Your 6-Month Old - naps, transitions, schedules, and more!
There is so much going on around 6-months of age. Lots of physical changes, developmental changes, new movements, new sounds being made, and more understanding of the outside world. This can be a very fun and interactive time for the whole family.
Some of the new development in your 6-month old can improve sleep!
Night sleep tends to become more connected, some babies are ready to drop all night feedings (yahooo!!!), and naps start to become more consistent and extend in length.
However, some of the development can cause major challenges.
One big thing you need to look out for around this age is a nap transition. The average age for children to transition from 3 to 2 naps is 6-9 months of age. The 3 to 2 nap transition can be a tough one. Children often teeter-totter back and forth between 3 and 2 naps for a while, and that is okay. The nap transition coupled with the developmental leaps and growth spurts at this age make this particular transition lengthy and rocky.
My little guy, Ryder, was in the middle of this transition for about a month between 6.5-7.5 months old. I’ll map out his transition to help those of you with children in this same age range.
Right around 6.5-months old Ryder began to lengthen his first nap. Not consistently. But every couple of days, the once 45-minute morning nap would stretch to 1.5+ hours. It was glorious. The longer morning nap would push the second nap of the day later. I was still following his same wake windows between naps, which was around 2.25-3 hours at 6-months.
Note - a wake window is the awake time between periods of sleep. If you are unfamiliar with this term or need more information about what proper wake windows are for your child, read my article, Baby Schedule Building.
On days when Ryder would extend his first nap, the second nap would move later by default. This created a situation where the third nap of the day was often happening too late. Either he was not interested in taking the third nap or it was so close to bedtime that I didn’t want to put him down for the third nap.
On those days I would push the second nap a touch later and then move bedtime earlier. That got him through the day with two naps. On days when he did NOT extend the first nap (which, again, is totally normal at this age) I would use a more traditional 3-nap schedule.
The length of the first nap often drove the schedule I would use that day.
The first nap of the day is typically the first nap that children “organize” and lengthen. Therefore, it is a fine idea for the first nap to drive the daytime schedule through a transition.
Here is an example of what two days looked like when Ryder was going through this transition:
Sample 3-nap day:
7:00am - wake time
9:00am - nap 1 (napped for 55 minutes)
12:00pm - nap 2 (napped for 45 minutes)
2:50pm - nap 3 (napped for 45 minutes)
6:45pm - bedtime
Sample 2-nap day:
7:00am - wake time
9:00am - nap 1 (napped for 1 hour and 50 minutes)
1:30pm - nap 2 (napped for 50 minutes)
6:20pm - bedtime
Note - some days I would try to add a catnap in the afternoon when he took a long morning nap, and it never worked. Once one of your child’s naps starts extending, usually the afternoon catnap no longer works.
Ryder teeter-tottered between these schedules for about a month until the morning nap lengthened with more consistency. Using wake windows vs. a time-based schedule during transitions like this makes things MUCH easier. I recommend using wake windows for children under 9-months old, and even longer in some cases.
Now that Ryder is 8-months old, he is on a solid 2-nap schedule, which looks like this most days:
7:00am - wake time
9:45am - nap 1 (naps for 1.5-2 hours)
2:00pm - nap 2 (naps for 1-1.5 hours)
7:00pm - bedtime
Are you not sure if your child is showing signs of a nap transition? Read my article, Signs Your Baby is Ready to Drop a Nap
Is your child over six months old and hasn’t begun to lengthen naps?
Remember, in order for your baby to begin lengthening naps, they need to be falling asleep independently at the beginning of the nap. If you need help with this, just let me know.
If your baby is falling asleep independently for naps and STILL not lengthening naps, let me know and we can look at things in more detail.
