9 month old still naps 4 times a day

[Wonderland18]

It’s no impact on her bedtime sleep but she sleeps every two hours for an hour.
If we push her later with naps she gets raging and will cry until she gets helped to nod off with a dark room/ music or shushing.

Is this too much or is she just a sleepy baby?

If it doesn't affect her nighttime sleep I wouldn't worry

Is she sleeping through the night?

If it doesn’t affect her night time sleep then I’d just enjoy it to be honest. Some babies sleep more than others.
DC3 is 7.5 months and naps for 40 mins at around 9am and 1.5 hours at around 12.30. Sleeps like shit at night though!

She sleeps from 7pm till 6am and is up 2/3 times for a top up on breastmilk. Been the same since she was born so I don’t think it’s affected her nighttime sleep. Of course I’ll need to cut out the night feeds eventually but as she’s still in my room it’s not much of an inconvenience.
I do enjoy her daytime naps to tidy as she’s a Tasmanian devil style destroyer of homes but if we are out she can stay up 3.5 hours max but this is with lots of eye rubbing

That is a lot for a nine month old to be up in the night. Most are sleeping through at that age for 12+ hours. I really would look to reducing the amount of naps, I always wanted mine to have one decent nap a day (2+ hours) not lots of little naps, an hour is not enough time to do anything.

Is it bad? It’s not fully up as she shouts in her sleep and I bounce up so more of a dreamfeed or a comfort?

She used to have one big nap in the middle but since she started cruising and standing unaided she’s just been up and off as much as she can be.
Any tips on reducing naps? She gets clingy when tired so it would be a lot of playtime with her on my knee.

It’s a normal amount of times for a 9 month old to be up in the night in my experience (3DC) but some babies do sleep through the night at that age. I assume she’s just having a sleepy feed then going back to sleep anyway, so I’m not sure dropping naps would make any difference to that.
Then again even when DD1 dropped her nap completely she was still up a couple of times in the night!

Mine (now 11months) slept through the night at that age but still needed 4 naps per day. I wouldn't worry but maybe try and push the first nap back by a few minutes each day. That might encourage longer naps and therefore fewer. That's what I did because I found that he was having little cat naps and it was to the detriment of good sleep.

I’ve found if I lee her super busy she forgets she’s tired and her routine tends to go-

6.20 = wakes for the day
8-9 = nap
11-12 = nap
It was 2pm for the next nap but the past two days I’ve managed to get her to hold off until 3.30.
So 3.30-5 = nap
Bedtime at 7

If I can keep pushing the last nap it should help a bit, I don’t think she needs them anyway as on days she’s out and more active she’s never overtired when the 3/4 hour awake mark hits, maybe it’s just routine making her think she’s sleepy.
My only issue is even with the 4 naps she’s rubbing her eyes constantly, the GP had to prescribe her with some steroid cream as she’s caused irritation to her right eyelids.

In my experience that’s far too many naps for a 9 month, think they like them sleeping through the night no feeds for 12 hours and around a 2 hour nap early afternoon, but each babies different and I’m sure she will get there set a date and give it say a month of trying to cut some naps/night feeds down if your concerned if after a month you find she really can’t adjust to new routine make a doctors appointment just to be on the safe side although I’m sure she’s fine just gotten into such a good routine of naps and feeds, while I think it’s great you’ve both managed to cut out one afternoon nap the last few days if you could push her a hour or so in the morning before her first nap so more 9/10 sleep for one hour wake her then put her up for another nap around 2ish for one hour wake her again, each time making sure she is well fed right before putting her down so she sleeps solid for a hour then same for bed full belly calming bath and up to bed around 7 and slowly merge the two day time naps into one as she gets use to the new routine, are you solely bf?

@makesmilingyourbesthobby yeah she’s only breastfed and won’t take a bottle at all, my main issue with the full tummy is she is refusing solids quite a bit for the past 4 weeks and will only eat small bits of her meals opting to play with the food (regardless of what it is) instead so I know her nighttime feeds are probably needed to keep her from being hungry.

She’s still fed to sleep at night so I reckon there’s also a bit of an association there.

Maybe if I do a week with the 3 naps I can look at stretching her awake times to 2 naps. I’ll be back at work soon so will need her naps sorted for childcare purposes so I’m better tackling it now.

My breastfed baby wasn't feeding through the night at 9 months but was on 3 naps a day if I remember correctly. If she's full of breast milk, might be why she's not eating much food. What's your feeding schedule throughout the day. Do you feed after food or before?

She’s breastfed before her naps so usually after she’s had her meals, I suppose with her napping so often she’s likely to be quite full.
I usually would give her a feed when she grouchy and rubbing her eyes and then a cuddle till she’s out and then she’s put down for her nap.

Any advice? I tried the full eat when she wakes for a week but she won’t take a feed if she’s only just up, she wants to play.

