EASY Help with 8.5 month old

[KiusMum]

Hello All,

I need a bit of help figuring out how much day time sleep does LO need at 8.5 months of age. He is on 2 naps a day and will wake up at the 45min. mark but will resettle with some patting and shushing for the morning nap. However for the afternoon nap, he doesn't quite resettle that easily at the 45 min. mark.

WU and BF- 7.05-7.15
Eat - 8.30
Nap 1 - 10.00-11.20/11.25
BF - 11.30
Lunch - 12.15
Nap 2 - 2.15-3.15/3.30 ( Needs to be resettled by usually patting and rocking when he wakes up).
Bottle - 4.00
Dinner - 6.00
BF and Bedtime - 7.00-7.30
Asleep by 7.45/7.50

He self-settles by shush/pat for the naps but BT he falls asleep while feeding, which is resulting in him waking up multiple times during the night (5 -6) I am trying to address that but I feel he needs a bit of a routine revamp as he is always overtired by bedtime and doesn't drink much. So how much average day time sleep? And also if he wakes up earlier in the morning, should I adjust routine accordingly or should I stick to fixed nap times?

Thank you very much!!

[KiusMum]

Hello,
Was hoping someone would point me in the right direction.??
Many thanks!!

[Lindsay27]

Hi hun!  I am thinking that he probably needs an A time push which is why he is waking at the 45min mark.  This is a link with regards to A times:

Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

My DD is just shy of 6 months and we have just pushed to a 3hr A time which it looks like is what your LO is doing.  I am thinking he needs to be up somewhere around 3.5hrs but is probably not ready to jump there all at once.  Can you try increasing by10mins or so and holding for a few days? You might find that the A time increase will make your day long so you may end up with 1 long nap and 1 shorter one.  What do you think?

[KiusMum]

Hi Lindsay,

Thank you so much for replying back. 3.5 hours seems like a very big A time right now. He starts showing drowsy signs at the 2 hr mark and then tired by about 2.5 hrs. However I take him for a nap after about 2 hrs and 45 mins from his awake time and he's asleep by the 3 hr mark. I doubt I can stretch it to 3.5 hrs. Maybe that is because he wakes so much during the night that he is more tired during the day.

We just got his new cot and today after a really loonng time (about 1 month) he did not wake up after I put him down at bedtime in the new cot. He was waking up every 45 minutes to 1 hr till yesterday after bedtime as well. I am not sure if this has to do purely with the roomy new cot as compared to his old small crib or the fact that he had 2 good naps ( each of 1.5 hrs today). Well we will see.. I have just fed him his dreamfeed and put him back...hopefully he does not wake up more during the night..

I am fine with him 1 long nap and 1 short nap, however how much should the total nap time during the day be?? I think he needs atleast 3 hrs nap during the day.

[Lindsay27]

Some times tired cues (yawning, rubbing eyes etc) can become unreliable as they get older, and they do this because they need a change in stimulation/activity to because they are used to being out down for a nap at that time.  You don't need to jump to 3.5hrs all at once, but even 10mins more every few days so that you build A time gradually.  I definitely wouldn't recommend more than 3hrs day sleep or it may affect nights, so that could be 2 x 1.5hr naps or 1 x 1.45-2hrs and the other about an hour or so.