How many naps/how long for does your 6 month old s;leep for?

[FurryFox]

DD2 is 6.5 months. She had slept through the night since about 8 weeks which I know we are very lucky about (she is ff fed) but day time naps just aren't great so wondering what every one elses do, although I know they're all different

She generally wakes betweent 6.30 and 7am and has her first bottle (have been weaning for a couple of weeks and try breaki about an hour or so later but never goes down well).

Within two hours of waking she is tired and wants a nap, usually goes down fine, roughly has about an hour but sometimes less. Once awake she has a bottle, we play etc then two hours later she is tired agan (usually around 12.30). Again, she will sleep for about an hour so at 1.30ish she's awake but this is where the problem is...

She then will refuse another nap for the rest of the day, even though she is tired. Bath time seems to be getting earlier each night, at around 5.15 at the moment and asleep by 6pm, which is fine for me, she still sleeps until 6.30 when we need to be up anyway but for the whole afternoon she is just miserable, tired etc. Even her bedtime bottle after her bath she hardly touches because she is just sooooo tired and wants to sleep.

So, am just generally wondering how much sleep she needs/should be having/yous have? She is so tired but refuses to sleep.

(that was really long, sorry).

hello sounds like she is doing pretty well tbh, I think it was around this time that I started wanting my dd to have a longer kip in the afternoon ie 12.30 - 2.30, but of course a lot eaiser said than done, however making sure the room was really dark def helped and also leaving her 5 - 10 mins after hearing her wake up just to give her the chance to go back to sleep if she wanted! Once they get more active and start crawling this gets eaiser as they are that bit more tired. My dd did like her bed tho and I have a feeling was still having a short nap at about 4.30pm ish til she was 7 months but I reckon if you could 'encourage' her to have a longer pm sleep then you wouldn't have to worry about anymore kip in the pm. Thinking about it restricting her morning nap to 45mins might do the trick as well. XxX

Agree it can take a bit of time for them to work out that a longer after lunch kip is a good idea. My DD didn't settle into it until she was about 10 months I think (she still had 3 naps til then) but am working hard to get my DS (4 months) wise to it now... he can wake after an hour and I'll leave him in his cot, with regular visits over the next half hour to stroke head, pop in dummy etc and he goes back to sleep for another hour. He's not crying though, doubt I would do this if he was howling... How about an afternoon walk in pram, or drive out somewhere to give her 15 min in later afternoon? Might be an inconvenience but she'll probably only need that 3rd nap for abother couple of months or so?

Thanks for replies. I remember dd1 used to have three naps a day and because dd2 is so tired and ratty all afternoon I think she really does need an extra bit of sleep, especially as she's struggling with her last feed of the day because so tired.

When she wakes I don't usually go straight to her, unless she wakes up really crying. She has on the odd time gone back to sleep but not very often.

So should I start waking her from her morning nap and not let her have as much as an hour and the same with the afternoon?

A walk or drive would be ok sometimes but dd1, not yet 3, still usually has an afternoon nap so could make it a bit tricky.

I really just want her to stop being so unhappy all afternoon and still be awake for bathtime. Think I will try not letting sleep for as long in the two naps that she currently has

Just be careful that your plan of cutting naps doesn't backfire horribly into 2 short naps a day! I was in same situation as you, have DD not quite 3, and was getting in a paddy over structuring two DC's afternoon naps... so I dropped DD's naps completely. What a liberation! She was cranky tired for a couple of weeks, but we can go out over lunchtime now and she'll just have wee nap in pram or car if needed, if we're at home all day she has none and is quite happy. And now she has bath and bed at same time as baby (6pm bath, 6.30 bed!) and I only have to worry about one childs sleeps. Yes I was VERY sad to lose those rare moments when they were BOTH asleep though.

No cut the morning nap to 45mins and stick with aiming for longer nap in the pm aim for at least an hr and a half - that is what I did and it def paid off with dd much less tired and grumpy in the pm plus had the bonus of a nice break in the pm! xXx

DS is 7mnths

He is up between 5.30-6am

Sleeps on school run from 8.30-9.30

Sleeps for 20 mins sometimes just before lunch

Sleeps for an hour or so at about 2pm

Bed time is 6-6.30pm depending how tired.

Hi - like the others have said cutting morning nap to 45 mins at 9am and then down again at 12.30pm works for me and ds - at first ds would only sleep for an hour at 12.30 but they quickly cotton on that they need a longer sleep at lunchtime as not getting so much in the morning and then soon go for 2 hours which then makes the afternoon much easier - I don't let mine sleep again and he conks out at 6.45pm straight after milk - bliss! DS now 7 months and have been doing this for a month. Good luck. Mind you he still wakes up very early - often 5am so if anyone has tips for that let me know!

I have a 6 month old baby.

In short she wakes around 6.30am and has a first formula feed around 7.30am
weetabix or something else around 8.30am, nap 9.00am for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours
formula 11.00-11.30am
nap 1.00pm for about 1/2 hour if I'm lucky.
tea around 4.30pm
formula around 5.30pm , bed at 6.00pm.

she dosent really have an afternoon sleep although she is very tired, she'd rather fight it and stay awake but want to go to bed around 5.00pm, problem is she will be down for the night so we try and hold her out til about 6.00pm.

TBH she sounds exactly like mine in regards to feeding and napping.