What is a typical routine for 6 month old?

Someone I know asked me the other day if Cooper has a set routine for sleeps, to which I replied, not for his day sleeps, only his last sleep at 7pm. We pretty much stick to that time, unless he is really sleepy, and he will go to sleep earlier.

During the day, he can have anywhere between 2 to 3 sleeps, and they can be at any time. I don't go by the clock, only ever go by watching his tired signs. I will only plan to stay at home, if he is really cranky, or we have had a bad night, other than that, we still go about our normal day.

This person commented that I should probably try to get him in a routine for even his day sleeps, as babies love routine, which I agree with. But how can I set this routine?? Some days, he is not as tired as others.

So I am curious to know:

1. How many sleeps do other 6mo have?
2. Do they have set times for sleep in the day and for how long?
3. A lot of the time are you home for these sleeps?

Thank You!

Hi. I've got a sheet on general sleeping patterns of babies given to me by the early childhood nurse. I can email it to you if you like. (email me first at amycstowe@yahoo.com). They did say that all babies are different though and it's definitely just a *general* guide.
Mine isn't 6 months yet, so I don't have anything personal to share, sorry.

Hi my DD is 5.5 months. I have also thought about the exact same thing but find it would be too difficult to set a routine with set sleep times etc. As you said some days they are more tired than others.
We usually try to follow a feed play sleep routine, in general she has 3x half hour naps.
I also think to have a set routine I would have to stay home every day cause on days we go out her sleeps are all over the place, she will usually sleep in the car and when out will want to stay awake longer cause there is so much going on.
So generally we try to go with the flow. I do find though that she will roughly have similar times in the day she will go down for a nap. maybe chart the times for a week that your son is awake/ asleep for and will see there is a rough pattern there.

HI

I am trying to get DS( almost 6mnths ) into a routine. he seems happier when he is goign to bed the same time each day,,, but know if we go out , it all gets thrown out the window anyhow.

But we do the feed, play ,sleep.. ds is not up for more then 2 hrs if we are having home day.. he will go to bed appr 9am (after getting up at appr 7am) and then he will be back in bed about 12.30. and then sometimes i try to get him to have a catnap at least about 4pm- 5pm...

The lunch time sleep i try to get him to have about 2hrs.

Hope this helps...
Bed routine is same everyday though , which is important

Jesse usually falls asleep at the same time during the day so im kinda lucky.
He's up at 6-7am, will fall asleep usually between 8.30-9.30am and sleep between half an hour to an hour, if he's not asleep by 9.30am ill just put him in his cot.. then falls asleep sometimes around 12.30ish and i put him in his cot, will sleep for about half hour to an hour.. then will have an afternoon sleep at around 2.30pm for bout an hour and a half or so (if he's not asleep by 3pm ill put him in his cot also) and thats it until he goes to bed at 7.30pm. The middle sleep i dont really push but the morning and afternoon one i do so he has at least 2 sleeps a day.
If we're out i dont really bother pushing his naps as he'll generally fall asleep when he's tired or in the car. If he's been awake all morning that we've been out, ill put him in his cot when we get home.

I think its just a matter of finding whats best for you. I do personally think it is best to try and get into some sort of a routine around this age as the older they get the harder it will be to get them to have a sleep, even though they need it. Least if they know its their routine, then hopefully it might help a little.

Best of luck.

Hi again, the book Save our sleep has routines for all ages and for all types of stages, eg, breastfed babies, solids etc.... I just read your other thread about the dummy and have posted a similar response.

Hope it helps

Wow, I was coming in to BB this morning to ask almost the same questions!!

Our little man turns 6 months old this week and I was wondering about other peoples 'routines' (or lack of) too.

Riley is pretty good at night and sleeps from about 11:30 pm to 6 or 7 am. During the day he has maybe 3 - 5 naps of 20 - 40 minutes (although he's done a couple of 1.5 hours in the last 2 weeks). We don't have any set routine or times for sleeps, I just go by when he shows his tired signs. Usually around 1.5-2 hours after waking he'll have a small nap.

He pretty much feeds exactly 3 hourly (breastfed - he won't take a dummy or bottle) so depending on what time he wakes up, we can tell what time his feeds will be during the day...but some mornings he wakes at 5 am and others at 8 am... He's having 6 feeds a day.

Riley also doesn't put himself to sleep...we have to pat his bottom & sing until he goes to sleep but I think we should get out of that.

We are home maybe 4 out of 7 days a week so he sleeps in his cot those days. On the days that we're out he will sleep in his pram or in my arms depending on where we are. He won't sleep on the floor or in a rocker etc for some reason...unlike some other bubs I know who put themselves to sleep in a rocker or just on the floor (lucky mums!).

Anyway, I can't help you out but I at least this gives you an idea of what we're doing... Hopefully others have some ideas...I'll be watching with great interest. :)

W e sort have a routine, and Charlotte has develop this her self, She will wake up around 7:30-8am and then will go back down around 9:30-10am for a 2 hour sleep and then she will have an afternoon sleep about 2pm for another 2 hours, and I try and get her down around 7:30pm at night.
99% of the time i have to cuddle her to sleep, and she has began waking at night again for feeds:wall: but she will go straight back to sleep.

I think watching for the tired signs is the right way to go. It will fall into a loose routine and this has worked very well for both my boys who are both very good sleepers now.

It has been harder with Tom, as Jack's activities (playgroup etc) inevitably happen during Tom's sleepy times. When he was younger Tom would just sleep in the car or the sling wherever we were, but at 5 months he doesn't do this so easily now. This doesn't cause a huge problem, it just usually makes it a little harder to get him down for the next sleep (and makes for a grumpy boy for a short while). Like others have said, if Tom has had a particularly disrupted time I will skip Jack's activities to let TOm sleep, otherwise we do our normal thing.

So most days Tom will go down about 30 - 60 mins after waking up and sleep for 1 - 2 hours. Then some awake time, then he goes down about 11am. Jack has lunch and goes down for his nap, both boys will mostly sleep until 3 or so which is fabulous. Then some playtime all together, baths and by then Tom will be really tired and go down for the night (between 4:30 and 5:30pm usually). I give him a dream feed before I go to sleep and he will either sleep through or wake for one feed around 3am. Then wake around 6am and we start again. Jack's activities are all mornings so this is where the disruption occurs, but then we have all day to make up for it.

Cooper is 7 months and sort of has his own routine. But it really does depend on what time he wakes up in the morning! Mostly it's 5.00 am. For a while there I would BF him at 5.00 am and then we'd both get up and start our day. On these days he'd have 3 naps. But at the moment I'm trialling putting him (and myself!) back to bed after the 5.00 am feed. He then usually sleeps until 6.30 am and has 2 naps in the day. But I find I get a bit out of whack with this as I've always liked to follow a sleep/feed/play routine.

So confusing! It also depends on how long he naps for. He has weeks where he naps for 2 hours, then some weeks it's 1 hour and other weeks just 30 minutes! He changes on me all the time.

I think I'll try for a proper routine when he's older and when his solid meals become the focus over the breastfeeds (and when he's down to 3 breastfeeds). I think it will be easier then. He still has 5 BFs per day at the moment.

The only thing that stays the same every day is his bed time routine.

5.00 pm - Dinner
5.30 pm - Bath
6.00 pm - BF, story and into bed