daytime sleep/feed times for 6 month old?

[MabelMay]

Hi all, just wondering what your routines are/were like for your dcs at 6 months?

My ds2 (nearly 6mo) has suddenly decided he doesn't want to sleep at all once he has had a morning nap, which obviously means we have a completely frazzled, overtired baby by bedtime.
Anyway, just wanted to see how much your DCs were all sleeping/eating in the day to compare and see where I might be going wrong!

thanks.

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

At 6 months, DS1 was having a 45 minute nap in the morning (about 9.30ish) and 1.5 hours after lunch (about 12.15ish). This was the age at which he suddenly started to 'get' the whole idea of sleep, having been a crapola sleeper day and night before that. He would occasionally nod off in the car or buggy in the afternoon, but refused a nap in the cot after the lunchtime one.

Can't really remember about food - he was on solids, but only just, so probably baby rice or fruit purees once or twice a day.

DS2 is nearly 5 months and still needs to nap every 2 hours or so. His naps vary from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours, although either 45 minutes or 1.5 hours is most usual. On average, he has about 3-3.5 hours of naps in total per day. He is not yet on solids and feeds (bf) about every 3 hours, plus usually once at night.

[MabelMay]

thanks, mog. my ds2 is opposite of your ds1 then. Gone from great napper to terrible one. Like he knows he's being abandoned now or something.
Perhaps I should give him a smaller nap in the morning and see if that will get him having a proper sleep later in the day/lunchtime.

Anyone else with their 6ish mo routines?

[FeelingDeviant]

At 6 months, DD would have 45/30 mins in the morning.
About 2hours 30 mins after lunch (if she woke before about 2.30pm she would get really grouchy for teh rest of the afternoon).

4/5 milk feeds a day and nothing in the night

Have you tried taking your DS out for a walk in the afternoon so he can power nap?

[MabelMay]

feelingdeviant, yes he will occasionally power nap in pram in afternoon. but i'm trying to get some writing done at home hence would love him to take a big lunchtime nap like your DD - 2.5 hours! Bliss. I think I will try and cut the morning nap down to half an hour then, see if that works...

[FeelingDeviant]

Yes, cutting morning nap is also a solution though some RL Mums couldn;t believe I would wake a sleeping baby!
DD's a year old now, but she still has a long (2 hour) post-lunch nap when we're at home/

[Kelix]

My DD is 6months tomorrow
Routine is usually something like this:

She usually wakes about 8:30 - 9am
9am - Bottle
11am - Nap (30 mins or so - sometimes longer)
12noon - Dinner (Main & pudding)
USually has 10 mins or so nap in car whatever
3pm - Bottle
5pm - Nap (again 30 mins or so - sometimes longer)
6pm - Tea
8:30 - Bottle
9pm Bed

It's not exactly the same each day but is near enough. She has never really slept that much during the day but gets really grumpy if she doesn't have enough naps. I have started putting her in the cot with the curtains closed for a nap when we are at home, but if we are out and about she will nap in her pram/carseat.

She doesnt feed at night.

[MrsTiddles]

morning milk, porridge
after being up 2-3 hours, 1 hr nap
then up and lively til after lunch, unless we go out and she falls asleep in the stoller (sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't)

lunch

after lunch I put her to bed so she has 1-2 hrs. she has a little shout for 1-2 mins sometimes, but then goes out.

up again at 2 or 3pm for milk then supper,play, bath, stories, milk again (trying to get 4 bottles downto 3 but she's not having that yet)

bed.

[MabelMay]

thanks for replies so far. i think part of the answer for me is to try and get my ds2 to sleep more at lunchtime so he doesn't get so fraught by the end of the day.

generally, my ds2 has become a lot more difficult since turning 5 months, whereas it seems everyone else's babies get easier around this time! He has gone from being chilled, placid baby to a real screamer and constantly needing to be held.
anyone else's babies getting got harder around this age. My ds1 was the opposite.

[sherryberry]

Hi MabelMay. My 6 month old is the same. He was a great napper but now i can't get him to sleep for more than twenty minutes at a time unless we're in the car or he's in his buggy so he seems pretty grouchy most of the day.

His routine was up at 7 with a feed, 45/1hr nap at 9am in his cot then an hour and a half in the middle of the day in his cot or in his buggy. He'd usually be tired by late afternoon so I'd take him out between 4 and 5, if he fell asleep fine and if not i just brought his bath and bedtime in a bit earlier. I don't let him sleep past five o'clock and he always goes down well for the night between half six and seven - hopefully that won't change as it's great to have the evening to ourselves to make a nice meal etc.

With this routine he needed a nap bang on two hours after being awake but now he is managing to stay awake a bit longer and I'm still trying to work out a good sleep pattern for him. We've also started weaning which has confused things a bit. And because he isn't napping well he is pretty tired at lunch time which is making the weaning quite stressful! (he's underweight etc which is adding to the stress).

I think he still needs two and a half to three hours sleep a day but when he wakes up it is impossible to resettle him.

Sorry, I've no advice but just wanted to let you know that yours isn't the only one that has swapped from happy, easy baby to grouchy, overtired baby. Though he's still a sweetheart when he's not tired.

I'm hoping to just work on re-establishing the day time naps to sort him out. I hope I'm not missing something as he isn't putting on as much weight as he was, isn't growing very well in height and is having a lot more dirty nappies than usual but HV is certain he is ok and he still sleeps through the night. Ok, going to stop typing now, sorry for going on and hope i've made sense!! (I've never posted before)

[MabelMay]

Thanks for your post, Sherryberry - that does sound exactly like my DS. It's always just when you feel you've got them all sorted out... Reassuring to hear am not the only one. Hope you manage to get him having decent naps again.

Re: your ds's dirty nappies. This is probably a result of him starting solids, esp if he's been having any fruit. They do start pooing more once they start solids, so I wouldn't worry about that.