Gentle way to wake baby?

[Saskin]

I know you'll all hate me... but my baby is a GREAT sleeper... and by that I mean... he is very easy to put down... sleeps for 1.5-2 hours... depending when he finally falls asleep but stays asleep very well.  My problem is that... I have to wake him up for his next feeding... or he'll end up sleeping more than 6 hours during the day... which Tracy says to avoid as it interrupts night time sleep. 

When I wake him, I undo the swaddle... wait a few minutes... he stirs... but quickly falls back asleep... I wait a little more... he stirs but stays very asleep.  Time could go on like that for a long time so I end up picking him up.  Once he is awake... man is he ed off... and who wouldn't be?  He then realizes he must be hungry and starts crying for food.  Do any of you have suggestions for gentle ways to wake him up to avoid this ed off cry after being woken up?  He's hungry when I wake him... but I don't know how to get him to wake up from naps on his own...

I know this might not seem like a problem to most of you but no one likes to upset their lo...

Thank you!

[~Karen~]

Have you tried letting him sleep longer to see if it effects night sleep?  I'd give it a go and only start limiting naps if it does.  My ds2 slept most the day and also all night so I didn't bother waking him from naps as it didn't effect his night sleep anyway!  Just my view having btdt.  I'm not very good at waking a sleeping baby!

[Saskin]

Thanks for the advice... I'll see how long he lasts

[*Ali*]

My DS1 slept well and I had to wake him for most naps and still do. When he was younger I would just go in the room and start putting clothes away or whatever to make some noise so he woke up from that. Now I just go in and start opening the blackout curtains etc and he wakes up and watches me.
But i do like Karen's idea of seeing if you need to wake him first.