LO is 16 weeks & we do a 3 hr EASY schedule. She goes down for a nap 1.5 hrs from her last wakeup. Lately I have noticed that she doesn't yawn as much before nap time, and she will often just look around awake for as much as 20 minutes when I'm rocking her. If we push it to 2 hrs she will fall asleep quickly & also sleep better. I'm thinking I should keep her up longer, but everything online says 4 month olds should still only be awake 1.5-1.75 hours. I am obviously fearful of the dreaded overtired baby!
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Yawning is already a sign of over tiredness, so I might be temped to go in the other direction and reduce the awake time.
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@looch: Really? Shouldn't she be awake more, not less, as she gets older? She really isn't yawning much anymore (used to right before a nap) and I really don't think she's overtired because she just sits in my lap awake while I try to rock her.
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Well,those times are guidelines, some kids are awake longer and some are not. My son was at least 8 months before he needed to be awake longer than 1.5 hours!
It doesn't hurt to try, sometimes the longer times to fall asleep respond well to going down earlier. Or keep her up later for several days and see if she truly is ready to increase the awake time. You don't know until you try for a couple of days in a row.
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For what it's worth, my 4-month-old goes down roughly 2 hours after waking in the morning, and then roughly 2.5 intervals after that. Sometimes we even stretch it to 3 before bed.
I wouldn't stress about those guidelines. They're precisely that. If I put him down for a nap every 90 minutes I would get nothing else done. Just experiment. If it seems to go smoothly, you have your answer!
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One of the books I found helpful suggested that as babies move out of the newborn stage you should wait for a second or third sign of tiredness before putting them down for a nap.
I say try the slightly longer awake time and see how you go!
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try it! nothing is permanent. i'm pretty sure my LO could easily go 2 hours at that age. guidelines are for everyone and no one - figure out what works for your actual baby
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I agree with trying it; I would follow your baby rather than general guidelines!
FWIW, my LO couldn't stay up more than 1 hour 15 min at that age.
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Don't stress about the guidelines - listen to your baby. My son NEVER followed the "guidelines." At that age, my son probably had an awake time of 2 hours. Just try it and see what happens!
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LO is 4.5mths and her awake time is at least 2hrs now--maybe more like 2hr15-2hr30 if there's something interesting going on
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9 comments