How long should I let him sleep?

[sharvs]

My DS has always been ok at self soothing, however over the last week he has been waking up at night & not putting himself back to sleep. Yesterday I decided it was time to get tough & put him to bed awake. It's working great - he slept through last night. Prior to today, he only sleeps for 40 -60 mins during the day. I put him down this morning & now he has been asleep for 2 1/2 hours. I just woke him but he was so grumpy I've put him back to bed & he's gone straight back to sleep. Should I just leave him to wake when he is ready? He is 4 months old, and I work on the 2 hour rule.

[carls]

I always get confused about this as well - sometimes I will get him up and he will be so grizzly I will just end up putting him back to bed!!! I dont think youre supposed to get them up after 40 minutes as thats the end of their first sleep cycle and I have heard they are supposed to go back into another 40 minutes at least. A 40 minute sleep is called a nap and not a sleep apparently.

I listen for grizzles when James wakes up. If he is grizzly I think he will probably want to go back to sleep. If i put the dummy in and he closes his eyes yes hes still tired. If hes making different awake noises - coos etc and I put the dummy in and his eyes remain open I get him up.

Seems to work!

[giggles]

I try and avoid waking a sleeping baby whenever possible. I figure they are asleep for a reason and obviously they need it.

Some days Ava will only have a "nap" and some days she can go for 3 hours.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was somewhere we could go for all the answers.......This mothering bizzo is far too much guess work for me :p

[Peaceangels]

Yeah, I agree with the "never wake a sleeping baby" rule............and also sleep patterns under 1yrs can change so dramatically day to day, week to week etc, so I kinda just went with the flow.

It was only when they were at a certain age (of two sleeps a day) that I worried about times, but that was because I didn't want them to be up all night!

[drewid]

I tend to go with the flow also...if he goes back to sleep, then he must be tired, therefore i'll let him sleep.

If it obviously starts to interfere with night sleeping I would worry about it then, but if its only for a day or two, I dont' see the harm. They seem to go through growth spurt periods where they want to sleep allll the time. Though of course, it never matches up with the days where you would long for them to sleep all day! :rolleyes: