Awake time before bed

[Claire Marie's mommy]

Hello all,

I'm wondering what is a normal amount of awake time between nap 2 and bedtime for a 9 mo old?  DD just turned 9 mo. and FINALLY made it to 3 hours of awake time before nap 2!!!     .  I'm so proud of her.  She's always been about a month or two behind in terms of awake times.  This is what the past 4 days have looked like:

6:00 - wake

8:45 - Nap 1 for 1 hour 15 min.

1:00 - Nap 2 for about 1 hour 15 min.

5:30 - have to try and give a 20 min. catnap in here so that she can
          last  until bedtime

7:00 - bed

She has a 13 hour day instead of 12 and she just can't make it from the end of Nap 2 until bedtime, so I'm still having to give the catnap (which she usually won't go down for, so  I end up rocking her).   On occassion, she will sleep in until 7.  On those days, everything works great, but this doesn't happen often.  I guess I'll just keep working on extending those awake times.  Anyway, just wondering what the normal awake time is before bed so I know what to shoot for.

Always grateful for the help,
Jessica

[Colesmom]

Hi Jessica,

Every little one is different in terms of awake times as you yourself acknowledged.  I've heard of anywhere between 2.5-4 hours of awake time for bed for los of 9 months.

The transition of 3 naps to 2 can be tricky.  Don't rush getting rid of the catnap.  I tried going cold turkey and ended up with a very tired little guy and a VERY early bedtime, which were making my days start very early.

You'll be happy to know that 11 hours of night sleep and 2.5 hours of day sleep are perfectly normal for this age.  I think what you're doing is great.  Maintain that catnap as long as you feel it's necessary.  Your DD will have to be able to stay up at least 3 hours before each nap and bed before dropping it.

If it helps, here is our typical day.

6:30 wake
9:30-10:30/11:00 nap 1
2:00/2:30-3:30/4:00 nap 2
7:00-7:30 bed.

you will find that on days she doesn't take a catnap, or while you're phasing it out that her bedtime may move 30-60 minutes earlier.  That's okay and will gradually get later again as her A time increases.

HTH

[Claire Marie's mommy]

Thanks Traci,  I'll keep working on it!

Jessica