In this article unpacking a day in the life of my 7-month-old baby, we focus on the age-old question: How much SLEEP should they be getting? We will cover what a typical day looks like for us and how much sleep my baby ACTUALLY gets.
According to Kid’s Health, most babies at 7 months should be sleeping about 12-16 hours a day with at least 2 naps during the day and a longer stretch at night.
The average daytime sleep is about 3-4 hours (total) and 9 hours at night-time (with brief waking to feed).
So, what does a day in the life of a 7-month-old actually look like, with these sleep recommendations?
Our sleep schedule “philosophy”:
At the outset, I want to say that the above recommendation is just a guide, and as that article itself says, there is a WIDE range of what normal looks like.
The purpose of this article is to help you to feel more relaxed about how much your baby is sleeping. Don’t get anxious about them getting the required amount, or even the average amount, of sleep if it just is not going to happen.
Because baby sleep is such an EASY thing to get in a tizz about, and knowing the averages is perhaps more helpful than harmful, if it causes daily, if not hourly, stress about something you may actually have no control over.
What I mean is, if you can’t get your baby to sleep for 5 hours a day during nap times, that’s ok. That might just be what is normal for your little human.
Second round, I am DEFINITELY more relaxed. Which is nice. I often think, “If I was this relaxed with my first, the whole experience would have been a lot nicer”.
My second son has a very relaxed and flexible sleep “schedule” (if you could even call it that). I have not been as rigid as I was with my first born about nap time, wake time, and nap length.
This is for my own sanity.
With two boys, chores to do, and errands to run; sleep just cannot be at the same time, every day. Sometimes, the little guy must sleep in the car. Or, he has to sleep at mum’s group.
Often, we do get days where all his naps are in his bed. But, even on those days, they could be at different times or for different lengths. No two days are the same, even if we spend the whole week without going anywhere!
The reason I say all this is: if you are stressed out about your baby not having a settled routine, where they don’t sleep at the same time, every day – it’s ok. This is a season – eventually they will go down to having just the one nap, which is a LOT easier to organise your day around.
Don’t waste your time stressing out about something that you will inevitably, be CONSTANTLY stressed about.
SO, as long as he HAS his 2 naps (minimum), I am satisfied. I have to be, in order to get everything done.
And that’s my philosophy.
What does the average day in the life of a 7-month-old look like?
Side note: if you are interested in seeing morning routines for a mum of 2, check out this article on what I do when yoghurt making and sourdough breadmaking.
6.30-7 am
This is the general wake-up time for our boy. He is actually a great alarm clock, as he is usually the first to wake up, and he does so with great vim!
He bounces and gurgles until we cannot ignore him any longer and have to tear ourselves out of bed!
9-10 am
Generally, if he has woken as early as 6.30 or 7, he will be showing signs of tiredness by 9 am.
Signs of tiredness include, but are not limited to: crying, getting frustrated easily, or sucking his thumb. It could look like slow blinking, or wanting to be held.
I am still feeding him to sleep, so this will take about 10 minutes.
11.30 am
His morning nap tends to be his longest at this stage. The minimum length will be about an hour, and can be up to 2 hours! If this happens, I feel as though I have been given a gift, and I try and get lots done.
He wakes at 11.30, and this is when my eldest is having his lunch.
My eldest is still *kind of* napping, so he goes down at 12. I find that with them having their sleeps at different times great, because I get one-on-one time with them both – my eldest in the morning and afternoon, and my 7mo between 12 and 3.
2-3pm
Nap time again! This one can go for an hour, which is a nice reprieve in the afternoon. Again, I feed him – he is never so tired as to go straight to sleep without this!
4 – 5 pm
Awake again! This is the dinner hour in our household. My hubby “comes home” from work (aka, walks out of the study), and takes over with the kids, while I crank up the stove and try and make something edible!
6-7pm
Bedtime routine – brushing teeth, story time, last minute run around for the eldest to use up some of his energy. Then, we sing a song with them both, say a prayer, and tuck them into bed (at 7).
My eldest, who is nearly 3 (at the time of writing) does not go to sleep straight away. No siree. He will play with his teddies, or page through books, or come out 10 million times, proclaiming that “he’s awake”.
We get there in the end.
The little guy, on the other hand, does go to sleep at 7, mostly because my husband holds him until he does! This is the only time I do not feed him to sleep, as Hubby is such a pro at settling him. He says he loves doing it – which I am grateful for!
(I tend to clean everything up while he is doing this).
9-10pm
By this time, my eldest is DEFINITELY asleep, but the little guy wakes for a little snack (can’t blame him). This probably takes 10 minutes, after which time, he is fast asleep for a long stretch.
During the night he DOES wake to feed. I don’t think he has slept the whole way through the night, ever.
This will probably be about 2-3 times between 10pm and 6am.
Every day looks different.
I could write a different day in the life of a 7 month old, every day. IT IS NORMAL for every day to be different in the life of your baby or toddler. Do you do exactly the same things, every day, at the same time?
Do you eat your meals at the same time? Go to bed at the same time?
If you do, well; I salute thee.
The thing is, every day we DO different things, which require different energy levels. So, we are tired earlier, or oftener.
It is the same for babies. If my baby is teething or going through a growth spurt, he will be hungrier and need more sleep.
He is constantly teething and constantly growth spurting, so we just know that for the first year of his life, we can have only so much of a routine.
We have accepted that, and it has made parenting a LOT less stressful.
So, some days (when he has gone to sleep later) he will wake up later. This means that he will probably have less naps during the day (2).
Or, if he has woken up earlier, then he will go down for his morning nap earlier, so we can fit 3 naps into that day.
How long are 7-month-old wake windows?
Our seven-month-old is awake, happily, for 2-3 hours. This depends on the time of day.
After he wakes for the day, he is ready again for a nap in about 2 hours.
In the afternoon, however, he can stay awake for 3 or even 4 hours. I am not quite sure why this is – I tend to get sleepy in the afternoons, myself! I just find it quite tricky to get him to sleep then. He is so playful!
Sometimes it seems that he is tired, so I put him down for a nap – only for him to start trying to play again, as soon as I put him on the mattress!
Keeps you on your toes!
I’m going to wrap up this article here, otherwise I will go on lots of rabbit trails. I will post an update at 8 months, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
