9 month old early wake-ups again! How long should he be awake for between sleeps

[Alina.fluturas]

Please help me!
Lost mamma over here with too many questions and confused about A times.
I posted about my baby's early wake-ups only 3 weeks ago.
It was suggested I should increase A time  - particularly the first one to 3.5hs which I did. It seemed to work for 1 week or so then we started again the 5.20am wake ups.
Do you think I should increase further the A time?
It just seems too long for a 9 month old, I know your A time chart says 3-4 hours at this age but all other charts say max 3 hours and although I understand there is some variation as babies are all different, 1h seems quite a lot of variation. Also most babies in the group I'm in ( March 2017 facebook group) seem to all put their babies down 3-3.25hs later for nap (especially the first nap) or go by the 2-3-4 scheme and their babies don't wake up early.
I am so confused and just don't want to keep my baby up too long and make him overtired.
He takes 2 1.5h long naps most times and so if I keep increasing A time so fast and he wakes up later in the morning we will end up with a second nap finishing quite late and a push of bedtime late as well ( I really hate having to wake my baby up from naps).
I also keep wondering if I'm missing something regards to these early wake ups.
There is a sleep regression around this age, could this be the reason?= and I jsut have to wait it out?
Also he's been so cranky and clingy lately - not sure if it's separration anxiety or teething or both and agan wondering if this is causing the disruption?
What shall I do?
I don't want to increase A time when I actually shouldn't and run into other probs related to overtiredness

Thank you and sorry for sounding so confused and desperate but being awake since 5 am most days makes me like this...

[Alina.fluturas]

Just wanted to update how our day has been so far.
SO HE WOKE AT 5.20 AM, I pushed his first nap out and put him down at 9am (i think this is the usual recommendation) He slept until 10.40am.
Then he fell asleep for second nap at 2.10 pm and it is 3.15pm now and still asleep.
I'll put him down for the night approx 3.5 hours after he wakes from second nap.
If anyone replies in time, can you please tell me what should I do tomorrow morning if:
a) He wakes up again too early
b) He wakes up after 6am

THANK YOU!

[ZanesOTmom]

Hi there. Just offering some support as we’ve been there too. It was recommended to extend AT and I thought 4h was way too much for my then-7.5mo baby but I was told AT guideline was 3-4h, some less and some more. 4h worked out for us and that’s still our AT in am. Becomes 3h in pm then 3-3.15 at BT. He’s now almost 9 months and wakes up 6:30-7am, finally STTN after 7.5m!

Based on what I learned here with the support of the wonderful mods, I would let baby be if he’s quietly in cot. I let LO play or even whine a little until PU at 7am (unless crying of course). AT count starts when we pick up our LO, regardless of awake time.

That’s just our experience. I hope you get some expert help soon. All the best.

[becj86]

Hi, at this age, my DS did 4-3-2 rather than 2-3-4. They just are all different and your baby is telling you he wants more morning A time I reckon. I presume he's not starving hungry at 5:20? Would he go back down with a feed?

[Alina.fluturas]

Hi, at this age, my DS did 4-3-2 rather than 2-3-4. They just are all different and your baby is telling you he wants more morning A time I reckon. I presume he's not starving hungry at 5:20? Would he go back down with a feed?

Interesting, never thought of it that way!
Baby woke at 6.40am today!
About the starving hungry thing, normally he would have a feed between 3-4.30am then go back down without probs until 6am.
2 nights ago, for no apparent reason he woke at 1am and I fed him (maybe I shouldn't have...) then was up for the day at 5.20am.

Anyway do you think I should increase A time for the morning stretch and leave the other A times at 3.5hs or should I decrease a bit the other 2 A times and increase morning one to make up for the extra time he'd be awake in the morning?
So in other words should I do 3.75 - 3.5-3.5 or something like 3.75/4 - 3.25- 3.25?

Thank you

[Alina.fluturas]

Hi there. Just offering some support as we’ve been there too. It was recommended to extend AT and I thought 4h was way too much for my then-7.5mo baby but I was told AT guideline was 3-4h, some less and some more. 4h worked out for us and that’s still our AT in am. Becomes 3h in pm then 3-3.15 at BT. He’s now almost 9 months and wakes up 6:30-7am, finally STTN after 7.5m!

Based on what I learned here with the support of the wonderful mods, I would let baby be if he’s quietly in cot. I let LO play or even whine a little until PU at 7am (unless crying of course). AT count starts when we pick up our LO, regardless of awake time.

That’s just our experience. I hope you get some expert help soon. All the best.

Thank you for that! Really appreciating your advice. come to think of it, he really seems flat out at night - not necessarily grumpy but he falls asleep at the breast everytime so he must be pretty tired.

[becj86]

nyway do you think I should increase A time for the morning stretch and leave the other A times at 3.5hs or should I decrease a bit the other 2 A times and increase morning one to make up for the extra time he'd be awake in the morning?So in other words should I do 3.75 - 3.5-3.5 or something like 3.75/4 - 3.25- 3.25?

Either of these is fine - do what LO needs. If he's falling asleep early in the routine for BT, you can shorten it/reduce the A time a bit by starting BT routine earlier. This sort of fine-tuning of the routine is really done based on how he naps and how happy he is during his A time, really.

You just want to watch how long your day gets - ideally night is not shorter than 10.5-11hr, so capping the second nap to keep the day to no more than 13-13.5hr is the way to go. Always keep one nap long as its awful going to 1 nap when they can't do more than a 1hr nap.