6 Month Old Schedule: What To Expect

In this post we will be reviewing everything you need to know about your 6 or 7 month old’s schedule. How much should your 6 month old be sleeping? How many naps should he be taking per day? What does a typical 6 month old feeding schedule look like?

Around 6 to 7 months old, your baby’s schedule for eating and sleeping will start to change slightly. For example, your baby will be starting to eat solids and the number of naps needed per day will be reduced.

Just when parents feel like they have figured out their baby’s schedule, it changes again. The good news is that once you adapt to this new schedule, it won’t change much again until your baby drops to 1 nap per day. This typically happens at 12 to 18 months of age.

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Ideal Bedtime For 6 Month Old

What is an ideal bedtime for a 6 month old? The reality is this really depends on your family’s schedule. At the end of the day, it’s about the total amount of sleep your baby gets at night.

If everyone is up early at your house, it’s likely your 6 month old will need to have a bedtime around 7pm to 8pm. To determine an appropriate bedtime, you should consider how much your baby is sleeping at night combined with the time you want him to wake up.

A 6 month old should be sleeping 10 to 12 hours at night. It’s possible your baby is still waking up for a feeding during this time.

For instance, my babies would sleep from about 8:30pm to 8am. However, they would also wake up around 5am to 6am for a feeding. But, then they would go right back to sleep. Around 7 months old is when my babies dropped that early morning feed.

If you want your 6 month old to wake up at 7am and he is sleeping 11 hours at night, then you would want to put him to bed at 8pm. If bedtime is far off of this mark, that’s fine, you will get there.

To adjust bedtime, slowly change it by 15 minutes every 2 to 3 days until you get to the appropriate time.

Finally, if your baby is at least 6 months old and not sleeping at least 10 hours straight at night, then you should consider trying sleep training. Sleep training at 6 months is discussed in more detail below.

6 Month Old Schedule – 2 Naps

Sometime in the 6 to 9 month range your baby will drop from 3 naps to 2 naps. So, what do those sleep schedules look like?

Below I am sharing a typical baby sleep schedule for a 6 month old taking 3 naps per day. And, I am also sharing a typical baby sleep schedule for a 6 month old taking 2 naps per day.

All three of my babies switched from 3 to 2 naps at 8 to 9 months old. But, of course each baby is different. The typical range for reducing from 3 naps to 2 naps ranges from 6 months to 9 months old.

Sleep Schedule For 6 Month Old At 3 Naps Per Day

Sleep Schedule For 6 Month Old At 2 Naps Per Day

6 Month Old Sleep Training

You have made it! What exactly do I mean by this? You survived the first 6 months with your baby and he or she is now old enough for sleep training.

There are many different methods you can use to sleep train your 6 month old. And, there are a lot of other experts out there that can provide you with the information you need.

I will share that we used the Ferber method to sleep train all three of our babies. It was very effective for our family. I actually always thought the method we had used was called the cry it out method, but I recently learned there are differences between these two sleep training methods.

The cry it out method means just letting your baby cry until he falls asleep, without ever checking on him. I absolutely do NOT recommend doing this.

The Ferber method does involve letting your baby cry. But, it also involves checking on your baby to make sure he is okay. At first, you check on your baby more often. Then, you increase the time increments before going into the nursery again.

I don’t think I would have been able to get through sleep training my baby if I had not invested in a video baby monitor. This way you can check on your baby remotely, without interfering with sleep training. It really helped give me peace of mind that my baby was in fact okay.

Ferber Method Sleep Training Example

Here is an example of how we used the Ferber method for sleep training our babies at 6 to 9 months old.

8am Do a 5 minute baby bedtime routine and put baby to bed. Baby starts crying and throws pacifier out of crib when you leave.

8:15am Go in nursery, don’t talk, put pacifier back in crib, leave. Baby cries when you leave and throws pacifier out of crib.

8:30am Go in nursery, don’t talk, put pacifier back in crib, leave. Baby cries when you leave and throws pacifier out of crib.

