When does your 5- or 6-month-old nap?

[KTProvi]

hi mamas,
I am trying to figure out daycare for fall, when my baby will be about 5 months old. It's occurring to me that it would be silly to pay someone to watch him while he's napping (I am home, but I work at home and need to get work done, hence the babysitter.). But I have a 3-yr-old and don't remember how much 5-mo-olds nap.

What hours does your 5-mo-old nap?

thanks

[nannymom]

Unless your planning to pay someone by the hour and ask them to leave two or three times a day i'm not sure how you could avoid having the sitter there while the baby naps.
My ds is 5 mos. old exactly and he naps 3-4 times a day. This seems pretty normal from my experience.

[akind1]

Well, it depends on the day - he is napping right now In the morning he may take one or two short naps - like 30 -45 minutes. he takes a longer one 2-3 hours in the afternoon. In between, he is usually content rolling around on a playmat or in his exersaucer - unless he is nursing. I WAH 3 days a week, and so far have really had no need of outside help. Once he is mobile, that may be a different story and I don't also have a 3 y.o. . .

I say try to keep him home with you for a week while you work and see what happens, and if you are able to get into a routine.

as for actual times . . . our day normally goes like this:

wake between 6-7

eat around 8

nap sometime between 9-10

playtime, interspersed with "natural" naps

eat between 11-12

playtime

nap between 1-3, sometimes until 4

eat upon waking

awake time generally until bedtime, between 8-10, usually with 2 nursing sessions between 4 and bed time.

all this is of course subject to change

HTH

[MammaG]

I also don't think it would be practical to somehow not pay the childcare provider when baby naps. Naps aren't predictable...sometimes they're shorter, sometimes they're longer, sometimes they don't happen at all. My baby, who will be 6 months at the end of the month, seems to have developed a rhythm of a morning nap at around 9 for an hour and a half (or 45 minutes or two hours!), an afternoon nap or series of catnaps around 2-ish and he often takes a quickie nap for an hour around 6PM and then asleep for the night at around 8ish. This kid is the only one who developed a schedule like that...my older two seemed to cat-nap all day, mostly in the sling.

ETA, pp, we cross-posted and mine's sleeping now, too. MDC-time for the Mamas of 6-month-olds!

[LadyCatherine185]

At 5 mos my DS's naps were all over the place. He didn't start getting a predictable "schedule" until he was closer to 8-10 months old. He would also only nap for about 20 minutes at a time.

[CalaRei]

It's possible you could get someone who was also willing to do some light housework while baby naps, that way you don't feel silly for paying someone to "babysit while baby's napping." Even a load of baby laundry would help you out immensely, I'm sure. Or mixing up some purees if you do that. That kind of "baby related" chore, perhaps.

For what it's worth, my two have incredibly varied naps all day long. Some days it's two naps of like 2 hours each, other days it's 4 thirty minute naps. I go with the flow as best I can, but I couldn't ever tell someone, "Oh, I don't need you between 10 and noon."

[Asiago]

My son needs an hour nap per every 2-3 hours he is awake.

[KTProvi]

this is all very helpful, thanks so much.

[november]

She usually sleeps from about 10pm-10am. She will take a nap almost exactly two hours after she wakes up, without fail. So she'll nap at about noon for anywhere between 1.5-2 hours. She'll stay awake for about 3 hours after she wakes up, and then take another hour long nap. She may or may not take one more short nap in the early evening.

[Truckerdoo]

I'm in the same situation - I work from home and need in-home child care.

You'll have to pay your provider during naptime - it's unavoidable. What I do is I have her start at 10 since DS usually takes his first nap from 830 to 930 or 10. During his other naps (he usually takes 2 others while she is here) she does housework, which is IMMENSELY helpful. SHe cleans the kitchen, does the dishes, vacuums, waters plants, walks our dog, dusts, mops the floor, takes out the garbage and recycling, etc etc. There is usually plenty for her to do, DS wakes up before she has gotten to even 1/2 of it.

At first I resented having to "pay" for nap time, but now I realize it is absolutely worth it - when my husband gets home from work, we can enjoy time with DS and each other rather than bicker about who needs to do which chores.

Good luck!

[jsh7809]

THis is very helpful for me as well. Not only because I too work from home, and get that I want to have someone do childcare (eventually - DD is only a month old right now) mostly when she's typically awake, since I can work while she naps, at my own pace as possible. Right now she typically naps more in the afternoons so when I have my mom come and hang out with her, often she ends up just knitting or something while I kick myself for working instead of napping myself while the baby naps! (Although today my mom did clean the bathroom so perhaps that is not such a bad plan after all...)
In addition, it gives me hope that in just a few months I might not feel so exhausted and deranged from a baby with little discernible sleeping schedule... I LOVE the idea of her sleeping from 10 to 10 although of course I am not counting on it!

[Craftymama]

My 5.5 month old takes one 15-30 minute nap a day and that is one me. She doesn't sleep well at night either.

[jennybear]

Generally, a 2-ish hour nap in the morning (around 9 or 9:30) and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon (around 2:30). She goes down for the night at 7 and is up between 7 and 8.