https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 01 Jun 2026 02:00:00 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2243471 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 23:18:45 +0000 SweetiePie 2243471@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@daniellemybelle: I totally agree that sleep begets sleep especially at that age.<br /> I too would tweak awake time (longer or shorter) before I'd wake the baby from a nap.<br /> They often say that overtired can lead to harder time falling asleep and/or staying asleep. So maybe after those long naps you are keeping her awake longer, which is leading to over tiredness? I have no idea if this is what's actually happening, I guess this is more of a question for you, @laughlines:. Is awake time after a 2.5 hour nap still only 1h15m? Or do you try to make it longer?</p> <p>The only time I woke him was in the (very rare) instance that he slept 3 hours. To help them figure out day and night they shouldn't sleep more than 3 hours at a time during the day. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2243425 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 21:21:59 +0000 daniellemybelle 2243425@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>At that age, I feel like sleep begets sleep so I'm of the mind that you should let your LO sleep as long as they want to. I wonder if she just needs a longer wake time after a longer nap? At 4.5 months most babies are on a solid 3 naps per day. Especially if she is sleeping for 2.5 hour stretches, she may just be ready to move to a morning - midday - afternoon nap schedule. Edited to add: At that age I think my LO napped 9-10:30, 12-1:30 and 3:30-4:30/5 and she would go to bed at 7. So her wake time was 1.5 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2243410 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 21:11:03 +0000 Boogs 2243410@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LaughLines: It caused a grumpy baby and bad night sleep, then a too early wake up the next day. We would have to wake him up after a certain point. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2243407 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 21:04:56 +0000 youboots 2243407@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LaughLines: it's from the moms on call book I think- a lot of the sleep training advice can be harsh though- but that I kept. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2243380 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 20:14:52 +0000 LaughLines 2243380@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@youboots: I remember you saying this, which is why I started taking note of if a "bad" nap followed a long one --- what was your reasoning behind waking her at 2 hours?</p> <p>@BOOGS: Did the long naps cause bad naps after for you, too? Did you wake the baby if it was going long?</p> <p>@MRSRAIN: we definitely follow sleep cues, not a specific gap, it just happens that her sleep cues usually come 1.5 hours of awake time (sometimes less, rarely much more). But after a long nap she either won't show sleep cues or will but then cant get herself to sleep</p> <p>@MRS. CORAL: @SNOWJEWELZ: it's not often! that's why i'm having a bit of trouble pegging down if it is ACTUALLY causing bad naps or not... the long nap is great but then the rest of the evening really makes it not worth it if she's fussy the whole time </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242908 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 11:37:00 +0000 Mrs. Coral 2242908@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LaughLines: ha! You'll never see me posting this question! In all seriousness though...if my kid did have this issue and it was clearly becoming routine and clearly causing issues...then heck yeah!</p> <p>I'm a little jealous. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242880 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 11:20:44 +0000 snowjewelz 2242880@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If your baby is responding that way to a long nap then I might try to wake her up then.</p> <p>For my baby, it would be a dream for her to nap longer so I would love it and welcome it :silly: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242878 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 11:20:29 +0000 BananaPancakes 2242878@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I've never woken my son from a nap and he's 3. But we had a fairly strict schedule by 5 months, so naps were at specific times at that point. Sleep needs change constantly in that first year, so a longer nap could mean that your daughter is trying to consolidate naps. I think by 5 months we were on a strict 3 nap schedule, and in no time it was a 2 nap schedule. But I know there are plenty of people who won't let their kids sleep longer than a specified time, so I'm sure that works, too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242877 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 11:18:59 +0000 mrsrain 2242877@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If you are noticing a trend where long nap = poor/skipped second nap, then it would probably be worth it to wake her up after a certain amount of time. I think at that age I was following sleep cues more than specific time gaps, but that is because that is what worked for me. You just have to figure out what works for you and your LO :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242854 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 11:01:43 +0000 looch 2242854@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am of the mind that I should never wake my sleeping son...when he was small, it often took him a long time to fall asleep and I would do whatever I could to extend his naps!</p> <p>I did eventually learn to look at his total sleep over 24 hours and wake him up accordingly and to make sure there were a certain number of wake hours between naps and night time sleep. It took a bit of experimenting to figure out, but it was essential for us.</p> <p>I also realized that it was time to drop the last nap by the length of time it took to get my son down for the night. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242838 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 10:54:31 +0000 Boogs 2242838@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>When LO was little he would try to take monster naps every so often, like 3-4 hours. Those were the times when rest wasn't a good thing lol. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242827 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 10:48:55 +0000 youboots 2242827@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I never let T sleep longer than 2 hours. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242749 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 09:31:51 +0000 Truth Bombs 2242749@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>When my LO was really young I made sure she ate every three hours during the day, even if that meant waking her from a nap. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-there-such-thing-as-a-too-long-nap#post-2242743 Wed, 22 Jul 2015 09:28:18 +0000 LaughLines 2242743@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My daughter is 4.5 months old. She is on a really good nap routine based on EAS (eat, awake, sleep). When she wakes up I feed her, then we play, then right around an hour fifteen she starts showing sleep signs and i change her diaper and put her in her merlin sleep suit in the PnP awake (where she always sleeps right now) and let her put herself to sleep, which she is very good at 90% of the time. I let her sleep as long as she wants. So the awake time is always right around 1.5 hours but the naps vary from 45 min to 2.5 hours. So there is no "schedule" (ie: nap time at 10:00am) but there is a good routine. She takes 4-5 naps a day depending on how long they are.</p> <p>My question - when she takes a long nap (more than 2 hours), it seems like her next nap is affected. She usually goes to sleep on her own no problem (no rocking, etc), but after a 2+ hour nap the next nap seems to be a struggle and sometimes she skips it all together which makes the following nap REALLY bad. </p> <p>Do you ever wake a sleeping baby if the nap is getting long? Is it just a coincidence or do long naps really affect the next nap </p>