Late afternoon/early evening naps

I have 12 week old girls and they have been napping MUCH better when I put them down after ANY sign of tiredness.. but my problem is that they have been really tired in the afternoon and will go into a deep sleep (if I let them) until well after 6:00pm. Bedtime is set for 7-7:30-ish, so I don't know if I should try to wake them (they cry forever if I do that!) or just let them sleep. They aren't yet sleeping more than 4 1/2- 5 hours at night and I wonder if it has something to do with it! Thanks!

 

You do not want to hear this but I think a 4.5-5 hour stretch at night for that age is great, after the feed how much longer do they sleep? We couldn't achieve a pattern until 4.5 or 5 months. They eventually fell into their own routine. By 5 mos or so if they are still doing this I would start to try to change their timing. I am sure you will get other answers but if they are pretty amiable when they are awake then I wouldn't change things for now...sounds like you are doing a great job protecting their sleep.

 

4.5 - 5 hours at night is pretty good for 12 weeks. I think at 12 weeks I was pretty much letting them sleep whenever they wanted, we didn't get into a schedule until closer to 4 months. But when they were older, I did wake them if their afternoon nap went too long & might possibly cause a problem with bedtime.

 

I think that I'm one of the few lucky ones but mine sleep from 9pm until 6-7:30 am and are 11 weeks 4days. However, they usually do not nap well during the day and their last feed is at 8:30 with a bedtime at 9pm. They stay on a pretty strict schedule, which they pretty much put themselves on. And they do usually nap in the evening. I get them up by 7:30pm, they get a bath with that nighttime bath soap and lotion, then bottle and bed.

 

I agree that I think they are doing well at night! When my boys were taking their naps when younger, I usually woke them up by 5pm. And their bedtime-by six months old-was for 7pm. My kids though, could sleep til 6pm, and I could put them to bed an hour later-with a 30 minute nap, or a four hour nap.