Daytime Naps - Trempealeau,WI

a book that always worked for me (Good Night, Sleep Tight - Kim West) says, that they should have 11 hours uninterrupted sleep at night with 3 1/2 hour of nap time spread over 2-3 naps.

It depends on the child, but one of the best things i ever learned was "sleep begets sleep." this means that the better your child sleeps during the day, the better he/she will sleep at night. it is NOT TRUE that keeping kids up during the day or later at night will wear them out and help them sleep better, and this has definitely been true for my daughter.

i also learned at one point that my daughter was sleeping too long in the morning (2 hours or more) and then resisting a nap in the afternoon. the afternoon nap should be the longer one, because it will be the one they keep when they are older.

also a good idea to make sure they don't sleep for more than 3 hours at a time (especially when a little older) and that they wake 2-3 hour before bed time.

finally, babies do better when naps are consistent. by this age, they are ready to go down for a nap at a certain time, and will not just fall asleep here and there as when they were newborns.

it really depends on his schedule. If i remember correctly our son would wake up around 7 then go to sleep around 10 then wake up at 1...so i think it was every three hours or something. All babies are different though. When he wakes up in the morning i'd put him down for a nap about 3 hours later and see if he falls asleep. Then after he's awake for 3 more try a nap again. Does this make sense? It can be difficult at times to discover your babies schedule but he 'showed' us by crankiness or eye rubbing, etc. Watch for the signs that he is tired and try to work form there. I thinj our son was still taking 2 naps during the day and was waking up about once maybe twice in the night for a feeding. Hope this helps you. Good luck.

We had the best luck putting our daughter down 2 hours after being awake in the morning (around 9) and then again in the afternoon around 1. Sometimes she needed one more nap around 5, but it depends on the bedtime. If you can stretch them a little at that point (if they aren't overly crabby), you can try for a bedtime around 8 or 9. Hope that helps...

It all depends upon what time he wakes up, honestly, but with my kids, I found that they were ready for a nap within 2.5-3 hours after they woke up. Then again within 2 hours after lunch. The naps ranged in time from 1.5-3 hours each, with the afternoon nap being the longest. For best bedtime results, try not to let him sleep later than 4 in the afternoon. With any luck, within a couple of weeks, he should be going to bed at night around 8:30 and sleeping until 6. Morning nap around 8:30-9 and afternoon around 1 or so. Good luck. Consistency and maintaining a routine schedule are key.

I believe studies show that a well rested not over tired baby sleeps better at night. I do infant/toddler childcare from my home and a 6 month old usually still has 2 naps a day. My own kids were "good" sleepers and would nap 1-2 hours at a time plus 10-12 hours at night.

You will have to do what works best in your schedule and depending on how active your little guy is.
My 6 month old gets 2-3 naps a day, usually about an hour at a time. My son is everywhere! Crawling and into everything!
He gets up at 5.30am for a bottle, and is back down for an hour nap at around 9.30am. Plays until about 1pm, then another hour nap till about 2, sometimes 2.30pm. Plays till about 5pm, then another hour nap till about 6pm, then he is up till about 8pm, sometimes 8.30pm, but by 9pm he is ready for bed. Sometimes he will get up around 3am for another feeding, but he is slowly starting to grow out of the middle of the night feedings.
They still need plenty of sleep during the day. If they take little cat naps here and there my PED says its ok. The one thing we dont let him do is sleep real late into the early evening hours. When he goes down for his 5pm nap, if he doesnt wake up by 6pm, we wake him, we know that that would interfere with his night time sleep. 6 month old are so active, they tire themselves out easily! Good luck!

My 6 month old is taking 2 naps during the day, each 1.5 to 2 hours long and 1 nap in the early evening, about 45 minutes long. She naps from 9:30 - 11:30 am and 2:00 - 3:30pm and then from 5:30 to 6:15ish. However, she seems to already be growing out of 3rd nap. The last couple of nights I lay her down because she seems tired, but she doesn't go to sleep. My son was a little older when he grew out of his 3rd nap, but he was a preemie.

This has been my "go to" for these kinds of questions - it tells you what sleep range for what age, how much should be overnight and how much should be a nap, and how many naps there should be.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-sleep-does-your-chil...

Hope that helps!

At 6 months , my 2 were both still taking 3 naps. I followed the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Marc Weissbluth. They wok around 7 am, ate, played and were back down by 9 for an hour oe so, then back up at 10-10:30, eat, play, back down around 11:30-1 ish, up eat, play, back down 3-4:40 ish, and then bedtime at 6:30 pm - they were totally breastfed at this point, and just starting cereals, and they didn't sleep all the way through the night till 9 months+. They would sleep 6:30 pm to about 11pm, nurse, back to sleep till about 4 am, nurse and then sleep till 7 am.

Every baby is different, but this worked for both of mine!

jessie

Yep--you're right. That won't work well. Sleep begets sleep. I would say a morning nap and an afternoon nap of 1-2 hours (even more if he needs it) Just make he's not napping too close to bedtime. For example if bedtime is at 7, no napping after 4...

Here is a link:
http://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-sleep-does-your-chil...

And yes as you said: Over-tiring a baby/child so that they sleep longer at night does not work.
An "over-tired" baby/child actually has a harder time falling asleep and sleeping well, and some babies/children will actually become more "hyper" when they are over-tired.

Routine, regular nap "times", gauged by your baby's sleepy cues, and timing is key.

All the best,
Susan

Lindsay,
My son turned 6 months old on Monday. He is still all over the place with naps. He wakes up pretty early (around 5 or 6), so he's ready for the first nap around 8 or 8:30. He sometimes takes a really good long nap at this times, and other days he only sleeps for 40 minutes or so. On those days, he ends up taking about 3-4 naps. On "longer nap" days, he only takes 2. I know when he needs to go back down when he starts showing those tired cues: rubbing eyes, sucking thumb, fussing, etc.. Whenever he shows those signs, I nurse him, then put him down. He almost always falls asleep. Our problem is that he wants to go to bed by 6!!! We try our best to keep him up until 7. He was sleeping through the night like a champ for a couple of months, but 2 weeks ago, he got a cold and has been waking up at 3 am. Ugh!!!

So, at this point, I wouldn't fret if your baby is not on a nap schedule. And I also would try not to worry too much about what is going on at night. They are really still trying to regulate their little bodies, and some babies don't sleep through the night until they're a year old!!! Let's hope we don't have to deal with that, though...

Actually, overtiring him during the day will cause him to sleep LESS well at night.

My six month old took two and a half hour naps, morning and afternoon, and then slept through the night.

I wouldn't wake your baby up, if that's what you're wondering.

Check out the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, by Dr. Weissbluth.