Naps close to bed time?

[BabyBoyNYC]

Has anyone notice naps close to bedtime effecting their LO sleep at night?

I fed him 6oz at 5pm and he's looking a little tired but so far bedtime has been around 9-10pm with a feed at 4am back to sleep and we're up at 7-8am to start the day. The past couple nights i've been noticing him being really chatty after his 4am feed instead of drifting off like usual he wants to coo at me, so of course i'm freaking out that he's going to starting wanting to play at 4 in the morning!

1 thing is we just started putting him in a crib and if i let him sleep with me he goes back to sleep if i put him in the crib he twist and rolls all over and gets upset only after 4 though from 9 to 4 he sleeps fine with maybe a little whimper here or there, idk.... i hate all this pressure of a good sleeping baby!

 

[LockandKey]

haha 54 weeks! I'd imagine baby being bigger than a watermelon by then

If you're having trouble why not try having him take a shorter nap before bed. It sounds like he is sleeping pretty well though. Do you make sure he is deep asleep before moving him into his crib?

 

[Aphrodite]

Never made any difference to Jack, he still slept as usual even if he naps close to bedtime. last night he fell asleep on the sofa at half 5 but was in bed asleep by half 7 x

 

[Foogirl]

Abby's last nap of the day has always been close to bedtime. As a baby her last nap had her waking an hour before bedtime, and now her last nap is about 3pm and she sometimes go to 5.30pm, her bedtime is 8. Never bothered her. She actually sleeps less well if she has an earlier nap.

 

[Fabby]

A late nap doesn't tend to effect us either. Theres only ever been 3 ocassions when we have taken lo to bed at normal time and he's been wide awake and not tired resulting in us bringing him back downstairs for a bit. He soon realises that there's not much going on and decides he is then tired to go to bed x

 

[Ozzieshunni]

Alex usually has a nap from 5:30-8pm in the evenings and then he's down for the night with me at 10:30pm. He set this schedule for himself so I don't tamper with it, lol.

A good sleeping baby is a myth! Everyone ALWAYS asks about Alex's sleep patterns. I don't know why they care so much. It's not like he's sleeping at their houses.

 

[Foogirl]

A good sleeping baby is a myth! Everyone ALWAYS asks about Alex's sleep patterns. I don't know why they care so much. It's not like he's sleeping at their houses.

Lol, it might seem that way, but I had one. Awake for an hour, asleep for two, all day and night. Could set my watch by her. Right up until 4 months when it went a bit wrong, but we soon got her back into the habit and she has slept well since then.

 

[Foogirl]

haha 54 weeks! I'd imagine baby being bigger than a watermelon by then :

Jackie Chan was apparently in the womb for 12 months and was born at 12lbs. Ouch!

 

[HungryHippo]

Our LO seems to like a 5 pm nap. If she sleeps too long we wake her for bath time by 7:30ish, feed and then back down by 8:30. She sleeps until 7 am with a Midnight and 4am feed.

 

[tu123]

At three months and now nearly 11mths it has always been a disaster if LO had a nap past 4pm.

 

[ronnie1234]

My LO fell asleep last night between 7 - 8 (usually playtime) thought she'd never go down to bed at 9.30 - 10ish, but she did!

 

[nicole_]

doesnt matter for us. LOs just gone down for a nap and his bedtime is 7-7:30
theres no way i can keep him awake from the nap before and hes always shattered by half 7 anyway so i dont mind

 

[lisaf]

Hate to say it, but I have one of those mythical 'good sleeping' babies, lol. I don't proclaim to be an expert, I'm pretty sure it was dumb luck.

We try to make sure he gets a nap within a few hours of bedtime... basically he has a maximum stretch of time that he'll be awake and cheerful for. Around 2 hours at a time. If he goes down for a nap between 3-4, and sleeps no later than 5, he'll go down for bed at 7-7:30 without a problem. He then sleeps until 7-8:30 the next morning without waking up (with the occasional exception).
If he does wake up earlier, we feed (only if he's crying) and put him back and he goes to sleep. He may lie awake chatting with himself and playing with his feet for a bit, but he drifts off again.. maybe try that for the 4am wake-ups you've been having?
Once the sun is up though, we can't get him back down, lol!

 

[Sooz]

I've found preventing her napping near bedtime is a sure-fire guarantee to have a dreadful night. It took a couple of horrific times for this to sink in but now if she wants to nap I let her nap! She'll rarely sleep longer than 20 minutes at that time of day anyway.

 

[ronnie1234]

We try to make sure he gets a nap within a few hours of bedtime... basically he has a maximum stretch of time that he'll be awake and cheerful for. Around 2 hours at a time. If he goes down for a nap between 3-4, and sleeps no later than 5, he'll go down for bed at 7-7:30 without a problem. He then sleeps until 7-8:30 the next morning without waking up (with the occasional exception).
QUOTE]

How do you fit all your feeds into day if he sleeping 12 hours at night?

 

[lisaf]

you mean because I'm BFing? Or just in general?
He's taking 4-5 ounces at a time... feeds aprox at 8am, 10am, 1pm, 3pm, 7pm... give or take... he's been taking 4 ounces of breastmilk at a time since he was 2 months old. He's 4 months, in the 75th percentile for weight (17lbs 5ozs, 26inches).

 

[Foogirl]

How do you fit all your feeds into day if he sleeping 12 hours at night?

We let Abby lead us. She got as many feeds as she asked for. So if she slept 8 or 9 hours (which was normal at 5 months) she got whatever she needed when she was awake. If she needed more, she would ask for it

I'm not sure if maybe its the difference between bottle feeding and BFing?

I'm impressed Lisaf. I BFed for 17 months and have absolutely no idea how many ounces she had!!

 

[lisaf]

I had to give him a lot of expressed milk because we had a super rocky start to BFing and he wouldn't latch at all. Now I'm back at work so we've been doing the breast milk in the bottle. I'll admit, knowing how much he's getting appeals to the control-freak in me
If you're curious how much a BF'd baby is getting, you simply weigh them before a feed then right after (before changing diaper or anything). I'm not saying I bothered to do that but it is an option and can be really important if you have a baby who isn't gaining weight.

 

[Foogirl]

I had to give him a lot of expressed milk because we had a super rocky start to BFing and he wouldn't latch at all. Now I'm back at work so we've been doing the breast milk in the bottle. I'll admit, knowing how much he's getting appeals to the control-freak in me
If you're curious how much a BF'd baby is getting, you simply weigh them before a feed then right after (before changing diaper or anything). I'm not saying I bothered to do that but it is an option and can be really important if you have a baby who isn't gaining weight.

Yes, I had to let that control freak go! If I'd got into the weighing, she never would have been off the scales and if she hadn't taken "enough" I'd have panicked and tried to force feed her more. But because we went from knowing how much she was on when she left hospital to having no idea, it was rather hair raising! Thankfully she gained weight well in the beginning.

 

[Aberrance]

My LO normally takes a little 15-30 minutes nap about an hour before we go to bed.. Seems to work alright. She goes to bed pretty easily.