Do you ever wake your LOs up?

Sometimes our boys can take a very long afternoon nap - which then of course, they go to bed later. I don't usually like to wake them because then they are cranky. What do you all do and think?

Also, one of my boys has been skipping his afternoon nap. It's very strange - he was always a good napper, and then all of a sudden a few weeks ago, it changed. I don't know why he has a hard time falling asleep - but when he does skip it - he's very pleasant and just goes to down for bed early. He usually shows signs of tired around 3.5 hrs - and that's when we put him down. We don't find putting him down earlier helps - somethimes we will wait until 4 hrs though - and then whether he shows signs or not, we put him down. Any thoughts?

 

I will wake my kids from naps if they get within about 2 hrs of their bedtime. It doesn't happen often, but I just want to give them (and myself) enough turnaround time to have dinner, baths, and a bit of playtime before bed.

As for the nap times.. by around 11 months I started to schedule their naps.. I would put them down at 9:30 am and then at about 2 pm no matter what and if they took their nap that was fine, if they played in their crib that was fine too.. but they were in there for at least 1 hr in the morning and 1/2 hr in the afternoon. By about 13 months they were starting to want to drop their afternoon nap, so it could just be that he's starting to transition toward that.

 

I wake mine if they sleep more than 2 hours because I find it messes up their night sleep if I don't. That rarely happens though - mine are still catnappers about 75% of the time. Every once in awhile we have a miracle day like today where they took an hour and 15 min. nap in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon. I'm so well rested today and got all my housework done! :laughing:

Like the pp, I'm wondering if your LO's are working towards dropping a nap and needing an earlier bedtime. I go roughly by a schedule for naps, but I usually wait until one or the other rubs their eyes or yawns. So morning nap is approximately 9am and afternoon nap is approximately 2pm. That has helped us stay on track.

 

I actually woke Gavin up from his afternoon nap today because I knew it would mess with his bedtime routine. I don't usually get in the habit of waking them, but sometimes I just have to.

I tried to transition my kids from 2 naps to 1 nap the other week and it was not good. So, we are back to 2 naps, and if they sleep, they sleep, if they talk in their cribs, then they talk in their cribs. But we all get that break and relax for a bit.

 

I rarely ever woke any of my kids from nap. I wanted that break! LOL! That said though, my kids would always go right to bed regardless of when they woke from a nap. Annabella slept the other day for over four hours-when I had to wake her at 5pm! Bedtime is 7/7:30pm here. She was perfectly fine going right back to bed then. And as luck would have it, she has taken no more than a 90 minute nap since.. :headbang: So-5 pm is my cutoff over here!

 

As PP have said, I'll wake mine if they're getting too close to bed time. I'll also wake one 30 min after the other if one wakes early. (Did that make sense?)

Mine are getting weird about napping as well. Today, they both only took one nap and not at the same time. They were cranky and I tried laying them down, but they just babbled and giggled for 20 minutes. I blame the time change.

 

Thanks everyone! I posted this days ago, and then haven't had a chance to get on to check replies I'm sure you all know what that is like. Anywho - that is a good cutoff - to wake 2 hrs prior to bedtime. That should work for us!

And, yea, i'm wondering if luke is working towards going to one nap. When he skips the 2nd nap, I don't know when to put him to bed?? He usually wakes around 11am from his morning nap - and he usual bedtime is 7/7:30... so if he skips 2nd nap - i'll put him to bed around 6/6:15.

 

When we went to one nap it was from 10:30 or 11 until 1 or 2. Can you move your morning nap later then maybe he will sleep longer and only need one nap. We did this about 1 yr and I loved it so much more than 2 short naps. Mine have done the 7 to 7 since like 6 mo but when we went to one nap by 6:30 they were often in bed.

 

Yeah you will probably want to start easing that nap back so he wakes later in the day. I think you are doing right by putting him down earlier on those days. That is still a very long time for him to stay up - is he overtired by bedtime? As he goes to bed consistently earlier at night, he should move to wanting to nap later in the day. Think of it as a 24 hour cycle in which sleep begets sleep. However, if there is any sleep debt it will take a week or two to catch up. I remember that 2 to 1 nap transition like it was yesterday!