Do you wake a sleeping baby...

[Angelorum]

If they are napping too long and too late? My one year old is transitioning from 2 to 1 naps I think. Some days he seems to really still need two, but then sometimes his second nap is too long or starts to late, and then he doesn't want to go to bed until 10 or later. He still gets up between 7-8 in the morning, no matter what time he's gone to bed. I've just been letting him sleep, would you wake him to get a better bed time?

[Abraisme]

Yes, I will wake my DD if I think that it's going to push her bedtime too late.

ETA: My DD is very easy to wake up. If I had a baby that was cranky for an hour or two I would think twice about it.

[Devaskyla]

I wouldn't. Late=better than dealing with a tired, cranky kid until bed time, imo.

[Knitting Mama]

Very, very rarely. I will wake Cecilia up if we absolutely have to go somewhere with a set time, like a doctor's appointment. Otherwise, I just let her sleep. I figure she is growing so much that there are times when she really needs the extra sleep and I would feel horrible if I denied her that.

[Tway]

As a mom of a DD who's not very into sleeping, my gut answer is NO, NO, NO, OH LORD, NEVER!

That said, I've been wondering if I should wake her up at a consistent time every morning to see if that can reign in her naps and get her to sleep a little easier. Haven't actually bitten the bullet, though, cause I really need that extra hour in the morning myself...

[treeoflife3]

No I don't. A couple times I accidentally woke her up early just checking on her after long naps and it just wasn't good. The stress of a bad bedtime was easier to handle than the stress of an interrupted nap.

Going down to one nap was definitely annoying but I figure kiddo knows something I don't and I just need to go with it and monitor to make sure its all within a healthy boundary.

[tzs]

to preserve a bedtime....yes.
but that's the only reason. i think that's even what those so-called experts say but for us it just works. we're the same...late bedtime=early wake-up.
i try not to wake her up to abruptly though. i just start knocking around the upstairs and then around her room and let her wake up herself.

[coldandsleepy]

Nope... I never do.

I think my son's at the same point though, transitioning from two naps to one, so we're dealing with a lot of surprise late naps & bedtimes lately. And I was just really getting to like putting him to bed at 7 p.m. too. :P

[slimkins]

Funny, I did just that today. My son is also trying to figure out if he wants to take two naps or just one. Today he took his first nap late (at 10:45) and woke up at like 12:20. So he wasn't ready for his second nap until well after 3. I've also noticed that if he does take two naps, the second one takes him a while to fall asleep. He finally fell asleep by 4. So, I woke him up just before 5. He was in bed tonight around 8 and asleep probably by 8:15. I've just tried to follow his cues during this change, but I have had to intervene a few times.

So, in a lot of words.... yes.

[cocoanib]

Not to keep a certain bed time, but I do if we have to go somewhere.
I had to wake her today, so I could drop her off at daycare before work.
She's never cranky when I have to do this though.

[mamadelbosque]

Only if I have to (ie we're going somewhere). DS1 will occasionally nap late (like, fall asleep after 4!!) and in that case I will wake him up by 5:30 or so, but he's 3 and can really go w/o

[MamaPhD]

When DD was doing 2 naps per day and her naps were shifting later & later, YES I did wake her up around 5:30 so she could go to bed around 8. Very gently though, like I would turn off her white noise machine and open the door or window so she would start stirring. Otherwise, she would go to bed later, but wake up at the same time in the morning, so she didn't get enough sleep and get cranky.
Now she is doing 1 nap per day and no matter when her nap is (usually 1-3), she is able to go to bed at 8 (even if she takes a supe late nap from 4-6). So I just let her sleep. She also still wakes up around same time each morning around 6:30-7.
I'd say try it. 10pm bedtime seems crazy late since most people I talked to always have been telling me our 8pm bedtime is on the late side, too!

[Honey693]

I would say it depends on how cranky they wake up. If you can wake them up and not have to deal with a cranky sobbing mess then I would go for it to preserve bedtime. Otherwise they're not getting enough sleep and I wouldn't.

[Nicole730]

Yes, I will wake up DS if his nap gets to be beyond 5pm. I usually just go and open his door and then start being noisier. So, he technically wakes up on his own...I just help him. Most times doing it this way avoids tears. I think it's because he naturally wakes up at the end of his next sleep cycle...if I choose to wake him up by physically doing it, then he might be in the wrong part of his cycle, which causes the crying IMO.