Probably just over anxious, but...

[AnaYorks]

...my habitual sleep-refusing 5mth-old DD has had two 1.5 hour naps today.

Normally she wakes after 40 minutes; to have had two naps this long is unheard of. When she's awake she's alert and happy, although starting to rub her eyes and get tired after about 2-2.5 hours. At night she's sleeping 7.30pm-6.45am-ish, with one wake for a feed somewhere between 3.30-5.30am.

This new sleeping pattern seems to have coincided with a gradual transferral to formula - I'm going back to work in September and trying to give up BF in a managed way. At the moment, she's having bottles at about 11am and 3pm, with BF at 7am, 7pm and when she wakes during the night. She takes about 6oz of formula each time, which is less than it says on the box, but she's pretty small for her age (9th centile) and seems happy to last out the four hours.

I'm probably being a bit PFB, but should I be concerned that she seems to be sleeping so much? I don't know if she's tiring herself out more now she can sit up and is making attempts at crawling, or whether maybe she's not getting enough nutrition from the feeds she's getting?

Can anyone reassure me that everythings ok? Will post this in sleep and behaviour threads in case anyone there has any ideas.

[mum23girlys]

Hi, her sleep sounds fine to me. Think if your dd naps well during the day she may likely drop her night feed soon too. My dd3 is 7mths and sleeps 7pm til between 7/730am. She then has a 45min nap at 10am and at 1pm sleeps for around 2 hours. By 530pm (dinnertime) she does start to rub her eyes too but her big sisters generally manage to keep her awake/entertained till bedtime.

Hope that helps but I reckon she's sleeping about the right amount

[iloveholidays]

This sounds entirely normal to me... I have a nearly 4 month old DD2, who sleeps 7-7 with 1-2 feeds in between and probably has about 4 hours sleep during the day over 3-4 naps.

DD1 slept pretty similar to DD2. I find babies change daily/weekly with sleep and feeding so you'll get used to this and then she'll be sleeping differently again next week!!

Sounds like you're doing a great job!!

[Cosmosis]

I think it sounds normal, my DS?s naps started getting longer at that age as well.

[Angel786]

Sounds normal to me. My 7 month old has two naps between one hour to an hour and a half each...

[AnaYorks]

Thanks for the reassurance everyone. there's so much to learn, and its really hard to know whether what your baby is doing is about right in comparison to everyone elses...

iloveholidays - you're right that they seem to change on a weekly basis: you think you've just about figured it out and suddenly they do something different!

Funny - I spent so long trying to get her to sleep longer and more frequently, and now it has happened, I'm worried there's something wrong...Parenthood - you get rid of one worry and take up another
:)