is this normal?

[JamieB]

Is it normal for a 4 month old to sleep 9 or even 9.5 hour stretches? I'm not complaining and I probably just jinxed myslef writing this and he'll never do it again. lol It just seems so long without nursing but I can't imagine waking him. And even when he does wake up (around 4 or 4:30am) he barely eats. I pumped a bottle and DH got up with him the other night and he slept 9 hours, ate 2oz and then went back to bed for another 4 hours. Even when I nurse him it's only about 2 minutes usually.

Does anyone else have a baby that sleeps this long? He must be making up for the 30 to 30 mintue stretches for the first 3.5 months

[rzberrymom]

Enjoy it while you can! It's usually the other way around--they usually start waking more and more at 4 months, since growth spurts, learning new skills (rolling) and teething often start to disrupt sleep.

I've noticed that my almost 4 month old has developed really efficient nursing lately. She doesn't need to nurse forever anymore or nurse on both sides every time--she just does her thing quickly and then goes right back to sleep. Maybe that's what's happening with him too? Of course, their stomachs are getting bigger too, so they're able to go longer stretches as they get older (although, they will often want to nurse for comfort, even if their bellies are full).

[maptome]

No worries. Count yourself lucky. I think a lot of babies sleep that much naturally, but you don't hear much from their mothers for sleep advice. =)

[Addie]

Our son does this too, and he's almost four months. We were worried the first few times it happened, but our ped advised us not to wake him because he gained weight quickly and consistently. He's 95th percentile for weight, so obviously he's not missing all those night feeds! Sometimes he wakes more often, but it's not uncommon to get an 8-9 hour stretch out of him. We just try to follow his lead, and to enjoy it while it lasts, because it could change tomorrow!

[Carrie Posey]

my daughter did this too! Enjoy it, teething, seperation anxiety etc... will interrupt your sleep soon enough!!

[Rasa]

I'd add that it may be perfectly normal for him--maybe stocking up on sleep in preparation for a big grown spurt or developmental change, etc., but if you're worried, check things like: diapers, weight change etc. Is he wetting the same number of diapers and the same amount of wetness? Is his growth/weight consistent or increasing? If so, yay!

Otherwise, I'd wonder if you're right next to him during this sleep? I remember my DD in the early months was getting a large chunk of sleep with DH at night. She would only sleep upright on our chests and I had a much more difficult time learning to do that so DH took a big night shift for me. At first, he would wake me up whenever she fussed so she could BF. After a few weeks, she would fuss a little and if DH was holding her and I wasn't right there, he'd pat her a little and she'd go back to sleep and sleep MUCH more than if I were right there and she could smell/access BF. She was getting REALLY long stretches of sleep. We mentioned it to our ped. and he thought it was unusual but GREAT (isn't it what everyone wants, right?!) But after a while, we noticed her morning diapers were dry (which was odd) and more concentrated looking/smelling. After a couple weeks we had a slight dip in weight (from 75 to 50 percentile). We removed DH from the nighttime routine and she started BF more in the night and diapers, weight returned to normal. At 4.5 yrs now, she's been consistently at 75% weight throughout her life except for those few weeks where she spent many night hours with DH instead of me. I know it's heretical to some to say that a long stretch is NOT ok, but in our case, it wasn't and we were glad when DD went back to more frequent night nursing.

[Alisse]

I wish my son would sleep that long! Even for only one night!

[JamieB]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I feel better! He always wakes up with a very heavy diaper and is growing like a champ so I guess we're good to go?

Maybe it won't matter though because he decided to teach me a lesson for writing this He went to bed at 7:30 but only slept for 3 hours. Now it's 1am and he's been up for 2.5 hours Lesson learned!