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SEMINARS

In order to set your baby up for sleep success, it’s important to have a consistent sleep routine in a consistent place as often as possible.

By age 6 months, most babies sleep a total of 11 1/2 to 15 hours a day (including nighttime sleep and naps) and are capable of sleeping for long stretches at a time. The average 6 month old baby needs about 14 hours of sleep per day.

Between the ages of 6 and 9 months, many babies consolidate their daytime sleep into two naps (one in the morning and one in the afternoon). Keeping consistent times for bedtime and naptime will help regulate sleep patterns.

Babies this age begin to sense that sleep means they will be away from you, which can cause some babies distress (due to separation anxiety). Sleep routines (before bedtime and naps) will help add to your baby’s sense of security. Soon, she’ll realize that you (or her caregiver) are always there when she wakes up.

Sleeping Through the Night

• We all wake up several times every night for brief periods of time, and, are able to “put ourselves back to sleep.” If your baby hasn't mastered the skill of self-soothing, or being able to fall back to sleep on her own, when she wakes up during the night, she'll cry for you to help her to fall back asleep (even when she's not hungry).
• If you know your baby isn’t hungry in the night, when she wakes, it’s OK at this age, to consider allowing her to cry herself back to sleep. Within a week or so, she’ll learn that she can soothe herself to sleep and her crying will disappear.
• One way to help your baby learn to soothe herself back to sleep is by putting her to sleep awake but drowsy so waking up alone in the middle of the night doesn’t come as a shock. Teaching your baby to self-soothe is a very important lesson.

Crying-it-Out

• After your baby reaches the age of 4 months it is OK to teach her good sleep habits through the Cry-it-Out method. This method won’t cause emotional trauma (at least not for her!) and in fact, is the fastest way to correct bad sleep habits. For naps, do not let your baby cry for more than an hour. For bedtime, the time can be open-ended.

If you're uncomfortable with Crying-it-Out

• Use the fading method. If the cry-it-out method makes you uncomfortable, you can help your baby learn to sleep through the night more gradually, by allowing her to cry for short intervals and then checking on her, soothing her, rocking her and putting her down, without milk. Increase the amount of time you allow your baby to cry each night. This is a more gradual method, but also effective.
  It may take longer but it will ultimately work.

Sleep Disturbances

• If your baby was sleeping perfectly and is suddenly waking up in the night, this is very common. Sleep disturbances often arise when babies reach certain milestones (sitting up, crawling, standing, and walking). She may be practicing new skills or finding she is stuck in a position she can’t get out of. Help her learn to master these skills during the day so she can get herself unstuck at night!
• Waking up and finding you not there may also cause some distress. After a couple of nights of you coming to her, to soothe her (verbally), she’ll most likely learn to self-soothe on her own. This is a normal phase of separation anxiety.

Changes at 9 Months

• If it has not already, 3rd naps usually disappear by this age. There is no reason for night feedings.
• Note: Some babies, particularly breastfed babies, continue to need one night feeding up until they are nine months old.