Hellobee Boards

My LO was able to stay awake for about 2 hours at 5 months. Only 9-10 hours a night seems a little short for a 5 month old. Looking back at my logs, LO was sleeping about 11-12 hours a night.

With short naps and only 9-10 hours night sleep, it is possible that your LO may be a bit overtired. Have you tried a shorter wake time? It might lengthen her naps and being better rested, her night sleep may also lengthen.

Ah yes, Weissbluth does say that first nap, which is about an hour after wake up is more like continuation of night sleep. When I say that LO slept 11-12 hours, I deduct time awake for night wakings.. He would sleep about from around 7pm-5am, nurse and then immediately back to bed, and wake up for the day around 7:00-7:30am. I treated the 5am wake as a night waking so I did not count him falling back asleep as a first nap.

But 14-15 hours does sound about right for total sleep for a 5 month old. However, night sleep is supposed to be more restorative than nap sleep, so if she seems tired, I would try to maximize her night sleep and usually the naps will sort themselves out once she is well rested.

Have you tried moving her bedtime a little earlier to increase night sleep?

Mine is 6 months and his max awake time is usually 90 minutes, 2 hours if he pushes it, and his naps are usually only about 30 minutes each (although sometimes he'll randomly give me a delicious 1 or 2 hour nap). Being awake much longer than that and he gets really really cranky and then won't nap.

LO is 5 months and is awake 2-2.5 hours at a time and she takes two naps a day averaging about an hour each. However, she goes to bed at 6:30pm and wakes up for the day around 8/8:30am so she sleeps more at night. I think it really just depends on the baby.