9 month old - early waking, or just needs 9 hours night time sleep?

[natashalil]

DS in 9 months and has been sleeping 8.5-9.5 (9 on average) hours straight through for a couple of months now - from about 7:45 to 4:45.  If he wakes at night, he settles himself quickly, we dont need to go in.

He wakes between 4:30 and 5, and we wait to see if he will settle. Sometimes he does, but then is awake again in 10 minutes. I bf him, and then he is wide awake and we start the day.

How do I know if this is a problem - or if he just needs 9 hours of sleep at night? He usually gets 2-3 hours of daytime sleep and is generally happy  when he is awake.

[jessmum46]

It sounds low to me but I guess the questions are: are you happy with things as they stand (personally there's no way I'd be starting the day at that hour but it works for some families) and is LO coping well on the amount of sleep he gets?  If the answer to both is yes, then there's no major reason to change things.  Although his night sleep and total sleep are low for his age, some babies do have lower sleep needs and he's getting well over the 10h minimum sleep in 24h which is regarded (by many) as necessary for healthy development.  How do you feel?

[natashalil]

i am a bit tired. i am coping though. my bigger concern is if its enough for him. he has always been a max of 12 hours in 24 hr period kinda baby (outside those first 4 months).

how do i encourage him to just get another 30-60 min in the morning - without a lot of tears? shoudl i hold off on feeding him?

[jessmum46]

Could you post his day in EAS format?  It may be some routine tweaks will get you a longer night and a lie-in

[natashalil]

At 5, I nurse him in my bed so I can get an extra 20     super dark, quiet, still awake and crawling all over me. Thanks for your hlep!!

5am - wake and bf
6:15 - breakfast (solids)
8:00- little top of breastmilk, nts
8-10 - nap
10-11:30 - activity
11:30 - lunch (solids)
1 - top up of breastmilk, nts
1-2 -nap
2 - 3:30 activity
3:30 - snack (breastmilk)
3:45-5:45 - activity
5:45 - dinner, then activity till we start bedtime routine
7:00 - bath
7:30 - bf
7:45 - sleep

[jessmum46]

A couple of things -

The first nap is very early in the day.  Until you can get that nap pushed later I think you'll be stuck with the early WU time.  I'd try pushing it later 15 mins every 3-4 days and hopefully your WU time will follow.  I would also try increasing your second A time if the first nap stays a good length as a 1h nap suggests your LO is undertired for naptime, and then likely OT by bedtime.  If you can gradually push those two naps out you may reach a point where you do need to wake LO from the second nap to preserve bedtime, but that's ok and common around this age (the very early beginnings of the 2-1 nap transition).

You could try working towards something like:

WU whenever
Nap 10-12
Nap 3.30/4 for an hour or so
BT 7.45pm

But in the mean time with WU being so early I would actually move BT earlier, as early as 6.30pm or so as if your LO goes to bed less OT you may conversely get a longer night.  What do you think?

[3littlemen]

agree with ^^

We are 9.5mo, and we've gradually worked out (over weeks) that our first a time needs to be plus 3h15. so somedays we wake at 5am (ugh - still figuring it all out) and our first nap starts (in our cot) at 8.15am.... I'm not saying it's right, but at least we're getting two good naps a day. and they're well spaced throughout the day - mind you if we start that early, we also go to bed early (ie it's a 12-13hr day from wu time)