do some babies just prefer 10 hrs at night?

[ShellyNathanTaylor]

Greetings all! 

We've been struggling for several weeks with naps, early wakings, etc (you may have read some of my earlier posts).  Well things got better for a few days and I think we've figured out a pattern:  no matter what time he goes to bed, no matter how long/how many naps he has he will rarely sleep longer than 10 hrs at night (and believe me we've tried tons of combo's!).   

Currently he's going to bed around 8:30  - 9:15pm and wakes 10hrs later.  he seems to be pretty happy with this, not very fussy, nor overtired.  I thought we were struggling with early wakings in the past but now I think that he was waking at 5-5:30 because he was going to bed between 7-7:30! 

Just wondering if any one else has LO's who do the same?  If so what does your routine look like? 

Any thoughts on how we could increase night sleep or should we even bother?  We've tried longer naps, shorter naps, ensuring he's not over tired/stimulated.  Never done W2S as he's rarly woken at the same time every day. 

Currently our day looks like this...

A  6:30
E 7am
S 8:30

A 10
E 11
S 12:30

A 2
E 3
S 5pm (refuses a nap any earlier)

A 5:30
E 7
S8:30 (again absolutly refuses to go down any earlier). 

DF 10:30


Shelly

[stheo]

I have a DD that goes to bed at 700 and wakes at 530 to eat and then back to sleep until 730-800.... Right now we are struggling with waking one more time before 530 but its been due to growth spurt, then teething, and now milestone....  but I also deal with the 45 min that is hard to extend sometimes.. do you try to get him back to sleep after he wakes or do you just get him up... do you feed him when he wakes early?

[ShellyNathanTaylor]

We used to try and get him back to sleep but it only worked once!! Now he's not interested in sleep... or food, tried to feed and resettle but again, not interested in sleep!  Once he's up, he's up for 2hrs!! 

I'm just not sure if I should try to change this or go with it as it seems to be ok (for today that is!). 

Shelly

[hawaiigal]

My daughter (6 1/2 months) also tends to sleep around 10 hours a night.  (Sometimes 10 1/2).  Even when we traveled home at Christmas, and she had "jet-lag", she was still sleeping that amount of time.  Instead of going to bed & getting up at her normal Hawaii time (at the time around 9pm & 7am), she went to bed around 11pm and get up at 9pm.  (There was a five hour time difference, and it took us two weeks just to get her to go to bed at 11pm).

I've also wondered if my daughter will be a child that just never sleeps 12 hours at night.

[ShellyNathanTaylor]

At this moment in time it appears that 10 hrs is the magic number for DS... now of course as I write this I have totally jinxed myself.. but for the first time in AGES, we have a routine... of course its only been 4 days!! but its the longest we've had in almost 1 1/2 months. 

His bedtime is between 9-9:30pm
wakes at 7:30am
has 2 1hr 30 min to 2hr naps
plus a 30 min cat nap and we're all happy campers. 

I think he's probably getting ready to drop the cat nap... I've thought this for a while but for now it seems to be working and keeps him from getting up before the sun!! so DH and I aren't prepared to rock the boat just yet. 

So for the meantime, here's hoping that DS will give us at least a full week of feeling like we've finally got him figured before he throws us for another loop!

Shelly

[rinajack]

12 hour nights are rare here.  11s are not uncommon, but 10.5 is the norm.  Has been for a very long time.

[ShellyNathanTaylor]

Oh, I guess I was misreading some of the EASY routines as it appeared that many babies would go to bed around 7:30 and sleep until 7:30am. 

Thanks for clarifying. 

shelly

[ShellyNathanTaylor]

12 hour nights are rare here.  11s are not uncommon, but 10.5 is the norm.  Has been for a very long time.

I was just wondering where I can find these guidelines?  I went back and looked through the EASY board and most babies look like they do 12 hrs at night... Having these guidlines will certainly help me out in the future. 