9am Go in nursery, don’t talk, put pacifier back in crib, leave. Baby cries when you leave and throws pacifier out of crib.

9:30am Go in nursery, don’t talk, put pacifier back in crib, leave. Baby cries when you leave, but eventually settles down and goes to sleep before 10pm.

Getting Baby To Sleep Through The Night

First of all, this whole routine will feel like it took 10 hours instead of 1 to 2 hours. You become so used to going to your baby when he cries. It’s just built into our psyche to go running and help our babies when they cry.

But, for our family, it was so worth getting through 3 nights of sleep training. After surviving sleep training, our babies were sleeping through the night. It was such a big stress relief and felt.

Every once in a while we might have to do a scaled down version of sleep training again.

For example, one of our babies, started a habit of waking in the middle of the night. But, once we saw it was lasting more than a few nights we would use the Ferber method to stop baby waking up at night out of habit.

Sleep training was shorter and only lasted 1 or 2 nights, instead of 3, because we had already used it before.

More Help With Baby Sleep Schedules

If you have tried sleep training or all these baby schedules are just a struggle, then I highly recommend checking out these baby schedule cheat sheets. This printable baby schedules pack was put together by a mom and certified pediatric sleep consultant.

If you need help with any of the following items, then these printable baby schedules are totally worth it! You will get information on the following:

• Printable schedules from 0-3 years old
• Resolving short naps
• How to stop early baby wake times
• Establishing a baby sleep plan
• Guidance on when to drop a nap
• Help getting your baby on a regular sleep schedule

If you are just completely exhausted, then grab the baby schedule cheat sheets TODAY! The reviews for this product are impressive and in my opinion, anything that helps me and my kids get better sleep is 100% worth the investment.

6 Month Old Schedule With Solids

Now that we have discussed what to expect for a 6 month old sleeping schedule, let’s discuss how feedings work at this age too.

6 months is a typical time of change with the feeding schedule. It is around this time many parents start introducing solids. I don’t know about you, but figuring out when to feed solids, while also fitting in breastfeeding or bottle feeding can be complicated.

Essentially what happens is you slowly introduce solids. You will start with 1 solid meal per day and work your baby up to 3 solid meals per day. This will happen over the course of 1 to 2 months.

At first, the amount of breast milk or formula your baby drinks will be the same, since you are only introducing one very small extra meal. But, as you start giving your baby more food, he will slowly reduce his milk intake.

Finally, you will reach a good feeding schedule that involves a combination of milk and 3 meals of solid food per day. It is difficult to provide an exact schedule as you work towards 3 solid feedings per day.

There are three main things to keep in mind:

1. Feed solids about 1 hour after a breastfeeding or bottle feeding session.
2. As solid foods increase, your baby might reject milk. Take away a milk feeding and adjust your baby’s schedule accordingly if you notice a pattern with this.
3. If your baby seems hungry when you are eating, it’s probably time to add another solid meal to his diet.

Once you have worked up to 3 solid meals per day, see below for a sample 7+ month old schedule.

6 Month Old Sample Schedule

What will a typical day with your 6 month old look like? At first, it will probably look something like the schedule below with 1 solid feeding per day and 3 naps per day.

The keys to your 6 month old’s schedule include maintaining appropriate awake times between naps, making sure your baby sleeps 11 to 13 hours at night, and total milk intake is between 19 and 30 ounces per day.

Sample 6 Month Old Schedule For 3 Naps Per Day, 1 Solid Feeding Per Day

As your baby gets closer to 9 months old, he will likely drop to 2 naps per day, he will increase his solid food intake to 3 meals per day, which in turn mean less milk intake. Once this transition happens at 7 to 9 months the schedule will look something like this.

Sample 7+ Month Old Schedule For 2 Naps Per Day, 3 Solid Feedings Per Day

That wraps up this post on what to expect from a 6 month old baby schedule. I hope you found some useful information. I always found the age of 6 months to be enjoyable. Your baby will be starting to play a lot and sleeping more at night. It’s a big milestone!