your 5 mo sleep schedule?

[ellairiesmom]

nak
dd2 is almost 5 mo & i am realizing that with a toddler too, i am not following any schedule. one day, we might be home all day, but the next, out & about all day.

what does your 5 mo sleep schedule look like?

today was a day where we were home all day-no play dates or anything & she took a nap from 11am till 1:45pm...dd1 never napped long that we can recall???? is that a crazy long nap?

[Path2Felicity]

Honestly, I never understood the schedule thing. I stay at home right now with DD and our life is not about a set schedule. Things are kind of all over the place. I do think that as she gets older (she is 7 mo now), we will probably have to establish some sort of routine (e.g., when I plan to start homeschooling). But, right now, it's whatever goes. My DD naps in a carrier, in the car, nursing, in a stroller, etc. I like the flexibility. And she loves being outdoors.

Don't worry about the crazy long nap. Some days they need longer naps, some days they take short naps. That's my theory anyways. If my DD is overtired, she'll let me know. But, if she is happy and doing well developmentally, I don't freak out about the timing or length of naps. Life is too short

[Sharlla]

we doont have a schdule. tyically she falls asleep around 10-11 pm then wakes in the morning around 8-9. she naps off and on duri g the day but some days it seems like she doesnt at all
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[flavorfull1]

DS is 5 mo and took a nap that was 3hrs and 45 min the other day! I kept on checking on him, he was fine, we have just been really busy and he is fighting a cold. We don't have a consistent schedule at all as far as being home, but he seems to like to sleep about 60-90min after getting up. If that is before 8:30 am he usually wants a mid-day nap. If he gets up after 8:30am then he usually just takes a longer nap- 2 or more hours in the afternoon around 2 or 3. He has slowly moved his own bed time earlier to around 7:30pm which is nice because it used to be 10:30pm! I do wonder what it would look like if we were home all day for several days in a row. Maybe we will try it sometime? I just get bored

[ellairiesmom]

yeah-if we are home too many days in a row, i start to feel icky & dd1 bounces off the walls.

they both are sleeping well in the car which is a nice place to finally be at...and right now, we live 45 mins from friends & an hour from family & we see both several times a week so we spend a lot of time in the car.

i just don't see being able to time car rides for some sort of schedule...i don't think i am capable of it. but i realize i don't actually know how much dd2 is really sleeping overall.

but it sounds like not everyone else sweats those details either. with dd1, i was in survival mode the 1st 6 mos-she was a challenging nurser at 1st & didn't really sleep stretches at all until she turned 2. dd2 has been really chill & i thought maybe i was supposed to be more diligent with routine now.

thx!

[NaturallyPeachey]

i'm the same way. i have a two year old and a five month old and every day is different. i'm actually dreading the day she grows out of her infant bucket seat because i think we might have to be more structured for her naps. most mornings we are out and about so she naps in her seat/stroller at least once if not twice a day. today we were home all day and she napped three times - the third nap being for 2 hours. i can't stay home all the time. my two year old would be driving me batty

[NSmomtobe]

My DS usually wakes up sometime between 7-8am and hangs out with his daddy as he gets ready for work, giving me a chance for uninterrupted sleep (sometimes he wakes up before 7 but I can usually keep him contained in bed until DH is finished his shower and ready to take him). He brings him back to me when he leaves at 8 and we're usually up for the day.

He takes a 30-60 min nap in the morning, around 10 or 11.

He takes a longer nap (up to 2.5 hrs) or a bunch of 15-30 min naps in the afternoon and evening, depending on what we are doing. He sleeps in the car or my baby carrier or lap. He generally only takes a long nap if I lie down with him, but if I try to put him down after he has fallen asleep on me, he wakes up crying.

It is difficult to get him to go to sleep for the night before 10:30pm, and then he usually wakes every 1-3 hours to nurse throughout the night.

[NSmomtobe]

Sorry. As I was writing that (at 11pm), I realized he was not asleep yet (despite my efforts from 9:15-10:30) so I had to go to bed myself. What I was going to say is that we do not follow a consistent schedule from day-to-day because our activities differ by day of the week, with a few monthly events thrown in, plus visits to/from relatives. I am trying to get a bed time routine so that theoretically he knows that sleep follows, but so far it hasn't worked and I fear that more consistent times would be more helpful to him because his tiredness depends on timing since he last woke and, as I said, he just doesn't seem tired enough before 10:30pm.

I think I read recently that from 4-6 months, 3-4 hours of nap time over 2-3 naps was normal.