Thanks in advance
Shelly

[rinajack]

Sorry, I should have been much much more clear.  Many babies do a 12 hour night. But there are many who don't, even thought we often work towards that.  Often in those schedules that people are writing, the baby might be in their bed for 12 hours, but may not be asleep for all of it, it may take 20 mins to fall alseep, then wake earlier but stay happily in the cot for a little while.

Then there are some babies who just don't even come close - my lo is one of those, and I know of several others also. Even at the age of your lo, our schedule involved an 11 hour night, not a 12.  I would say I aim for 11 now too, but usually I get 10-10.5 and I make her stay there til 6:30am.....

Right now, Zara is getting as much in 24 hours, as some babies are getting overnight.  They all have different sleep requirements.

The way to judge wether the night needs to be longer, is your babies cues.  Are they happy when awake.  Are they doing full a times during the day, and napping OK.  If the answer to all of this is yes, then it is quite likely that your baby is getting enough sleep.  If not, then you need to keep working on it.

I believe as babies get older, they will learn to lengthen their nights to make up for a busy day, or less day sleep (kind of like adults do).  I think this probably doesn't happen until around 2 years old.  A few things I do so that Zara will sleep longer if she needs to are:

1/ don't feed immediately upon waking (unless she had one of her rare nights).  I have a time in the morning that breakfast is, and we try to make it as close to there as possible.
2/ I don't wake her early.  if she wants to sleep a bit longer, I am all for it
3/ I try to keep her in her cot, even if awake, until her "get up" time.

So I guess, in summary, 12 hours is a goal.  If your lo doesn't do that, but is happy and seems well enough rested to you, then go with it.  I spent ages stressing that my lo didn't sleep 12 hours, and that something was wrong with her schedule.  But the reality was, she didn't need it, and all I was doing was stressing myself out.

Sorry, I should have said so much more in my original post.

[ShellyNathanTaylor]

Thanks Rinajack.  That makes alot of sense.  My DS is totally happy with current schedule.  He is slowly increasing his A time and naps are between 1 hr 30 mins to 2 hrs with a 30 min cat nap.  He's happy and eating well (on most days) so I think 10-10.5 hrs is his number right now. 

I'll keep you all posted.

Shelly

[ShellyNathanTaylor]

Wow!  Its taken us almost 2 months to get here, but I think we may have a "routine"!!  10-10.5hrs is the magic number for night sleep and we're all doing great! 

Our day looks like this (give or take about 1hr depending on naps and night time)

A 8am
E 8:30 (bottle)
E 9:15 (cereal and fruit or veggie)
S 10:20 (will usually wake him at 1hr 30 mins, unless he slept less than 10 hrs at night)

A 11:50
E 12:15 (bottle)
E 1:00 (cereal and fruit or veggie)
S 2:10 (1hr 30 mins)

A 3:40
E 4:15
E 5:00
S 5:45-6 (cat nap 30 mins)

A 6-6:15
E 8:15
bedtime 9-9:15

DF 10:30 (weaning off this one)

sleeps until morning. 

This is sooo exciting, of course I'm sure the little jinxing fairies are watching me write this and it will all come crashing down but for the meantime we're enjoying a bit of predictablity and reasonable waking times!!

Thanks to those of you who gave some feedback and support... until the next post!

Shelly

[rinajack]

Great!!!

In the not too distant future, he may look to drop the catnap, and when he does that will be your perfect opporunity to bring bedtime a little earlier, and then he may also sleep longer than 10.5.  Hopefully .

[ShellyNathanTaylor]

What sorts of signs would indicate that he's ready to drop the cat nap? 

Right now, he doesnt seem to get enought sleep or more so, he cant stay awake long enough to get him into the evening without a cat nap.  Things are good right now... my gosh almost 2 weeks of a routine now!!! but Im just curious to understand what sorts of things would signal we should look at dropping the cat nap. 

Shelly

[rinajack]

Signs of being ready to drop the catnap are things like refusing to take the catnap, or being really really hard to put down for it, the catnap giving enough energy to push bedtime even later, or the A times and nap times of the other naps just not leaving enough time for the catnap.

Glad things are going great!