night-time sleep. When they get to 2y+, it's slightly different though!

Just remember that she can't read the books and as long as it doesn't affect her night time sleep I would let her get on with it

I let my dd sleep as long as she needed - but she was/is a child that sleeps better at night the more sleep she gets during the day.

At 19mo she can go down for an afternoon nap aat 2pm and sleep until 4.45pm and still be ready for bed at 7pm (a rarity though)