How much sleep does a 6 mo need??

[didiosa1980]

I read the post somewhere on forums about the general amount of sleep for 6-8 mo old being 10-12 hours. I know that this is a combination of naps and overnight sleep. LO is now 6 mo and habitually wakes up anywhere from 4 - 5:30A. His usual wake + first eat is 6A, so this is not HORRIFIC...except when you factor in a seriously tired momma still getting down the PU/PD a month later with habitual night waking and 2 feeds (I prefer the second to keep my supply up instead of a midnight pump.) spaced around 10:30 - 11P and 2-2:30A.

I have a phone app that cataloges all of LO's sleep patterns and all month he has been pulling around an 8 - 9 overnight with feeds and wakings (unless he refuses to go back to sleep during some habitual wakings and thus gets 6-7). This isn't bad and if he didn't wake except to eat and when he's totally soiled, he would probably get 9 - 10.5 hours. We've been trying constantly to get him to go back to sleep and are making some progress, but we're still climbing the mountain of habitual waking troubles.  Can a 6 month old subsist on 8-9 hours of sleep and then get some good naps and be good? Papa was considering trying to move his in-bed-by-6:30P to a later time so he would stop waking around 4-5 AM. I know the fallacy of putting to bed later doesn't equal later sleeping...but if LO is getting the sleep he needs, would this be a possibility?? (I wouldn't mind because then I would be able to actually spend time with him after daycare!  )

[Haribo2012]

Bumping for you.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep

10-12 hours would be just night sleep at that age...my 5 & 7 year olds still get 11h at night usually and DD3 does about 12 at night and 2.5/ 3 in the day at 5.5 months and I consider her to be very low sleep needs.

[didiosa1980]

I read that article and I didn't know if the 10-12 was throughout the entire day or just night. So LO is "supposed to" be getting 10-12 + whatever naps he does? We have tried to maximize his sleeping times between feeding and did a lot of PU/PD and it seemed to have so-so results. Friday night and last night I tried to just feed + change him after a sleep period and put him right back to sleep (since there is really nothing good about how to get LO to sleep longer aside from PU/PD method). He only woke up 4 times from 6:30 till the 5'ish range. His sleep went a minimum of 1.5 hours. Saturday, he got almost 9 hours! Last night he again woke 4 times and gave me only 1.5 hours with 2+ hour stretches and a 3+ hour stretch! Papa says that since the book says LO is 'supposed' to be sleeping longer due to his age, I feel now like we're combating against the information we've gotten from the book and what we used to do with going by LO's cues. Any more advice or light that can be shed on this is welcome!!

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

At that age anywhere from 15-18 hours in 24 is "normal"...but that doesnt mean that suits your lo or it is what they are "supposed" to do...the bw philosophy is about learning to follow your lo's cues and to use the EASY as a routine to guide you not a strict schedule...how much day sleep is your baby getting? I find with our lsn baby if we do more than 2.5/3 hours of day sleep it throws off her night and leads to happy chatty nw's and ew's.

Just out of curiousity...what were you doing before you tired to just feed/change and back to bed at night? The A part of EAS is not needed at night all..I feed in the dark with just a night light and only change on the off chance she pooped, which has not happened in a while.

[didiosa1980]

I've clocked LO at 7 - 9 hours consistently in the last few weeks for his overnight sleep. Naptimes usually range from 2 - 4 hours over the 3 nap (possibly a catnap depending on how well he sleeps and is up). When we co-slept and he fed at the boob whenever he wanted, he would range around 8 - 14 hours with night and day and his longest sleep stretch was in the 4 hour range and the shortest in the 2 hour range. In the last month, the total day and night hours haven't been too different, although the sleep stretches have gone down to lots of 2s and 1 hour stretches.

For overnight, when LO would get up, I'd change him by the light of my cell phone. The light was mostly for snapping buttons together and making sure the diaper was pee only. After that, I'd pick LO up and feed both sides, then put him back the second he was done. Room was entirely dark. I'd only sing to him the lullaby that I use to put him down the last minute or two and then right as I put him down and a minute or two after to help him fall asleep. (Mostly to condition him the "lullaby means it's sleep time".) When we don't change LO after 4 - 5 hours he's usually soaked through his diaper and clothes and wakes from that discomfort, so I've tried to change him every 3'ish hours when he eats to eliminate that as a wake possibility.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hmmm...DD3 feeds twice a night and although she pees a ton I put her in a disposable that is the next size up from her actual size and that did the trick (we normally use cloth diapers but we had to stuff them so full it was just too much!). That would at least be one less thing to fully wake him yk? Do you find any connection between more day sleep resulting in less night sleep? Is he still on 3 naps a day? I think 6 months was about the time my older two started dropping that cat nap and went to two naps.

[didiosa1980]

I'm hoping that the professional daycare can monitor his sleep and his needs and help clue us in on some things he still lacks...that way we can work on them at home. He'll sometime nap for 1.5 hours and sometimes 30 minutes. Sadly, the previous caretakers didn't do much to help him go back to sleep for longer, so now we have to break this possible early-wake habit.

I think we're at the stage of learning "I want to sleep, I'm tired, put me in my crib." LO has already learned WHERE he sleeps and he'll go down without help, but he doesn't recognize the 'getting there' stage yet. Hopefully we'll get that down this month and things will get so much better.

I noted last night that he sleep great...until he moves. Lots of times he'll roll over onto his back and wake himself up and then can't get back to sleep. I think if maybe he can put himself back to sleep this problem will go away. Of course, practice, practice, practice... 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Oh yes...developmental stuff can always mess with sleep!

[didiosa1980]

I don't think it was even developmental. I think he flopped onto his back in his sleep and jostled himself awake.      There have been a lot of those in the middle of the night and then it's PU/PD time. T_T;