He is only sleeping 8 hours at night!!

[penstamon]

DS is 9.5 mo and hasn't been a good sleeper since he was 2 mo. We have been to every doctor, specialist, therapist, healer, etc. we could find and no one can find any reason for his wakings. We have gone the food intolerance route (none), allergy route (none), reflux route (not anymore, if ever), earlier bedtime, later bedtime, changing naps, all the room changes- dark curtains, white noise, co-sleeping, side-carred crib, separate room, etc, etc, etc. Anyway, this past week he has consistently gone to bed fine around 7:30-8 and then sleeps decently (waking every two hours) until about 4am and then all bets are off. Last night he stayed up until 6am then took a 20 minute nap and then was up for the day. Once again we are at our wit's end. His naps are consistent and good, usually 1 hour or so 2x a day. He is happy, playful and healthy during the day. No sign of teeth, doesn't want to nurse more than 2-3x at night, no fevers but when he wakes for hours he tosses and turns and whimpers and cries. No amount of patting, shushing, rocking, bouncing, holding or anything will calm him. He is only getting about 8 hours of nighttime sleep and 10 hours of total sleep each day. Our pedi said 12 hours was the minimum for a healthy baby of this age.

Any ideas? DH and I are losing it (again)!

[elmh23]

I really hate to tell you this, but eight hours at a time is really good for a 9 month old. (ETA: I re-read and realized he's still waking up every 2hrs (normal), whoops. I think your baby seems typical to what I have experienced with my own children. Both of my older kids woke up really early (3am or 4am) around that age because they were on the brink of some major milestone or were teething. BTW, teething can be painful before you even see the teeth coming in.)

How is your baby doing? Is he sick often, crabby? If not, he could just need less sleep that what your ped thinks.

Good luck.

[Jayray]

My DS has been going through a 10 hr night phase for about the past month. This morning I was able to get him back to sleep at 5 am and he slept until 6:30. DH and I were over the moon.

I'm afraid I don't have any advice. I have never been able to figure out much about my DS's sleep except that if he gets good naps, going down for the night is much easier. But there's no rhyme or reason to his nightwakings or early wakings.

Some of the babywhisperer people think that around that age their sleep gets "wonky" because they're beginning to do the 1/2 nap transition.
http://www.babywhispererforums.com/i...?topic=95670.0

They also have some info on early wakings:
http://www.babywhispererforums.com/i...?topic=87109.0

I don't buy into all the BW stuff, but have found some of the general information helpful.

[lyra1977]

Ugh, Mama, 9 months was the absolute hardest age with my DD but it does come to an end eventually. Here are some commiserators that really helped me at that time: http://www.askmoxie.org/2008/03/talk-about-the.html

[sunfish21]

I am also afraid that this sounds normal for some kids. My dd woke up at least every two hours for over a year, and didn't take regular naps until 1 1/2. I would be more concerned with the unhappiness when he is awake which you said can last hours (?). The only thing that you didn't mention that maybe you have done is someone that does baby chiropractic. That can help with so much...good luck.

[AndtheStars]

My DS is 9 months and experiencing the same thing. He was never a good napper 3-4 20 min naps per day from 6 weeks on and a so-so night sleeper. I don't think that he's gotten more than 10-12 hours of sleep in a day since 6 weeks. Now he sleeps for one hour in the morning, maybe 45 minutes in the afternoon and maybe 10 hours (though up every 1-2 hours) at night. He seems happy during the day so I decided I wasn't going to worry about it. I worry about DH and I more. I know that this is a tough age for sleep but the every 1-2 hour wakings are really getting old. A 3 hour block of sleep would be the ultimate in luxury for me at the moment. I made a deal with myself that as long as DS is happy during the day and not screaming at night, I let everything go, don't obsess about it, and don't endless search for ways to fix it. If your mamasense tells you he's fine, he probably is.

[dislocator3972]

Our pediatric nurse laughed and said we were lucky that our DD was sleeping even 6 hours at night (while waking up every 2 hours). That was months ago. Now, my 8mo DD sleeps maybe 10, but there is no way we could get her to twelve.

Have you heard the 12 hour minimum anywhere else? Maybe your ped is talking about the outside of the normal range?

[Astraia]

It's like sleep with people though. Yes, in general, babies need 10 hours at night plus a nap in there somewhere. Most adults need 8 hours. But I need 9 to feel rested, DH needs 6 to feel rested.

My second child sleeps 12 hours at night, easy, and usually in two 6-hour stretches. My first never slept for more than 10 hours and woke up (STILL wakes up!) every 2 hours. She's always gotten less then the recommended amount of sleep, her sleeping patterns are so totally wonky, and always have been. She's not a sleeper, her brother is.

So even though this stage sucks... well. You might not be doing anything wrong. This might be his "normal."

But this past week seems like a developmental or teething sleep disruption. With my daughter, at 2 months she started sleeping badly. Weird naps, waking up early and going to bed late. Eventually it seemed to even out, but every now and then we'd go through a week or two of BRUTAL brutal nights. She'd still nap well- mostly, except for the weird anomaly day where she'd do nothing but scream- but the nights were awful. And then when you're considering packing it up and checking yourself in to the funny farm, it all goes back to normal (whatever your normal may be).

Hang in there! I just keep telling myself, "she'll only be a baby once, she'll only be a toddler once, this is just a stage"

[maddymama]

Haven't read the other responses, but consider yourself lucky that your child sleeps that much. DD1 slept a TOTAL of 5 hours in a 24 hour period every day until she turned 1. Including naps. (Now she sleeps great- 9 hours at night, one 20 minute nap, and she is almost 4). She wasn't cranky, or tired, or anything else... she just didn't like to sleep. It was a long, slow process to get her to sleep more, and she's getting better. I don't think she'll ever need as much sleep as other children. We just figured out how much was good for her and went with it.
FWIW, DD1 is 9.5 months and sleeps much more than DD1, but probably not nearly as much as 12 hours in a 24 hour period, but I consider myself blessed that she sleeps 6-7 hours at night and naps fairly regularly.
~maddymama

[LadyCatherine185]

I think 10 hours a day is still relatively normal for that age. Especially when teething and developmental milestones are still very present. And like a PP said, some babies/kids/adults just need less sleep than others.

Have you read Sleepless in America?