Hi all,

DS is 6 months now, and naps between 45 mins to 2 hours at a time. He wakes up, has a play and a feed, and then is ready for sleep again at about the 1.5 hour mark, when he starts yawning and whinging.

I read somewhere that 6 month-olds should be able to stay awake for between 2.5 and 3 hours, so am just curious if he's sleeping too much during the day. He still sleeps 10 hours overnight too....

Thanks.

My baby would be awake for 4 or 5 hours, she was a terrible sleeper!
I've heard of 2yr old who need a nap after being awake for 3 hours (5 or 6 for my daughter lol) every baby is different. As long as they are getting enough feeds a day, weeing and pooing enough and growing, let them sleep.

Hi OP,

We went to Tresillian about 6 weeks ago when my DS turned 6 months, and they were running the 2 hours up 2 hours down routine for them.

So basically (if you had the perfect child which I did not)
6am wake, breastfeed, play
8am sleep
10am wake, breastfeed, solids, play
12pm sleep
2pm wake, breastfeed, solids, play
4pm sleep - 2hr if they can do it, if not 45 minutes is good too
5pm wake, play, breastfeed, solids, bed time routine
7pm bed time
10pm dream feed
6am start the day again.

I never quite got 2 hours of nap, but I do get 1.5 hours usually.

So that's 2 hours up at a time, and never anything less. Often we got 2.5 hours to 3 if we were out on a walk etc, but that always resulted in a tired baby.

HTH

I recently started putting my 6 month old down for sleep after only 1.5 hrs awake and it's made such a difference. Now she actually self settles. Before, I used to try and get her to sleep after 2 hrs or so, when she'd be obviously tired and crack it and impossible to put to sleep. I've realised she needs more frequent naps. She only sleeps for 45-mins at a time, and this routine goes on until 9pm or so. It's not what sleep schools may push, but it works for my baby, who is finally happy after so many months of hysterics. And i am getting my sanity back. The poor little mite just needs frequent rest-stops!

So I say if your baby is happier with more frequent rests, go with it!

Every baby (person) is an individual, so you can't make blanket rules for when a baby should be awake or sleepy. It might work for a lot of babies but it won't work for them all. If your baby is tired after 1.5 hours, put him down.

To answer your question, around that age my DS was tired after about 2 hours. But it took a long time to be aware of the tired signs and work out what I needed to do. If you're recognising that he's tired put him to bed as soon as you can.

If I have another baby I hope I'll be a lot better at this sleepy signs/napping lark!

1.5 hours sounds like a dream

DD sometimes shows tired signs after an hour (if I put her to bed at this stage she'll sleep for 30 minutes). She can sometimes go for 3 or 4 hours though and then might sleep for 1.5 hours. She's a terrible day sleeper at the moment!

My DS was like yours and was up for an hour down for an hour at around that age....it was quite good in retrospect as I knew exactly how the day would pan out...unlike now

Sounds nice :-) DS likes to stay awake for about 3 hours between sleeps- and then likes to nap for 40 minutes. Whatever works. :-)