Sleeping baby - to wake or not??

I lay down with my gorgeous Miss A today and we had a lovely afternoon nap. She's been catnapping at best during the day lately so I wanted to encourage a longer, proper sleep so was prepared to "take one for the team" and have a nanna nap :D

I got up after 2.5 hours, fully expecting her to start screaming the house down three secons later. Um, no. Here we are, Miss A just about to tick over into her sixth (!!!) hour of sleep. I haven't woken her before now because after having had a cold and a growth spurt I'm sure she needs the sleep but this is getting nuts and I'm worrying about how little sleep I'm going to get tonight.

So, do you wake or leave her??

I would wake her....although now it's night time anyway so it's almost not worth it lol. With DD I never let her sleep too long (more than a couple of hours - not that I ever had to worry, she was the queen of cat napping during the day) or go too long without offering milk during the day. I felt like this meant she would sleep longer at night. I don't know if that is why she always slept so well at night (even as a newborn it was max 2 times at night, usually 1) or if I was just super lucky. I guess I will know for sure next time...

At that age I always let DS sleep but he never was a good sleeper overnight so I took my sleep where I could get it lol. Given she has had a cold and growth spurt I reckon sleep should win out!

FWIW we have recently had similar issues with DS dropping his day sleep but occasionally having a very late one and/or wanting to go to bed really early (like 5pm) and it's always a dilemma to wake or let him sleep. I have generally let him sleep though.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Never wake the sleeping baby!!! That was rule #2 that DH learnt. Rule #1 was boobs are awesome.

Babies of all ages will throw in extra hours as their body requires. Growth spurts, illness, and I'm sure 'pay back' are all common reasons for long sleeps. But unless you absolutely couldn't miss an appointment/flight/etc, I could never find a good reason to wake Jack. It never worked out well for us when we did wake him.

Although, I SWEAR he would know when I had a playdate or ABA meeting I really wanted to go to, and he demand a sleep, or fall asleep unexpectedly while feeding. :rolleyes:

I've never been one to wake a sleeping baby. Until the baby decided to sleep til school pick up. Now i have to ake her at least once a week & its never great. She always gets up in a terrible mood. She is amost 2, so a little different. But I never woke them as babies either. Unless there was a reason to be concerned.

Maybe try a dream feed & hope for the best?

Clover - I always have to wake her for school pick ups too. The downside of the age gap!

It seems I tempted fate by posting anyway and Miss A was awake 5 minutes later. You would think I would have learned by now NOT to comment on lovely sleeping babies!!

How did the rest of the night go after her big sleep?

Pretty good. She was up for almost 3 hours but then slept pretty well with just a couple of dream feeds. She's already had a couple of hour long sleeps this morning so so far so good.