Never wake a sleeping baby?

[jenfl]

DD had reflux, so never really napped for long. DS (4 weeks) will actually sleep during the day for some number of hours at a time. I worry about letting him sleep too long and that affecting his nighttime sleep (such as it is), but I also know that, at least as they get older, good daytime sleep leads to good nighttime sleep.

So what do you do? Do you try to limit daytime sleep? Or do you let baby sleep however long they want?

[sophiesgrandma]

They do alot of growing while they sleep but I would wake the baby if it's approaching the 3 hour mark and feed.

[jenfl]

Feeding's not a huge issue -- if it's a long nap he'll wake up, nurse, then fall back asleep.

[HappyMonkey]

I think they suggest to wake every few hours to feed ONLY until they reach their birth weight... then relax and just let them sleep. I never woke my little one even before she reached her birth weight. I think she was back at it by 10 days, and is double her birth weight at 4 months. She's happy and so am I. And I love how much I get done with the occasional 4 hour nap! I haven't noticed it affects her night time sleep at all... I think it much happen during growth spurts.

[elmh23]

My new guy will sleep for up to 5 hours without even nursing, so I sure as heck let him! My other two didn't do that until they were well over a year.

That said, with my older two, I'd wake them every 2 hours to eat until they got back to their birthweight, then let them be. The new guy never lost any weight though so I've just let him be since birth.

[belltree]

I didn't wake my little guy at that age, but when it was daytime, I was doing daytime activity - lights were on (it was winter), I was cleaning, cooking, listening to music etc. At night I kept the room dark and would hardly talk at all to my babe.

[tzs]

i don;t think i'd ever wake a babe unless it was for medical reasons but maybe taking him outside in the sunlight more during the day?? do you think he's got nights and days mixed up still?

[akind1]

I don't wake him to eat, but on occasion, he has been napping and I need to go somewhere, so he must come with, and I've had to wake him up. If he's still tired, he'll go back to sleep. If not . . . then at least he seems happy to be awake!

[hakeber]

Originally Posted by akind1

I don't wake him to eat, but on occasion, he has been napping and I need to go somewhere, so he must come with, and I've had to wake him up. If he's still tired, he'll go back to sleep. If not . . . then at least he seems happy to be awake!

I let her sleep as long as she wants in the day time, but I try to make sure the long nap is not too close to bed time because then that means fits and starts of sleep at night and a VERY early waking, rather than another long stretch ending when I am ready to get up. Like last night she slept from 8 - 4, and I would really rather she slept from 9 to 5 to be honest, but I was busy marking papers so I didn't really have a choice, but usually if she falls asleep between 6 and 8 pm I will wake her to feed her every hour and half or so, just to postpone that long stretch for when *I* am also sleeping.

[texmati]

As long as he's gaining well-- never ever wake a sleeping baby. DS would make. us. pay. for any lost sleep.