Poll Results: What was/is baby’s approximate optimal waketime length for ages 6-7 Months? (waketime length includes feeding time)?

Results:

60-75 minutes: 1 vote (1%)
75-90 minutes: 7 votes (8%)
1.5-1.75 hours: 9 votes (10%)
1.75-2 hours: 30 votes (34%)
2-2.25 hours: 26 votes (30%)
2.25-2.5 hours: 7 votes (8%)
2.5 hours or more: 6 votes (6%)

Total of 86 votes

7 thoughts on “Poll Results: What was/is baby’s approximate optimal waketime length for ages 6-7 Months? (waketime length includes feeding time)?”

  1. Love the blog! My first son was BW all the way and fell right in line with the plan. My second son, currently 6 months, is all over the map. He is on approx a 3 hr schedule and I have never been able to get him to 4 hrs because he has been a chronic 40 min napper since birth. I think I've finally figured out that I've been keeping him up too long, but now that I'm working on that, here's what's happening: Up at 7am, down at 8am (no fuss, falls asleep in 5-10 mins), sleeps for 1hr 20 mins. Possibly seems sleepy after waking. Awake for another hr, back down for an hr. After that, I'm not sure where to go. He just plays if I put him back down after an hour, but then gets fussy quickly if I get him up. IF/when he finally goes to sleep (around the 1.5-2.5 hr mark with some fuss), he sleeps for a good 2 hrs. Do I need to let him CIO to extend his 1st nap? Then maybe his waketimes will extend? He has slept thru the night for the past 4 nights with little/no effort on our part. Thanks!

    Reply
  2. BreeG,It sounds like your first waketime is okay for him since he is taking a longer nap. I would stick with that and then work on waketime lengths that follow. Try 65 minutes for waketime 2 and see how it goes. An 80 minute nap is a good length. It is doubtful that he would be tired enough to fall back asleep if you left him to CIO. You can leave him for 5-10 minutes to see if he will go back to sleep, but if not, I would just continue forward and work on perfecting that second waketime. Once that is down, work on the third. etc. Good luck!

    Reply
  3. My little boy is 10 days shy of 6 months and doesn't seem to be able to handle waketimes longer than an hour. It's pretty frustrating for me because he ends up spending so much time in his crib all day, and the time he spends awake is half taken up by nursing so I don't feel like I get very much time at all to interact with him, play, stimulate learning, etc. To complicate matters, it sometimes seems like I am putting him down pretty much right after he nurses when I take into account the waketime he has had in his crib before I go and get him when he wakes early. This has been happening more frequently lately because he will wake up to an hour early and just babble or lightly fuss, so I leave him for a few minutes to see if he will settle back down. I keep thinking, "just another few minutes and I am sure he will sleep.." and the next thing I know, he's been up for 45 minutes to an hour already i nhis crib and it's time to feed him. Meanwhile, I end up feeling like I've just wasted all of his waketime for that cycle. Any advice? Please help! 🙁

    Reply
  4. K. Camille Stevens,See the posts "waketime when they wake early" and "waketime when baby wakes early". By 6 months old, you can almost ignore time awake in the crib. This is a time when you can start having naps at set times each day no matter what else is going on. There will still be exceptions, but for the most part, you can do that. Since he is waking early, I would suggest you try keeping him up a little longer. I usually say to add 5 minutes at a time. You might be able to add 15 at first and then do an additional 5 after that as you troubleshoot.

    Reply
  5. My son, 6 months old, has an average waketime of 2 hours but in the evening it is 4 hours. Is this too long? He wakes from his nap at 3 goes to bed at 7. I have tried extending his nap but he will not sleep past 3. f I put him down for a 30 min nap at 5 and extend his bed time to 7:30 he does not seem to sleep well. When he stays up from 3-7 he does get pretty cranky between 6:15 and 6:30 but I am not sure what else to do b/c I want him to have good night time sleep.

    Reply
  6. My son used to take two hour morning naps. He is 5.5 months now and when he turned 5 months he switched to 25-40 min naps all day! I can't figure out he new WT or NT. he is up at 6 am like clockwork and tired between an hour and two hours but always a short nap followed by another short nap. His third of the day is the only one of length ranging from1-2hrs. How do I get the longer morning naps???

    Reply

Leave a Comment