trying to keep her awake during the day

BananaSD

People keep telling me to try to keep LO awake during the day so she can sleep at night longer.  LO does sleep ALOT during the day, but I have no idea how to keep her awake or if I should.  When she falls asleep, I dont want to wake her.  Does anyone try to keep LO awake during the day, or just let them sleep?

childof007

I'm interested in hearing this too as my DD sleeps a lot during the day too!

Lindsey7521

My girl used to sleep a good bit during the day too..but shes growing out of it. I gave up on trying to her awake during the day because all it did was make her mad and cranky.

Also...the ladies at daycare have said shes staying awake more now.

diana.filipi

Around the time she started sleeping 5-7 hours at a time I started making an effort to keep her engaged during the day. 

• Go for outside walk if she falls asleep (I will let her nap for about 30 min but then get her up gently)
• Go for a ride to a store or to walk around and window shop
• Sit outside
  
• I will be EXTRA engaging, talking to her, smiling at her, etc
• Pick her up and carry her around the house
• Take her to a different room
  

Dani11

I have been told at this age to let them sleep. I guess they need a lot of sleep, and my Pedi told me by trying to keep them awake it may be harder to get them to sleep. This really doesn't make much sense to me, but I what do I know!? But he said to make sure there is activity going on around the house during the day and to keep lights on so they know that it is daytime. He also told me if she has been sleeping more than 3 hours to wake her up so that I get in enough feedings during the day.

mariamaria

IMHO sleep begets sleep. If she needs to sleep during the day, let her.?

kelbel527

I've actually found when I let ds sleep as much as he needs during the day, he sleeps better at night. When he doesn't get many naps due to visitors or something else going on, he doesn't sleep as well because he's overtired.

Jerseygirl16

I always found that sleep begets sleep.  If he sleeps a lot during the day he sleeps better at night.  If he's up he is up more over night. 

MarthaP18

kelbel527:

I've actually found when I let ds sleep as much as he needs during the day, he sleeps better at night. When he doesn't get many naps due to visitors or something else going on, he doesn't sleep as well because he's overtired.

Ditto. My son is sleeping great at night now and I never forced a sleep schedule on him. He just figured it out on his own and dropped the middle-of-the-night feedings one by one all by himself. 

sasky

I have always let DS sleep when he wants to sleep.

I've had similar experiences to pps... On days when he has not napped enough, he doesn't sleep as well at night.

He is now starting to stay much more awake during the day and definitely sleeping longer at night.

bride2be79

My pedi advised me to let DD sleep as much as she wanted during the day but if she slept for more than 3 hours to wake her up.  That way, she wouldn't get her days and nights confused.  If DD slept more than 3 hrs (I would let her go to 3 1/2) I would just gently pick her up and change her diaper.  By the time I was finished with that, she was usually awake and ready to eat.  I would feed her, play with her a little if she was still awake and then put her back to sleep (if she would go down).  She doesn't have to be awake for a long time, just a little while.  I never tried to keep her awake though, that just made for a cranky baby who was too worked up to fall asleep again. 

mreinard

If you do try to keep your LO up, just be careful your baby doesn't get over tired - we have been dealing with an over tired baby for weeks now - she is impossible to get down for naps and is just generally miserable.  It's hard to hear her crying all the time because she's tired - and you can see that she needs to sleep but she fights it as hard as she can.  It's really hard to deal with!! 

With my LO, I have found if she doesn't sleep well during the day, she sleeps great at night.  If she has a big nap in the afternoon, she doesn't sleep well at night.  So today I"m trying to let her have a big nap (2-3 hours) this morning, then this afternoon I'm going to try to only let her have cat naps (30-40 minutes) until bed time to see if that helps. Good luck!!

Luv-a-Bug

kelbel527:

I've actually found when I let ds sleepas much as he needs during the day, he sleeps better at night. When he doesn't get many naps due to visitors or something else going on, he doesn't sleep as well because he's overtired.

This is what the Baby411 book says as well.

denahamilton@cox.net

mariamaria:

IMHO sleep begets sleep. If she needs to sleep during the day, let her.

THIS EXACTLY. You are going to create an extremely overtired baby/child ifyou do this. DON'T!!!