Nap times for 6 month old don't seem to be enough

[annsa]

HI, My lo is just 6 months and checking out how long her naps should be it says 2.25 hrs in day, 1 nap of 1 hr and another nap of 1.25 hrs.

Firstly my lo wakes at 6am and gets bottle and breakfast between 7 and 7.30. By 8.15 she needs a nap, when I put her down she will sleep for mostly 2 hrs and sometimes 3 hrs. When she wakes she needs another nap before 2pm which will only last 45 mins and another nap at 5ish of 45 mins also, thats 3.5/4.5 hrs sleep in daytime.

Now, if I wake her in the morning after 1.25 hrs that means she's awake from 10 hasn't slept her full nap and needs another nap before 12. If I wake her after 1 hr she is awake from 1pm and needs another nap at 3pm which is only ever 45 mins and so is awake from 3.45. She gets very tired then at 5.15/5.30 and needs another nap if I want her to feed before bed.

Would love any input into how to work this out with regard a times ans daytime sleep.

By the way she sleeps at night from 7-1am gets a feed then straight back to sleep till 5/6am.
Thanks
Ann

[londonlady]

Hi,

How bizarre that I was just looking through my files on my PC and was reading back about DS's routine over the past 8 months and laughing to myself about keeping a log at particular times on the computer. I suppose it goes to prove how much of a wreck our house is that i couldn't trust it to a piece of normal paper but had to type it up in Excel! 

But then I saw your post and thought I could share this mine of (slightly useless) information about what we were up to at the 6 month mark.

Firstly I'd say, if your LO needs more sleep to get through the day and is doing ok at night, then don't worry about clock watching or abiding by what the book says for a certain age. It's a guide and all babies will do slightly different things. Just don't let her sleep tooooo long so that it then affects her night sleep. Anything up to about 2hrs should be ok.

Secondly, I'd say this is a month of big changes with their routine - it bit me on the bum a bit as I wasn't expecting it but what you're probably reading about is naps and A times which your DD will probably be growing into over the next month or so.

At the start of December, when DS had just turned 6 months, our day looked like this.
7am awake
7.30am bottle
9-9.15am nap
10.45am awake
11am bottle
12pm solids
1pm nap
2.15pm awake
3pm bottle
4.30pm cat nap
5pm awake
6pm bath
7pm bottle and bedtime routine
11pm dream feed.

However, by the end of December it was all change. We'd added breakfast and dinner, he dropped the dream feed, but most significantly he took a massive leap in his A times, and began to show signs of wanting to drop the cat nap. He was difficult to settle to bed at the normal time and after a frantic posting, the moderators said he was probably ready to be awake longer and drop the cat nap and go to 2 naps.

The transition to 2 naps requires your LO to be able to do 3hrs A time with 2 naps of around 1.25-1.5hrs and no cat nap. I found that the first A time was the hardest to stretch, the 2nd and 3rd A times were easier.  It's a rocky ride but we're out the other side of it now thankfully.

Anyway, I'd say to take it slowly, watch your LO rather than the clock and see how she goes.

xxx

[*Natasha*]

Just wanted to add that i totally agree with pp great response

[binxyboo]

Riley's first nap was always the longest one at that age. His pm nap didn't lengthen until he dropped the catnap.

Sounds like your lo is doing great!

[annsa]

thanks for the replies, I seem to be all over the place with my lo's routine lately.
I'm doing my best to stick to it but late afternoon and evenings are getting worse.
She'd been awake from 2.30 yesterday afternoon and I tried to get a cat nap at 5 but no luck, she was exhausted by 6 .15 at which point it's too late for a cat nap. I gave her a bath and tried her on a bottle to no avail, she was just too tired. Straight to bed at 6.45 and her last feed was at 4pm.
Thanks again, I know I need to just get my afternoons running a bit smoother but it's easier said than done. 

[londonlady]

Wow, this is so fresh in my memory as it's all just happened to us.

It does sound like she's ready to go longer with her A times and you can begin to drop the cat nap. If she's fighting going down for the cat nap it could be because she probably isn't ready to sleep. I completely sympathise with the days being all screwed up, ours were EXACTLY the same while we were trying to drop it.  You end up with days where you are putting them to bed at 6pm or throwing in a cat nap at 5.15pm and then they're not ready for bed til like 9pm or something ridiculous because they've recharged enough to stay awake for another 2 or 3 hours!

A couple of things that really helped to avoid really shocking days were 1) Try and stretch her morning A time to about 2.5hrs over the course of a few days. 5 min or 10 min increments each day. You're eventually aiming for 3hrs but that takes longer to achieve. It's hard, but if you can stretch out her morning a little, the rest of the day is less difficult to keep on track. And 2) Don't be afraid to put her to bed a bit earlier than usual if you need to. Basically you will need to during the transition as the stretched A times don't all happen over night. Remember she is having less day time sleep and will make up some of that over night so she probably won't wake up earlier than normal.

So if your LO wakes at 6am, try and get her through to 8.30am. This will take a few days, and obviously don't let her get so overtired that she is then unable to go to sleep. I found that when DS was flagging, I could extend him a bit by taking his nappy off and letting him have a good kick and roll around on the floor. Something about the cool air on his "bits" seemed to revive him! Some people take their kids to the store - I couldn't do this as it involved a car journey or buggy ride where DS would drop off immediately! As I say, it's not always easy, and it's not always possible, but she will eventually slide into being awake a bit longer. Just be mindful of the over tiredness thing.

If she takes a good nap of 1.5hrs or so, she should then wake up around 10am. If she naps to 2hrs, all the better. You can then try and stretch the 2nd A time - again over a few days. It'll probably be much easier to extend than the 1st A time. She should be able to go 2.5-3hrs over the course of this month quite easily. Then if she takes another good nap 1.5hrs or so, that will get you round to your afternoon A time. A lot of the girls on my birthclub have found that their LOs can stretch even further in this last A time, but again watch your DD as well as the clock.

It's a rough few weeks and each day is a bit of a mathematical beast as you're trying to get them through to a reasonable bedtime. I basically said to myself that 6pm was an acceptable bedtime and if I could make the day work out ok we would go without a cat nap. A few days we had screwy naps or short A times and I stuck a cat nap in and gave him a later bed time. You just have to go with the flow whilst also trying to stretch them without upsetting them too much.

Anyway, sorry for the long winded response but I thought I'd go through the detail. It's all totally normal, so bear with it!

xxx