should a 6 month old be sleeping every 2 hours ??

[TraciG]

Sydney seems tired all the time, an hour & a half to 2 hours are usually her limit of being awake otherwise she gets cranky & overtired, she sleeps anywhere from 9 to about 11 hours at night.

She usally takes half hour naps on & off all day & is still tired, last 2 days she wakes after about a half hour but falls back asleep about 20 minutes later for maybe another half hour, I feel like she is in her crib too much in the day for her age, what do you think ??

[COElizabeth]

I think a 2-hour interval between naps is about right at that age!

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02
EDD #2, 10-30-04

[Momof3Labs]

Wouldn't you rather see her spending more time in the crib and getting enough sleep than being kept awake when she NEEDS the sleep? She might be catching up from being so tired in her early months, though a two hour interval sounds right at 6 months. A half hour isn't much of a nap either (in fact, Weissbluth defines a nap as more than an hour), so I could see her falling asleep long before the two hour interval is up.

[amp]

Ditto what Elizabeth & Lori both said!

[TraciG]

I would DEFINITELY like her to feel rested I just thought it wasn't normal how much she is sleeping I was actually getting a little worried, was slept about an hour & a half before was awake an hour & is sleeping again !!!!

I now about the half hour not being enough, I have the Weissbluth book. I just feel like I cant leave the house I dont know how other mother's do it unless they know exactly when their baby naps, I still dont.

[dotgirl]

Our little guy will be 6 months old next Tuesday, and if he's awake for more than 2-3 hours at a time, he completely loses it.

We don't have him on a rigid schedule, but we do have him on a schedule of sorts - we've figured out what keeps him happiest, and we help him stick to that way of doing things. Currently he will sleep for 45-90 minutes, wake up to eat, and then be awake for around 2-3 hours. Then he goes to sleep (not very well on his own, but we're working on that!) and starts it all over again.

Our doctor says that most babies at his age tend to sleep every couple of hours, even if it's only for a short while, so I wouldn't worry.

[amp]

I just feel like I cant leave the house I
>dont know how other mother's do it unless they know exactly
>when their baby naps, I still dont.

Well, it can be difficult at times, but I'm a mom now, and I try to adjust my schedule to jacob's when I can, rather than just expecting him to adjust to mine. While there are exceptions, I try to make sure he is able to be home, napping in his crib most days, rather than running around and always being away from home. It's important to me that he can count on the consistency of this and be well rested. To me, that's the priority. Everything else is secondary.

[chlobo]

Wow, your babies will sleep in the crib? How on earth do you do it?

LOL

[s_gosney]

chlobo-
I am right there with you! :P

[lizajane]

i think she is just fine. schuyler has always slept a little more than average. she sounds like him.

fwiw, he started to sleep on a schedule right around 6 months. it was interupted for teething. but if you write down when she sleeps for a few days, you may notice that she is developing a pattern that can easily be turned into a schedule. then you can start putting her down at the same times everyday (for us it was 9 and 2, but he took long naps.) hopefully, she will then start to wake around the same time everyday, too.

[dotgirl]

Oh, the stories I could tell ... Riley just started sleeping in his crib about 6 weeks ago. Prior to that, he slept with us .. and I was too nervous to move at all during the night, so I was slowly turning into some sort of hunchback. *grin*

We made the mistake of trying to get him to sleep in the PnP in our room, thinking we'd transition him to the crib after he got good at that. Our ped suggested that we were disturbing him, and we should try just moving straight to the crib.

So we started out by putting him down for his naps there. For the first 3-4 days, all his "naps" were about 10 minutes long. As soon as he realised he was in the crib, he got mad. But after about a week, he was taking "normal" naps there. Then we changed our bedtime ritual to one where we all sat on the couch together until he fell asleep, and then we put him in his bed. This worked pretty well (after the first few sleepless nights as he woke up a lot), and now he sleeps in his bed most of the time. However, it did take a good 3 weeks of constantly working at it.

[TraciG]

thanks she does wake up anywhere from 6:45 to 7 :30 her first nap can be 8:30 or 9 it depends,the hard part is she usually wakes up EXACTLY at a half hour from her naps really crying, sometimes she'll fall back to sleep about 20 minutes later but most times the crying gets worse then I take her out of the crib & she is still cranky, crying & tired then I cant put her down once she calms down, finally maybe she'll play a little then the eye rubbing & crying start again so we try the crib again, it feels like we do this all day too often, I think she's missing out on playing because these days she's so carnky & just wants to be held mostly.

Well Thank God she sleeps threw the night ,last night 7:15 - 7:30 this morning woooooohoooooooooooooo

We got her to sleep in her crib & on her own by Ferberizing, for us it worked quickly & was the best thing for us & her !!!!!!!!!!

[C99]

>I now about the half hour not being enough, I have the
>Weissbluth book. I just feel like I cant leave the house I
>dont know how other mother's do it unless they know exactly
>when their baby naps, I still dont.

Don't beat yourself over it. Babies develop a sleeping pattern over time; some babies show this pattern earlier than others. Nathaniel was on the later end of things. He did take naps, but not always at the same time every day. I just played it by ear and tried to arrange my day according to him. That meant that it was very difficult to do scheduled activities (classes, playgroup, etc.), but that does get better. Hang in there. I think Weissbluth brings up a lot of great information about babies and sleep, but not every baby fits the textbook. Nathaniel was not napping consistently, for longer than an hour at a time, until he was a year old. And even now, the naptime varies, although he's often ready for a nap by 9 or 10 a.m. and sleeps for about 2 hours. I just try to keep our activities to things that aren't time-dependent (like classes) and plan each day as it comes. I'm constantly re-thinking our day in my head.

[mharling]

Lane is just over a year and on a normal day he is still only awake 2 1/2 to 3 hours between naps. He usually goes around 3 1/2 to 4 hours from the end of his second nap until bedtime.

My experience is very similar to Caroline's in that I rethink our schedule every day. Our only consistency is the time he goes down for the morning nap within the same 1/2 hour timeframe. The routine for the rest of the day gets mapped out based on what time he wakes up from his morning nap.

It sounds like you have made great progress Tracy!! Just respect Sydney's sleeping needs and you'll get the naps down too. I know it can be hard, but you and Sydney will both benefit from this in the long run. It really does get easier.

Mary & Lane 4/6/03
[link:www.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=67b0de21b370a2992536|Birthday Pics!!]

[TraciG]

n/t