How many naps should my 5 month old have?

[MyMinnieMouse]

I've just been sent a leaflet from Hipp Organic about sleep - it's obviously trying to sell one of their products, but I was really interested in the section about how much sleep your baby needs - then it's really worried me - it says that a baby of 3-6 months should be having two daytime naps of 2-3 hours each. Now I'm really struggling to get the balance of day vs night sleep right. My DD (5 months) usually has 3 naps per day, ranging anywhere between half an hour to two hours, but I'm starting to think this is too much now - especially as she has started to wake in the night (having slept right through for a while), and is getting harder to put down at night.

The thing is though, I don't think she'd make it through the day with less sleep. Do you think she is sleeping too much in the day, and should I wake her in the day?

Sorry for the ramble - I am a bit confused by the Hipp leaflet, and struggling to find the right way for my DD, and I would appreciate any advice!

[throckenholt]

never wake a sleeping baby !!

[MyMinnieMouse]

Thanks for all the advice - feeling a lot better about things now. My boyfriend has been trying to convince me that we're letting her sleep too much, and wants us to start waking her up earlier in the mornings - this doesn't really make much sense to me as all we'll be doing is shifting the grizzliness to the daytimes instead of the evenings - or perhaps getting double the grizzliness! so it's good to hear all your experiences to show perhaps we're just going through a normal developmental stage!

I'm chucking the leaflet in the bin now!

[MrsJamin]

I would take anything a company told me with a pinch of salt - they don't have the best unbiased information about health or development. My 6 MO DS has 2 or 3 naps a day, normally about 5 hours worth in total, but sometimes if we're out for the day, it's less than this. They all vary and I don't think you can really change it that easily! I get quite bored that my DS will sleep so long so I wouldn't be that that you don't have it!

[MegBusset]

It really varies (and I certainly wouldn't take much notice of a food manufacturer's leaflet -- what exactly do they know about your DD's sleep needs?). At that age DS would only nap for 30 minutes at a time so he would sometimes have 4 naps a day! He has never, ever slept for 3 hours in a go in the daytime and very rarely for 2 hours.

At around 6/7 months he started having a short morning nap, a longer lunchtime one and then another short one in the afternoon, which he dropped soon after.

Re: night-time sleep, 5 months is a notorious time for it to go tits-up, so it may not be connected to the naps.

[MuffinMclay]

My nearly 5 mo has 3 naps a day.

Awake 7am
Nap 8.30-9
Nap 11.30-1.30 (give or take half an hour)
Nap 4.15-4.30
Bed 6.30/7pm

He is a creature of habit.

I think sleeping in the day promotes sleeping at night, otherwise they fall into that 'overtired but refusing to sleep' thing, with lots of whinging (or mine do anyway).

[throckenholt]

othersideofthe channel - the 2 hour rule worked for mine too.

typically up awake 2 hours, sleep 2-3, wake 2, sleep 2-3 hours, awake 1-2 hours, then night sleep.

[throckenholt]

IME babies that don't get enough sleep in the day time sleep less well at night - they are almost too tired to sleep.

Waking up at night at 5-6 months is also a developmental thing they are more aware of the world around them.

[Othersideofthechannel]

Nighttime sleep can be disturbed when they are overtired.
At age 5 months my DCs got grumpy if they stayed awake for over 2 hours.

[Othersideofthechannel]

Once my DCs started getting into a routine for naps they were having one short one in the morning, long one (hour and a half) after lunch and short one in the late afternoon)

They kept this up until well over age 1 but by 18 months were both down to one nap.

HTH

[BellaBear]

My son is 24 weeks as has four naps, sometimes 3, much more often 4, a day ranging from 30 mins to (once ) 2 hours. I have no idea how to change this behaviour so I am not going to try!