Can your baby sleep too much during the day?

Our little ones are a little over 3.5 months old. Our dd is starting to struggle with her bed time. She used to go down between 630-700 and now we struggle with 730/800. The one thing I noticed recently is she is sleeping a lot during the day. She has been taking a three hour nap and usually another two hour nap. She also may take a cat nap. Anyway, it has been adding up to about 6 hours of sleep during the day. Is that too much and could it be affecting her night sleep? Also she is waking up more often during the night. THANKS!

ETA: Should I be waking her after two hours so she doesn't stretch it so long? Right now I have to wake her from her 3 hour nap, crazy huh?!

 

Our little ones are a little over 3.5 months old. Our dd is starting to struggle with her bed time. She used to go down between 630-700 and now we struggle with 730/800. The one thing I noticed recently is she is sleeping a lot during the day. She has been taking a three hour nap and usually another two hour nap. She also may take a cat nap. Anyway, it has been adding up to about 6 hours of sleep during the day. Is that too much and could it be affecting her night sleep? Also she is waking up more often during the night. THANKS!

ETA: Should I be waking her after two hours so she doesn't stretch it so long? Right now I have to wake her from her 3 hour nap, crazy huh?!

 

You might just have to wake her after two hours. Be warned that she could be crabby after that! It's worth a try, right?!

 

Well, I put her down at 835 this morning and she babbled until around 900 and fell asleep, which is unusual. I was waiting for her to cry and I would go in and nurse her, but didn't happen. Well, I woke her at 1130 and she was still sound asleep. She slept for 2.5 hours and thankfully isn't crabby. Thanks for your input. I may have to shorten it to two hours. We'll see!

 

I would love a 3 hour nap ....but....if it's affecting her night sleep, I would wake her after 2, and see if it helps! Good luck!

 

I agree with both Becky & Diane. 6 hours during the day seems like a lot to me, but at 3.5 months, they may still be transitioning from needing lots of newborn daytime sleep to a more predictable napping schedule, especially if they were preemies (oh, I see yours weren't).

A couple of 2 hour naps may do the trick. My boys are nap-lovers too; so I became a baby waker. Usually I wake babies to preserve the sanctity of our schedule, but I'll also wake them if they've napped past 2 hours. DH & MIL think it's cruel to wake them...I think it's cruel to not teach them long periods of sleep are reserved for night time.

Good luck.

 

quote:
Originally posted by SweetpeaG:
6 hours during the day seems like a lot to me, but at 3.5 months, they may still be transitioning from needing lots of newborn daytime sleep to a more predictable napping schedule

Interesting point. They just started getting a little more predictable with their morning nap time, other than that I follow their sleepy cues. Is this a typical age for transitioning to more of a schedule? I bf on demand and they both are pretty much on their own schedules, besides the morning nap. THANKS!

 

My kiddos were the same age when they began getting more predictable at napping. 9am (for 45min) and 1pm (two to three hours)generally, though there are days when they need more sleep and take extra naps.

 

quote:
Originally posted by babies@2:
Is this a typical age for transitioning to more of a schedule?


For us (35 weekers), we started to see a predictable schedule emerge at about 3.5-4 months. I attributed that timing to the fact that at about 3 months they are leaving the newborn stage and becoming more aware of their surroundings (and thus able to start making associations to their environment).

Best of luck.

 

I think that she is transitioning so now it would be a good time to slowly take away the 6 hours she is sleeping during the day... You can start by pushing back naps a little bit at a time every day... say 10-15 min. Less likely she will be as crabby if you do it gradually.