8.5 month old wake windows

Exactly the same here. My LG had just turned 9 month still had 3 naps and wake windows are 2.5 hrs but she sleeps well at night. So I'm not even stressing she'll do what she needs to when she needs to

Mines 9 months and her naps are all over the place and night time sleep is horrendous lol

I’ve read that they should have 2.5 hour wake window. Mine does that and it works well :)

If he’s sleeping well at night, I wouldn’t change anything. He will show signs of when he’s ready to drop a nap. But to answer your question wake windows will lengthen on their own when he’s ready.

@Amy what are the signs I should be looking out for ?

@Liv I used to have such a good handle on his schedule and now naps are all over the place as well. I’m very confused lol

@Sasha my girl has been pretty all over the place since birth but she was doing okay at night so I wasn't worried and now I am because she's not getting the amount of sleep she should 🥺

@Liv baby sleep is so hard. Maybe I could try to help. What issues are you having at night that you didn’t have before ? And do you follow or try to follow any type of schedule?

She's not sleeping well at night without me, and even then it's very inconsistent lately.she used to wake up around 730 every morning and now she wakes up between 630 and 930 different times every morning. And she used to be able to sleep at least a 4 hour stretch in her crib at night before needing assistance and now it's only 1 to 2 hours and then she needs a bottle or to be held back to sleep or cosleeping but also she's having a 2 hour wake window in the middle of the night now! If she wakes up between 1030 and 1230 and she needs a feed I will feed her but then she's awake for about 2 hours

I'm also 21 weeks pregnant so if I can at least fix one of my issues that would be very helpful lol

@Liv this just randomly started happening ? Or did you change something with her schedule? How many naps per day and total day sleep is she getting ? And roughly what are her wake windows.

I can't think of anything that would've changed... I've never really had a set schedule though I was always able to let her wake me up because I have step kids I need to get ready for school in the morning and when she used to wake up at 7:30 it was the perfect time for all of us to be getting up and getting ready for the day and I would say that it changed about a month ago and so we've been late to school a couple times I just hate the idea of setting an alarm to wake her up because it feels cruel but I know it's something that I might have to do and her wake windows are all over the place too generally between 2 and 3 hours but it also depends on what we're doing I call her a FOMO baby because if we're out and about she won't signal that she's tired she will just fall asleep literally anywhere even in a grocery cart or restaurant. Her total sleep per 24 hours is usually 10 to 12 hours but she's supposed to be getting 14 at her age

I thought about making her wake Windows longer but it's really difficult when she gets really cranky and doesn't want to do anything but go to sleep but I'm finding longer wake Windows means longer naps cuz if I put her to sleep after only 2 hours and she's cranky and showing me she's tired she only sleep for 20 to 30 minutes

@Liv according to the academy of pediatrics anything from 12-16 is normal for a baby this age. 14 is a good range but not every baby is capable of sleeping that much. Every baby is different and you have to look at her temperament. If she’s getting 12 hours total and she’s cranky the rest of the day then yes she needs to sleep more. Not every baby will sleep 12 hours at night. The more typical night is actually anywhere from 10-11 for most babies especially if they are night weaned. I would first determine what length of night is baby capable of sleeping and then work backwards from there to try and lay out a potential schedule

Babies are so different so I wouldn’t compare. Baby will drop to two naps when they’re ready. Mine is on two naps but honestly my first was still on three naps at the same age which just supports how different each child is. Her wake windows lengthen as the day goes on so they are roughly 2.75 hours before first nap, 3-3.25 hours before second nap and 3.5 hours before bed. On a good night she wakes 2-3 times for feeds still which is totally normal and appropriate for a baby her age. Don’t ask about the bad nights…🫠

@Lauren what would be the signs to look out for that baby is ready to drop the third nap ? Right now his WW before the third nap is close to 3 hours till he falls asleep for it. And if he takes a third nap of 30 minutes then he won’t fall asleep until 3 hours later. Which adds to a lot of wake time during the day

@Sasha For us it was that her wake windows were getting longer and that third nap was tricky to fit in as a result plus it was also quite short. It pushed her bedtime back too much and also wasn’t feasible to manage around our nursery pick ups for our three year old once the timing of it got later. She was also taking FOREVER to put to sleep at night. So we dropped to two naps and haven’t looked back. There was a transition where she needed to get used to longer wake windows but she’s comfortable with a two nap routine now and goes to sleep much quicker at night.

@Sasha the biggest sign is when that third nap becomes short (20-30 mins) not sleeping well at night is also a sign. It’s a big transition so you’ll find for a few weeks some days he will have 3 naps and other days 2. During this time baby’s bedtime will become earlier.

@Amy so essentially what’s actually been happening the last 2 days is that he does take the third nap but he won’t fall asleep for it until he’s been awake for 3 hours. A 30 minute third nap makes his last wake window 3 hours as well. So the last 2 days I ended up with massive amount of wake time, he had a long middle of the night waking (likely due to over tired) and still woke up early. Barely got any kind of play the last 2 days on that schedule. And day sleep has been reducing as well. But it’s that third nap that’s becoming really hard to get and when he wakes from the is so tired because at that point he’s been awake almost 3 hours before he takes it

@Lauren so essentially what’s actually been happening the last 2 days is that he does take the third nap but he won’t fall asleep for it until he’s been awake for 3 hours. A 30 minute third nap makes his last wake window 3 hours as well. So the last 2 days I ended up with massive amount of wake time, he had a long middle of the night waking (likely due to over tired) and still woke up early. Barely got any kind of play the last 2 days on that schedule. And day sleep has been reducing as well. But it’s that third nap that’s becoming really hard to get and when he wakes from the is so tired because at that point he’s been awake almost 3 hours before he takes it

@Sasha Can you try extended his first two wake windows a little bit and bringing bedtime earlier to cut out the third nap? It will be a transition for him so wouldn’t expect it to just click without some overtiredness at first. The middle of the night waking (if he doesn’t go back to sleep for a period of time) could be a split night which is usually caused by undertiredness so it could be that the third nap is causing him to have too much day sleep, hence the early waking too, he’s just had enough perhaps. We contact nap to ensure she gets a decent stint each time (we aim for 1.5 hours) as if any of the naps are actually short then we have to add a third to bridge the gap to bedtime or bring bedtime earlier.

@Sasha we follow the 2,3,4 rule. First wake window 2 hours, next wake window 3 hours, next 4 hours? Sometimes the last wake window is between 3 and 5 hours as we try not to put him to bed any earlier than 7pm.

But it does sound like it’s time to transition from 3 to 2 naps and like my husband keeps calling me - the nap captain 😅 slightly stretching wake windows here and there.

Sometimes if you put them in the bed early by 15 minutes want them sleep longer. I noticed that with my second baby and now she sleep 11-12 during the night but she drop her 3 nap when she was 6 months. When my first was awake every 2-3 hours during the night