Updated October, 2021
Ah, the joy of the 6 month sleep. At this point, your child should be able to sleep through the night without any night feedings. This means no more 2:00am snacks. I understand that some individuals have their children sleep through the night as early as three months. Based on developmental readiness though, I do not encourage weaning off night feedings completely until at least 6 months.
What to Expect
Around 6 months, your child’s sleep patterns are starting to more closely reflect yours, with a general understanding of day and night. They should now have their longest stretch of sleep at night, for around 11 hours. Around 7 months, if you don’t have one already, it is very important to implement a predictable daytime schedule to help with naps and evening sleep.
Your child should be averaging about 13 hours of sleep total at this age. If they are sleeping nearly 11 hours at night, that means the other 2 hours should be made up in naps. Expect your kiddo to be awake 2-3 hours between naps, with naps lasting 1-3 hours. I advise aiming for 3 naps per day with the 3rd nap in the evening being more of a cat nap.
Sleep Training According to Me
6-9 Month Sleep Practices
Your child is officially developmentally capable of sleeping through the night now. This is a huge step towards all night sleeping, which I am sure you have missed after 6 months. Sleeping through the night is important both for your baby’s health as well as your own. So don’t underestimate how great this new block of time is. I don’t expect your child to make this transition overnight though. It’s just time to start the process.
Wean the Snacking
It is time to stop feeding in the middle of the night. Hopefully this transition will happen slowly and naturally, but you may have to help it along. Sometimes switching out the parent that responds to late night tears helps. For example, if mom normally nurses, have dad respond to middle of the night wakings.
Eat Dinner
Along the same time that your child will transition to sleeping through the night, they also likely have transitioned to eating solids. Make sure you are offering your child solids around dinner time, and then still offering milk right before bed. This will help their little tummies feel full so they don’t need a midnight snack.
Habits to Avoid
As with all of the stages, we want to continue avoiding forming bad habits. Things like sleeping in bed with you (unless you’ve actively decided to co-sleep), falling asleep on the breast, and tiptoeing around during nap time continue to be things for us to avoid.
Middle of the Night Snacks
The hardest part of this stage is figuring out if your child is genuinely hungry or just mooching for a snack out of habit. The key to full nights of sleep is going to be no middle of the night snacks. Wean your child off this habit, if they haven’t already, and stay consistent.
8 Month Sleep Regression
One thing to watch out for during this sleep period is the 8 month sleep regression. Hopefully your child gave you a month or two of sleeping well before this regression hits. I promise though, similar to the four month sleep regression, if you stay consistent and avoid creating any new bad habits, this regression too will pass and around 9 months you should have a child who is sleeping well through the night.
Sleep Schedule
You will notice that for this age, your child’s schedule is starting to be more and more predictable. This is where all that consistency and routine really start to pay off. I still hold at two long naps and a short nap at this age, but their schedule should be much more predictable than it may have felt in previous months.
Sleep help!
Need support with getting your child on the right track for sleep? View my Postpartum Doula page where I can offer sleep training for you and your family, including a night’s reprieve if you just need some time to catch up.
