Nine month old still on three or four naps, is this normal?

[MK8]

Hi all! I am looking for advice or just reassurance regarding a 9 month old baby sleep pattern. Is there such thing? Or are all babies different & have different needs?
I am hearing and reading that by this age most babies transition to a 2 nap schedule. Well, we are nowhere near that. My baby wakes up at 5.30 daily, takes 3 to 4 naps, and sleeps for the night at 7-8. His naps are rarely longer than 30 mins. He doesn’t self soothe. He usually breastfeeds to sleep and also uses a dummy. We cosleep, both for convenience and because it is clear that he sleeps much more comfortably with me. He is quite whiny during the day (could attribute this to teething).
I would like him to wake up later than 5.30 and/or at least be able to sleep for longer stretches of time.
I have already tried stretching his wake windows, but he gets visibly more distressed and is much more difficult to settle him to sleep. His first nap is around 7.30-8, because he shows signs of tiredness, however I still quite struggle to get him to sleep. His wake windows are shorter, that means he ends up having 3 to 4 naps until bedtime, last one around 4-5, which is way later than I would like.
His whole unpredictable pattern makes every day exhausting and it’s hard to organise activities or meals.
During the night he wakes up just once or twice, can’t really complain.
Please no judgement… I’m not the perfect parent, but I have tried to respond to his needs.

We actually moved to 2 naps when he was 10 mo old and then he stuck to that until he was 18 mo old. It was fantastic for him and he really was a good sleeper. He will “tell you” when it’s time to drop one. You are doing fantastic!

If you look on here for a baby sleep specialist you'll find some good recommendations. I was doing everything wrong and after a 60 min meeting I received a specialised 'treatment plan' the following day that looked at everything, worked like a charm and was a complete game changer.

My first DC was always late to drop naps. I think listening to your child is the right thing!
what are you doing for naps? Contact or does he go in a cot?
also that early nap will reinforce the early waking time.

all of the above I knew for my first btw and just eventually grew out of it! I think some babies are just a bit later with dropping naps

Babies are all very different.

if he sleeps well at night then I, personally, wouldn’t try and change anything if you think teething has started. Sleep can go to pot when teething starts in my experience so if it works, albeit not perfectly, I wouldn’t choose now to tweak it.

When it comes to sleep not one of my 6 have done things in the exact way the books told me they should do :)

You need to change the routine or it will continue, ours were down to one nap by then 12-2 and slept from 6pm-7am ....baby will keep waking in the night as not particularly tired enough to deep sleep as slept to much in the daytime and of course he will sleep in daytime getting up at 5....you need to put your foot down and go thru a couple of grizzly days changing routine but once it's done you will feel better and so will he

Contact naps for the past couple of weeks, as he contracted a viral infection and became much more clingy.
I have tried putting him in his cot after falling asleep, but wakes up 30 mins later no matter what. If I leave him in bed, he will -sometimes- sleep longer than an hour.

How do I keep an overtired baby entertained until it’s the “right” time to go to sleep? He will just become loud, unsettled and angry. I have tried and it was a nightmare for both of us.

Honestly OP I would continue contact napping and do what you can to lengthen those day time naps.
but ultimately you may need to accept that there is nothing you’re doing wrong as such, he will just grow out of it x

Have you heard of Elizabeth Pantley? She uses gentle approaches for sleep-training. I highly recommend you read her book 'The no-cry sleep solution'.

She suggests that in order to lengthen short naps you set a timer for 5-10 minutes before the expected wake time, then hover nearby until baby makes the first signs of stirring. As breastfeeding is a sleep-association for him, nurse him until he falls back asleep. A week or 2 of this and he should be sleeping longer without waking.

I agree that I'd focus on lengthening the naps, and then his wake windows will naturally lengthen, so you'll be able to drop naps (and find it easier to plan things around those longer wake/sleep windows).

I'd spend a week or two really focused on whatever helps him to nap longer – if your bed is set up for him to sleep safely and that works, go for it. Alternatively, the buggy was good at keeping a nap going for both of mine, or you could try the resettling just before wake technique @SnugglyJumpersMakeItBetter suggests. But really make it a priority and try to lengthen as many naps as you can – you want him to get used to napping longer, and then hopefully you can ease up on doing quite so much to support the nap. If doing it for all/almost all naps all at once isn't realistic, I'd probably start with the first one, try to lengthen that one and the wake window after it and then build from there. It will probably take longer that way, though.

So my 9 month old has been on two naps a day for about 6 weeks now. He normally does 1 hour in the morning and then around 1.5 hours in the afternoon and sleeps from 6:30-6:30ish overnight.
We had to push through some tricky days extending the wake windows. But he’s so much happier when awake now than he was when he did 3 or 4 shorter naps.
It’s worth working on him settling himself to sleep. If he’s falling asleep for a nap whilst feeding then he’ll likely need that to help him back to sleep. Like if you went to sleep with a pillow and then someone took it, when you woke up you’d be confused and struggle to get back to sleep.

Thanks everybody, such great suggestions!
I will work on lengthening his naps for now, and maybe when we have achieved some progress I can start encouraging more independence with settling back to sleep. Any tips? 🙂

He's not at nursery?

When he starts, they'll get him on one long nap, around lunchtime

Not necessarily, my LO was on 2 naps for the first 10 months of nursery and they accommodated this...

I think mine dropped to 2 naps around 10/11 months, he used to have 3 naps of 30-40 mins a day and nothing I could do to change it. He didn't drop down to one nap until he was nearly 2 when most of his friends dropped around 12-14 months. Don't worry about it, it will happen when it happens.
If it's affecting your daily plans try to get him to nap in the pram so you can still get out and about.

I think it can still be normal. My first only settled on 2 naps close to 10 months. I remember being worried she would still be on 3 naps when she started nursery. My 2nd already wants to do 2 naps at 5 months although it doesn’t always work with other stuff going on so I think they are all just different. Trying to lengthen naps is a good idea but often they will only do it when they are ready.