Sleeping through the night - what's normal?

[HandbagFan]

First off, not a stealth boast, I promise! Just looking to understand what's normal. We are lucky our baby sleeps and very aware this could change at any moment!

DS is 19 weeks old and since the weekend has been sleeping through the night. He was previously doing 11-4 then going back down til 6.30ish. Now he does 11-6 as a solid block. He probably drops off on his sleepyhead around 8pm, he gets a bottle before we take him up around 10.30 then he wakes for a bottle around 6 and goes back down til around 9.

I'm confident he's now doing a proper night - 10-6 - but including the other chunks of sleep he's really doing 8-9, 13 hours. Is this normal for a baby of his age? Should I expect it to impact on his day time napping?

It's all so new to me and he's my PFB. I just want to know what to expect and whether I should still be encouraging his daytime naps (usually until this week 4 naps a day) or just let him do his thing? We've been pretty baby led on the whole sleep thing but I like to have a target in mind.

So in short, is 13 hours a night 'normal' for a well sleeping 4.5m old, and will his need for daytime naps reduce as a result?

In my opinion he's far too young to worry about nighttime sleep affecting his naps and vice versa - I'd look at that when they're over a year, not now. Sarah Ockwell-Smith is good on how much sleep babies are supposed to get; basically no one knows, but if he seems happy you're doing well.

There is no normal! The latest research is well explained in a book called the Discontented Baby Book by an Aussie GP and practising baby health research scientist (is not a bullsh$t merchant) I can't remember the exact figures but there is a variation of between nine and 18 hours a day or something like that. So some babies need twice the amount of sleep as others. She basically says ignore routines etc for babies that young as it will just stress you out. It's a great read and really reassuring for anyone whose baby doesn't appear to have read the work of people like Gina Ford.

Ps I am jealous of your sleep!