naps/routine for 9mo baby?

[Liz79]

what day time sleep should he be having basically?

He has been having about 2 hours in the morning and about 30-60minutes in the afternoon. Wrong way round according to the great Gina. He always falls asleep on the boob & then gets transferred to cot, sometimes he screams on transfer. Sometimes he has the nap on a walk.

Today he had a sleep on the boob and then woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed with no sleep in him so I thought Ok that was a short morning nap, he will have a long one this afternoon. Now been doing controlled crying for an hour and a half :( and getting nowhere and theres going to be no point soon as it will be tea time and he will be too knackered to eat.

What shall I do :( he had a good lunch washed down with a good breastfeed, fell asleep, woke up a little but was still tired.

As long as he's having enough total sleep I don't think it matters how it is divided up...DS tends to have a longer sleep in the morning if left to his own devices but at the childminder he has 2 equal length naps to fit in with her schedule and he is fine with both. We did cc with DS when he was 6 months as he wouldn't always fall asleep on the boob and was getting too heavy to rock. We started at night time though, then when we had that sorted we tried it at nap time. Best thing we ever did, although hard at the time!

CC is a tough call on naps - you don't have the "biological imperative" on your side that makes sleep more natural to take at night. It often doesn't work, or takes a long time to have any effect.

I wouldn't worry about how the sleep is divided up either.

My DD naps approx 3-3.25 hours after first waking and then 3.5 hours after that. Sometimes she has a shortish nap in the morning and longer in the afternoon and sometimes vice versa. In fact, usually she sleeps for 1hr+ in the morning and 1hr- in the afternoon. I prefer her to take the shorter nap in the afternoon personally, it makes it easier to get her to sleep at bedtime. But they're all different. In my view, as long as one of her naps is at least an hour and second one doesn't end TOO early, we're okay. It works for her.

DD'll only sleep in a moving buggy, moving car or latched onto me. I gave up with the cot about three months ago (when she was the same age as your DC) and as a result she's had longer and better naps ever since. And I'm a lot fitter!

Personally, I think it's worth getting them to take their naps by any reasonable means, and if that means a walk in the rain for an hour or so, so be it...! But if you want to persevere with the cot, that's your choice of course! In the end I found it a lot less stressful not to bother.

Thanks I gave up in the end and he took a little breast feed, expected him to fall asleep on me but didn't and wasn't grumpy & over tired. Just happy to have some company & play. It's all a mystery this parenting business, I have 3yo dd too. Still none the wiser.

Oh, poor you - an overtired baby is no fun, is it?!!

The 9 month sleep regression may also be having an effect on his napping.

Hi OP.

I posted a similar query to yours. DS is 8 months and we could not get him to sleep without being attached to boob or being carried by me or DH. He had also started getting up for almost 2 hours at 11pm and 3am for playtime! (exhausted).

I just started CC and didn't really want to do it and did not think it would work as I tried once before and he just screamed and screamed (but it was in the day I tried). I tried the sit in the room and stroke his hand etc, but he would just cry and cry until I picked him up. Me being there was v disctracting for him.

I started 3 nights ago and going well so far. Quite tough, but it helps to know that he is not hurt in anyway, has been cuddled and placed in his cot, tired, warm and fed and loved. I go back in and reassure him that he is not alone and lean in an give him a kiss and speak softly to him telling him I love him, but it's sleepy time. The first few times at night took him 45 mins to an hour to sleep, but he was more mumping after the first wee while than crying. At first I went in every 5 mins for 30 mins while he was actually crying, then lenghtened it when he was moping.

Day naps he has actually fallen asleep within 10 mins of cc for the last 2 days and falling asleep tonight was only 10 mins too.

I was totally reading his tired cues incorrectly and he never seemed to sleep and when he did it was for at times only 5 mins. A poster on here suggested he was overtired and to put him down for a nap sooner rather than later.

I find he gets up and needs a nap within 2 hours. He will then sleep for an hour and a half. He wants another nap after another 2 and a bit hours for another hour and then has a half hourish later in the day with bed at 7. So today was -

6am rise

8am nap till 9.35

12.15 nap till 2

4pm nap till 4.40

7pm feed and put to bed asleep by 7.30

This is the most he has ever slept! Hope this helps!