If she is happy when awake and sleeping that well at night I wouldn’t worry at all, she will drop naps when she is ready. My 9 month old was definitely feeding more than that at night and it’s totally normal so please don’t listen to people who say they don’t need milk/feeding/comfort. Try not to worry about the food intake either, just tasting lots of different flavours and textures is enough at this age.

@Mrsducky88 she’s a small delight when awake, smiles for everyone and currently up to mischief constantly. My HV isn’t worried and thinks the LO is thriving and SIL fed through the night until 1 with her two and they are both great sleepers now.

I’m a FTM so just super unsure with everything, I seem to always wait for LO giving signs of being ready before I go ahead but am never sure if that’s even for the best.

I just looked back through old messages to find the routine I followed fairly loosely.

No one is saying she shouldn't be feeding through the night necessarily but just sharing their experiences. A

Some 9 month olds can go through the night but one having 4 hours napping in the day might not be because of the amount of sleep they are already having. It's obviously hard to say and you know your baby best.

What happens if you don't feed at night? Do they go off easily? I was surprised when I stopped feeding that it didn't bother her.

My baby basically followed:
7am - wake &breastfeed
8am - breakfast
9am - nap
10am - wake
11am - bottle
Midday - lunch
1pm - nap
3pm - wake
3.30/4 - bottle
5pm - dinner
6.30pm - bath, breastfeed story
7pm - bed

I went back to work at 10 months so had replaced 2 feeds with bottles by this point and replaced the first and last feeds over the next month as I leave for work before 7am and get back after 7pm.

Sounds perfect and like you are doing an amazing job. My little girl fed during the night until around 16 months. She’s 2 now and a great sleeper - apart from waking me up at 3am today to tell me she wanted her bear (it was behind her 😂).

I did the same, trying to do things too early just seemed to cause more hassle and tears for everyone. If it works for you and baby just go with it.

@Cuppa12345 your routine seems great, I’m certain I’d have no joy with the 3pm-7pm awake time anytime soon though, I’ll keep stretching her naps and see how it goes as that would be an ideal routine to be in for when I’m at work. I’ve had no luck introducing bottles at all (purple hulks out) so next step is milk in sippy cups (which she does take water from).

@Mrsducky88 see that’s why I’m so iffy about pushing her, everyone was certain her falling asleep on breast for naps would make her never sleep for others (even though she would still go down for dad) so I spent 2 weeks with an upset 5 month old taking 40 minutes to nod off for naps for me. I gave in and let her have boob until she was ready and she now naps just for cuddles. I don’t want to stress her out more than needed, I’ll maybe just push her naps slightly a little and a time and see where I get 😀

My 9 month old is on 2 naps - sometimes 3.

He's just moving to this schedule and I Loosley follow 2-3-4 awake times

So after he's been up 2 hours he has a nap, 3 hours after that one, another nap and then 4 hours after bedtime.

He's my third and I found as they all transition down onto this schedule they start to sleep more (than the standard 30 minutes of before) he tends to do an hour in the morning and I try for 2 hours at lunchtime, going in and getting him back to sleep if necessary. Similar with my other two. From memory my middle one was on 4 hours worth of naps, 1.5 in the morning and 2.5 in the afternoon!

He still wakes in the night, to feed, to cuddle, to have a mini party. Perfectly normal and was the same with all three of mine.

Good luck with it all. That can be a long slot but once they start having 2 hours in one hit, you do find they can go a bit longer. No pointing forcing a baby to do what someone else's does though. Then you just get an overtired baby that doesn't sleep at night anyway! If my baby woke early, say after 45mins instead of 2 hrs, then they'd have a third nap but I would always have to wake mine by 4pm otherwise she'd not go down for 7pm!

I had to try a few teats before we settled on the mam ones but if she'll take milk from a sippy cup it'll stop you having to wean from the bottle later which can be tough.

@lrwe that actually sounds doable, it’s just getting her to nap longer than an hour that’s an issue, during the day she’s just after climbing about so as soon as she starts to twitch she’s straight into stand up mode so will be climbing her cot 😂

I’m glad to hear nighttime wakes aren’t uncommon! All the mums I know with 8/9 month olds have full night sleepers but I’m the only breastfeeding one so thought it was maybe that, I guess it’s just depending on the baby 🙈

@Cuppa12345 oh I’ve tried nearly everything- Tommie tippie, Mam, Nuk and even ordered they Minbie ones I’ve seen breast feeders praise. No luck at all. Even if I’m not home she works herself up so bad she has swollen eyes the rest of the day.
I’m thinking sippy cups the last and only option 🙈

Dk if bf is a factor but most babies take comfort in it and like a top up in the night I have 3 dd’s and my dd2 would only settle after a feed and still woke for feeds in the night sometimes but she only had one nap in the day, when I decided to give it go of getting her to settle without bf she wouldn’t take to a bottle at all I tried a bottle before bed to try and get her to stop associating bed time with feeding took along time for her to eventually take to it but dk if it’s because of bf/comfort here as you said since my last post she settle for her father I think it’s more just her routine try keeping her busy around her nap times playing and that and see how stretching her naps times further apart goes how is she this morning?