Comments on: Does Your 6-Month Old Baby Need 2, 3, or 4 Naps?

By: Danielle

Danielle — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 15:46:36 +0000

Hi Stephanie,
Thank you for visiting The Baby Sleep Site! 6 months can be really hard just because babies are in such a transition stage. We do usually recommend keeping as many naps as you can, especially if baby is taking shorter naps no matter what you do. A lot of babies only start to lengthen their naps out on their own around 6 months-old anyway. We have an article about short naps that might help you here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-naps-2/short-baby-naps-explained/

I’m not a sleep consultant, but we do usually recommend working on dropping any sleep associations first, and just move bedtime up if you need to and it’s no disrupting the rest of his day. Some babies just need early bedtimes during transitions, and you can always scootch it back to 7 later once his naps lengthen out. I hope this helps, but please let us know if you have any other questions!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 23:43:17 +0000

Thanks for this article. We’ve been struggling with our 6.5 month old for the last few weeks. After about 4 months old he started taking mostly 30-40 minute naps. He used to take long naps – but he was always in the carrier when he was little. It was once we started trying to get him to nap on his own. Now he still takes short naps and if he’s up early enough will still need 4 naps to get us through the day. But he always fights the last nap – whether it is the 3rd or 4th one. I’ve been trying for a couple weeks to change our schedule and lengthen naps but he isn’t having it. He just started crawling and I know it’s a big development time right now for him. I know we’ve developed some sleep associations now just because I’ve been trying to get him to sleep. We always shoot for bedtime by 7:00, but on days he skips his last nap, we do it closer to 6. He’s happy generally and doesn’t get fussy unless he’s hungry. Should we keep working on lengthening naps, or would we benefit from trying for two naps. The morning nap gap is the hardest part of the day, but he doesn’t seem to want to sleep after 3:00pm ?

By: Neosha

Neosha — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 03:39:26 +0000

In reply to Katie.

@Katie – Thank you for reading and for sharing with us. It’s great to hear that our little guy’s first nap is going well – it’s a pretty important one! We generally expect to see a 5 month old taking 3-4 naps per day for a total of 3-4 hours per day along with 11-12 hours of sleep at night, though this varies baby to baby. From what you described, you may want to consider revisiting his entire day schedule to be sure you’re asking him to sleep at the right times. If you haven’t taken a look at our sample schedules, you can check out the one for his age group here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/schedules/5-month-old-baby-schedule/ If you find you need or would like a bit more support, please consider connecting with one of our expert sleep consultants for more guidance. Thanks again for reading, Katie!

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 30 May 2019 13:28:46 +0000

Hi! My almost 5 month old just started taking a longer first nap, 1.5 hours. He was previously taking 3-4 25-45 min naps/day. Trouble is since he has been taking the longer first one, we cannot put him down again for his next naps! Yesterday he went down 4 hours after his first nap (despite multiple attempts) and slept for 34 min. He has also been difficult to put down at night, and wakes up a lot throughout the night. He is been waking for the day around 8 am. Are these signs he only needs 2 naps? How long awake between 1st and 2nd nap do you recommend? And then before bed? Thanks so much!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Fri, 22 Mar 2019 15:53:10 +0000

In reply to Miranda Hardy Ellis. Hi Miranda, Thanks for using The Baby Sleep Site as a resource! Although the majority of 6 month-olds need three naps, we have definitely bumped into babies this age who do fine on 2 solid naps a day. If your son is sleeping well at night, getting enough cumulative day sleep, and making it to bedtime without signs of overtiredness, then your schedule as-is is fine. I hope this helps, but please let us know if you have any other questions!

By: Miranda Hardy Ellis

Miranda Hardy Ellis — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 03:12:11 +0000

I have a 6 month baby who will only take two naps. The first nap 2-3 hrs and the second at least an hour. He sleeps 11-12 hours at night. He’s awake between naps for 3 hour stretches. Is that bad for him to be awake that long? He seems happy and well rested. He will fight me if I try to make him take that third nap

By: Janelle Reid

Janelle Reid — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:39:21 +0000

In reply to Leah Briggs.

Hi @Leah Briggs, I’m so sorry to hear you’re struggling with so many cat naps from your daughter these days. That is super common when they are really little, and there are things you can do now to help her consolidate those naps and get on better schedule. Here is a link to a free guide with tips for nap help: https://www.babysleepsite.com/free-baby-nap-guide/
If you need more help you may want to check out our ebook Mastering Naps and Schedules which has tons of sample schedules and tips on how to improve your baby’s daytime sleep. You can read more about the ebook and purchase directly from our site here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/mastering-naps/
Let us know how it turns out and if you need any more help!

By: Leah Briggs

Leah Briggs — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 18:25:35 +0000

Hi, I have a 6.5 month old who has been taking 4-5 30 minute naps a day (usually 4). She wakes up happy yet tired but will not go back to sleep. It’s been exhausting to me because I can’t get anything done in 30 minutes! She sleeps for 11 hours all night, she always puts herself to sleep, and she stays awake between naps for 2-2.5 hours. I’ve tried keeping her up for 3 hours and she still sleeps 30 minutes but looks much more tired after waking. What do I do? Should I try only doing 2 or 3 naps but keeping her up much longer? Or just leave it alone and let her drop them when she wants to?

By: Neosha

Neosha — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 23:52:24 +0000

In reply to Lisa.

@Lisa – Thank you for reading and for sharing with us! We are so glad to be a resource for you – as you keep reading, you’ll find that we’re (happily!) quite different from many other sleep consultants out there. Here you’ll find no judgment or bias – just support and encouragement. Please keep reading and thank you, again, for reading!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 30 Mar 2018 17:05:26 +0000

This is the first thing I have read that has made me feel ok about my 6 month old taking 4 naps. Every other sleep consultant makes it seem that if you put them down at the right times they will magically lengthen naps. I think it has happened a handful of times for me with absolutely no consistency. I drive myself crazy trying to keep him up for longer to put him down at the magical time and I am done. The catnaps are exhausting, but at least they are predictable!