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For my LO, she sleeps worse at night when she doesn't get enough sleep. She'll sometimes nap until 5:30 and then go to bed at 7, it's how she's always been. I only wake her up if there's somewhere we have to go, like a doctor's appointment. I think every baby is different though because my nephew's night sleep is affected if he takes a nap too late (he's also almost 3, I don't know if that makes a difference, but I think he's always been this way).

i think it probably varies depending on the baby. i'm not the one to give any advice bc our sleep sucks lately haha, but i've found the general guidelines of this chart helpful:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11GHo4keUb2TVJUlSL1kD6HQcEgaNFBmzoQoOzcpcyas/mobilebasic?authkey=CPXE1bsO&pli=1&hl=en

My LO usually takes one 2 hour nap but she will sleep longer on some days...4 or 5 hours and it never affects her sleep at night,

@hilsy85: yea, that would just make for an overtired baby if he only napped 1 hr the rest of the day! He might just have higher than average sleep needs, so I say let him guide you. The only time I wake LO is if she takes a long nap in the evening too close to her bedtime. I find the cat nap before bed works better than a long nap, but I don't see a problem with having the 2 long naps in the morning and afternoon.

I think every kid is different! We've had the opposite problem until recently. He wouldn't want to nap much during the day (took catnaps) and slept really well at night.

I think it's about his awake time more than how long he's napping. At our babies' age, anywhere between 2-3 hours of awake time is about all they'll be able to handle. So we'll put LO down anywhere between there for a nap. Depending on how long he sleeps determines if he gets 2 or 3 naps that day.

For instance, he's at my BFF's today, so he was up an hour earlier than usual. He slept 2 hours in the morning and will likely sleep 2 hours in the afternoon. He won't take a 3rd nap if he does that. But for days that my dad watches him, he gets up an hour later, only takes a half hour nap in the morning and maybe an hour and a half in the afternoon. He then needs a quick half hour cat nap before 6pm dinner. And if we want him to go to sleep easily for us at 8/8:30, he has to be up for at least 2 hours before bedtime.

Does that make sense?

Supposedly it's the opposite -- daytime sleep helps nighttime sleep. But then again, since starting daycare he barely naps but has totally STTN a few times so... who knows?

@hilsy85: It makes sense! Even though the sleep experts will claim all babies are the same (obviously, because why else would you listen to them if it was different for every baby? ), I really think maybe it depends on the kid.

@hilsy85: DD is 7 months too. We've been doing 2 longer naps and dropping the 3rd because it was getting too close to bedtime. Now on a good day she'll nap 9-11ish and 2-4ish and bed at 7. If her first nap is bad then we get a little messed up but it's been working pretty well.

@hilsy85: Generally a short one from 5:30-6:15ish after I pick her up from daycare and while I'm getting dinner ready. Then it's "keep her up!" mode until bedtime. I usually do my best to keep her awake from 6:30pm until bedtime around 9.

Yes especially if she has a long nap close to her bedtime

LO is welcome to sleep as much as she wants, but not past a certain time. She does best if her last awake period is at least 4 hours, so I try not to let her sleep past 4pm unless we will need her to stay up later than that for whatever reason. Yesterday she had almost 4.5 hours worth of naps. Today it was about 1.5 hours.

I really never wake him up from a nap, honestly. I figure if he's sleeping longer than normally, it's because he is trying to make up for sleep or because he is fighting an illness. He STTN though - sometimes he will wake up earlier than usual if he naps a lot, but it's not that bad. That said, I really try to make sure he is up by 4 p.m. or otherwise bedtime is too late. At home, he usually takes about 3 hours worth of naps and he's 12 months.

@hilsy85: are you being more active during the day? Because ever since its gotten warm out, we play a LOT more and he gets exhausted. He's been taking 2.5h naps and sttn just fine. I think it's their age because they've become a ton more active and they are wearing themselves out