How much sleep should a 6 month old be having?

[karen0377]

My daughter is 6 months old on the 17 December and here is her typical day:-

7.15 wake
7.30 feed
9.30 sleep until 10.15
11.15 feed
1.30 sleep until 2.15
3.15 feed
4.15 sleep until 4.30
6.00 bath
6.45 feed
7.00 bed and asleep
10.30 dreamfeed

Basically she is only sleeping for 1 3/4 hours thourgh the day and waking around 3.00am to get in bed with me.  If i try and just leave her to fall back asleep she will scream the house down.  If i put her in bed with me then she will go back to sleep no problem.  I forgot to mention that when she goes to bed at 7.00pm she does falls asleep on her own.

Do you think that maybe she is not getting enough sleep through the day and that's why she is unsettled in the middle of the night?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Pandkhoy]

My daughter will be 6 mo. on Dec 13, She sleeps about 1- 2 hours at each nap.   I think at this age they still need two big naps and a short cat nap in the late afternoon.  My daughter quite often will wake after 45 min. but I don't go in.  If she starts to get really wild, I go in re-swaddle put in her paci and just lay my hand on her chest and do the SHHH sound.  If this still doesn't work, I will lay a light blanket over her face to block out stimulation.  She just started sleeping through  the night a week or so ago.  This what helped us with her night wakings.

1.  Increased her dream feed to 7-8oz.
2.  Swaddled her tight, put her in a baby type sleeping bag. (Failling arms were a problem)
3.  Wake to sleep technique outlined in book.  It took about 3 nights and things have been great ever since.

I hope this helps
Kim

[Shellha]

Karen - I am no expert by any stretch but I would hestitate a guess that your A time needs to be longer to encourage longer naps. My DS is 6.5mo and he dropped the catnap about 2-3 weeks ago and now goes 2 hours between waking and 1st nap, 3 hrs between 1st and 2nd nap and then up to 4 hours (it is a struggle) between the last nap and bedtime. He has always been able to stay awake longer than the times stated in the book but I do believe that A time should be longer than 2 hours.

HTH

Shell

[Kimberly®]

I agree your LO is overtired.
Make sure you get your LO down before she is overtired/overstimulated. Keep wind down routine short and simple, consistency is key as well.
Slowly increase your A time 15 minutes at a time and don't bring your LO into bed with you at night as this will quickly become a problem.
I know you say its easier, but thats the problem, its easier for you, but can quickly become a prop and therefore more of a problem.