[SilverFish]

mine is 18 weeks right now, so not 5 months yet, but i'm noticing that i DO have to be a bit structured about her naps because she really will not sleep enough if i don't. we were visiting my parents last week and were out visiting friends and on excursions every day, and she was usually a wreck by 3 or 4pm because all she'd take were short catnaps. things were just too exciting to fall asleep through, unless i actually made a point of swaddling, nursing and rocking in a quiet room. we don't have a schedule, really, but i am trying to be more aware of getting her enough sleep.

so, when things are sort of normal: awake at 6 to eat, back to sleep. awake at 8, eat, nap at about 9 for an hour or two. awake again for a while ( this is where it gets murky)... if we're out, she'll catnap in the carrier or car, but she really seems to have bit of a melt down by mid afternoon. if we're home, she usually naps again at lunch time. lately, she's been having epic naps in the afternoon.. yesterday she slept from 3pm to about 6pm. then she's awake again... the only thing i can count on is that she WILL fall asleep by 9pm, and stay down until at least 5am.

anyway, i can usually count on at least two naps, one of which is at least 2 hours long, and a night time sleep from 9-6.

[TSomm]

I'm with SilverFish.

My DD is too distracted by the world to sleep when we're out and about. On top of that, she gets bored if we stay home all day. So right now, I DO structure my day around naps. There is no set time, per se, but there is a pattern. She typically wakes up around 7 or so and 1st nap is about 1 hour after waking. Then she's up for about 1.5-2 hours and then a nap. Then she's up 2-3.5 hours, nap. Bedtime 7:15-7:30. Each nap lasts almost exactly 1 hour.

If she doesn't get her naps, she's a mess by the afternoon.

[mt_gooseberry]

Wow, I'm not alone! 5 mo DD barely sleeps and I can't establish any kind of schedule. I spend so much of the day and night trying to get her to sleep. She won't sleep if there is anything at all going on, or any noise apart from white noise (despite my attempts to "desensitize" her), or if she is overtired. She also has a hard time staying asleep. It wouldn't be a big deal, I'm not a structured person myself, but I am just exhausted! Incidentally, she never rested en utero, either... I used to be able to get her to sleep in the sling, nursing, or rocking, but now nothing works reliably.

[nola79]

We definitely are very structured. That's just my personality, though. I'm a bit OCD. My dd takes a very short (20 min) nap in the morning, around 9. She takes her long nap in the afternoon. It's usually anywhere from 1 1/2- 3 hrs. So, to answer the OP's question, no, it's not a crazy long nap.
Then, she takes another short nap around 4:30, 5.
I don't live by the schedule. Today, for instance, we were out and about and she ended up taking a late long nap, and didn't go back to sleep until bedtime.
I do schedule appts around naptimes if possible, though.

[hakeber]

If we got out during the day to a friend's house or some place where we will be hanging around I bring the stroller for a place to put her down for a nap. If we are on the go in the car she'll get her nap in her car seat. If we are walking around she will fall asleep in the sling.

Generally our days look like this regardless of location or activity....

Wake up aroun 7am short nap (20-30 minutes) at 9ish, long nap at 11 or 12 for 2-3 hours, another short nap at around 5 or 6, then in bed by 9pm...but lately (as in the last two days) she seems to be crashing later for her last nap and not waking up for a wee play and a feed, making her bedtime closer to 7 than 9 which means she has been waking up at 5am ...ready to start the day! I would try to tweak it a little but she's got a touch of a cold, so I'm just hoping it will work itself out when she's feeling better.

[lemontree]

We have to have a schedule around here. My almost 9mnth DS stopped "just falling asleep anyplace" when he was still practically a newborn! I remember the day I realized that he was not "a difficult baby" as my mother kept telling me- he was screaming because he was exhausted! So so so much bouncing on the yoga ball wearing him- driving- strolling-swinging the bucket by the handle-to help him drift off in those days....

Then he started to take 3 naps a day- he tended to need to go down about two hours after he woke up. And so I learned to anticipate and try to plan car rides for before he got overtired (once he hits his wall, all bets are off) also I often nap with him....we co sleep at night.-

Now he is pretty much on a 2/3/4 schedule. So 2 hours after he wakes up (almost to the minute) he takes a nap. (30 min some days/ 2 1/2 hrs others) then he naps again about 3 hours after that. Bedtime tends to be 4 hours after he wakes. Every day is different depending on how long each nap takes. He's my only child and i'm a sahm so I tend to work around his naps. Especially because if he doesn't nap he melts down and he can't fall asleep out and about -- unless he's in the ergo with the privacy thing pulled up and I stand in a corner rocking and humming or walk by myself without speaking. (which I do sometimes if I'm out and he needs to sleep...)or if he's in the car before he gets tired, so when fatigue strikes (it hits him fast and furious) he can fall asleep. If he is already tired when I put him in car, chances are he won't fall asleep, he will scream his head off. And I pull over and nurse and it takes so long to get anywhere and I am so frazzled by the time I arrive that it doesn't work...needless to say- he and I have worked out a quasi routine, and I tend to schedule play dates and errands around his sleep. Works for us right now!