a little help please

[merehart]

This may be a silly question, but I am not seeing the answer myself so I am wondering if anyone can explain this to me.  I have a spirited/touchy 5mo DD.  We have been on BW since about 4wks, and she is able to do 2hrs of A time between naps, i.e. 4hr schedule.  At home, if we go beyond 2hrs, she can pleasantly handle an extra 15-30min, but her sleep time suffers.  If we push past that, well, I don't know but it hasn't been pretty.

However, when we have parties or celebrations (like a nephew's baptism today) where we are out of the house and in a very social setting, she stays awake ALL day!  So today, she took 10min catnaps in the car, but really didn't sleep at all otherwise.  She was up for probably about 5hours without sleep.  Now I know her nighttime sleep will most likely suffer, so I know that is too much for her, especially at this age.  But my question is why, when we're at home, is she such a crab if we overdo it by an hour or so, but when we are out she can be up all day and her disposition does not suffer at all?

is this common?  I am not looking to change her schedule, just curious.
Thanks
Meredith

[Sylvia.]

be thankful you have such a party girl, i wouldn't worry about her night time sleep for 1 night, enjoy your time, i always take the good with the bad, and i think but am not sure that she is just stimulated when out with different surroundings, people and activity

[taylorbean]

Meredith - my five month old dd is the same way. We had cluster of family gatherings and a funeral two weeks ago, and she would literally spend the entire day awake, even though I tried to get her into a quiet room and rock her to sleep. There was just way too much excitement for her! and she seems relatively fine as long as there is a drive home, she falls asleep in the car and they we put her right to bed and she sleeps like crazy!

But yeah, it's so weird that she can't tolerate that at home!  My daughter is definitely a social butterfly, doesn't like to sleep when we have company or when we're out. Maybe you're son has the same temperament, dd is touchy/textbook. She is the exact same way, happy as a clam to be up when they're exciting stuff, but if we push it at home, boy I pay for it, it takes her forty five minutes to get her to sleep and it's quite a battle!  You're not alone on this one!

[maggieruth]

not alone at all!
my ds is EXACTLY like this, give him a roomful of people in the same house and he is not gonna sleep, no matter how many of my usual tricks i try
even nursery, which he is accustomed to, is too exciting somedays for sleep... he loves the busy room and watching all the kids so when they try to lay him down for a nap, even if they rock him, he has none of it!
i just try to tell myself how much i enjoy taking him out without having to worry that he will get cranky or bad tempered and suck up a bad nights sleep now and then!
p.s.- people have told me that being alert means he's very bright!  so i guess thats good too!