6 mth old day time sleeping habits changed

My six and a half month old has just thrown his routine out the window and has not done the same thing twice in weeks. He previously was like clockwork day and night. He has slept 11-12 hours at night since 10 weeks old and has had 2 regular day sleeps. He is still sleeping through the night but sometimes goes 6-7 hours without sleeping during the day but seems happy to be awake. He cries if I walk out of the room and seems to have been teething for weeks now but nothing has appeared. Has anyone experienced sudden changes in their baby at six months? Tresillian says to perservere with getting him to sleep during the day but he just does not seem interested at all in sleeping.

I know about the crying when you leave the room thing. That is normal at this age!

My MCHN gave me a brochure for 6-9 months and it says:

Your baby and other people

Over the months, babies have learned a lot about the people around them. Between 6 and 9 months they:
- recognise people they see everyday
- are wary of strangers and less familiar people
- will cry if their mother is out of sight even for a short time. They cannot understand that she has not left forever. Games like peek-a-boo help teach babies that people and things exist even when they are not seen.

This is a normal stage in your child's development as they are beginning to know the difference between familiar and unfamiliar people.

As for the sleeping I can't really help there. Cooper has always chopped and changed on me!!! Although he's been a bit fussy at night recently and I think it's because he's teething (two teeth have just broken the skin).

Michelle, I think that age is a fairly significant developmental stage. Babies this age become a lot more aware of what's around them and are more active - thus they aren't really interested in sleep (don't I know this one! *L*) and would rather stay up and socialise! Alot of babies are teething around this stage too, so it can throw their routines out of whack. Maddy only really began to get sorted with her sleeping at this age; but I'd suggest just going with the flow.

He will sort himself out but make sure you listen/pay attention to his tired signs. If you follow his cues and put him down for naps (even if they are different to what he used to do) when he exhibits these signs then hopefully he'll soon fall back into a regular sleeping/napping pattern.

Good luck hon! Glad to hear he's still sleeping so well through the night for you. :)

Thanks for that. We have decided to ignore Karitane and Tresillian on this one - their advice did not seem right to me, I feel alot better about going with the flow and just watching out for his tired signs no matter when they are. I think sometimes "other mother's" advice is better than Karitane's. They are very strict and apply one rule for every baby however they are all individuals.
:D