6 month old napping too much?

[Han12345]

Hi everyone,

Would just love some advice on my LO’s easy routine. Unfortunately not every day works like this because I also have a 3 y.o and if we are out in the day time the baby just has 30 min sleeps as and when it suits her (not ideal but that’s all she’ll do).

If we are home this is our current routine.

6/6.30 wake
7 get up - Solis’s
7.30 - bottle

8.30 - nap
10.30 - wake

11am bottle
12am solids

12.30/1pm - nap (sometimes does 3 hours here 😳)
3pm - wake her up
Bottle

5pm - solids
6pm bedtime routine and bottle
6.30 - bed

2.30 wake and try get her back to sleep but usually end up feeding her.

So I feel she can maybe have too much sleep in the day. We sometimes try squeeze in a nap around 4.30pm but it doesn’t always happen so she’s often very tired by bed.

I’m also not sure my routine is working to help her with solids. Her breakfast she does well and I think it’s because she hasn’t had her bottle yet. At lunch I don’t think she’s hungry and at dinner she’s too tired.

Any advice please and if I cut her day naps could it help with her night wakings? She used to wake at 12.30am, I would give her dummy then she would wake for a feed at 4am which was great. Not sure what’s going wrong and why she’s waking earlier?

Thank you. X

[Katet]

At 6mo solids are really for taste not calories as they are less nutrient dense than breast milk or formula, so it's actually better to give milk first and top up with solids until about 1 year old.
A night feed is also very normal at 6mo and it maybe because of the 3 meals of solids that it's still needed, ( solids make them want more fluid) also many 6mo are still on 1 or 2 solid meals as it isn't as filling as milk.
A rule of thumb I got told was if a 6 Mo goes 6 hours and wakes up feed them... 8mo 8 hours... So by 6 months you can reasonably expect most (but not all) to go 6 hours, but to go 12 is luck more than normal... So 2.30am is reasonable. And at 6mo 5 feeds is normal.

In terms of her day naps, they don't impact waking more the length of night sleep and total sleep in 24 hours rather than how it's broken up..

[Han12345]

Thank you for your reply. Yes I think I maybe need to worry less about eating solids as she is only just starting. I might go back to just two meals because I’m struggling to think of ideas for her (which just go on the floor anyway)

I also forgot to add, the reason I’m wondering if she’s napping too much is because she can we awake for a couple of hours in the night which again is a new thing. I don’t mind having to do a night feed. I’m fully expecting for a while longer.

So are you saying it’s the amount of hours sleep over a full 24 hours? It doesn’t matter how it works? How many hours does a 6 month old need? On a good day  she would sleep 6.30 to 6am with maybe a 30 min wake for feed but then she might nap well that day too and then my next night there would be more wakings/ awake in the night.

Thanks