Nine months of age is such an exciting time; your little one is likely learning all sorts of new skills and their little personalities are starting to peek through. With all the changes and development around this age comes questions about nap and bedtime schedules, feeding times, wake windows, regressions and more. Let’s dive into these common questions a bit more.
How much sleep does a 9 month old need?
A nine month old needs 10-12 hours of night sleep and 2.5-3.5 hours of daytime sleep—a total of 12-14 hours of sleep in 24 hours. Daytime sleep is split between 2 naps per day at this age. If your little one is typically on the higher end of sleep range for night, they likely will be on the lower end of sleep range for daytime sleep and vice versa. Because of this, I recommend keeping your 9 month old’s daytime sleep to a max of 3 hours to keep nights looking great.
What is a sleep schedule for a 9 month old?
Here is a sample sleep and feeding schedule for your 9 month old baby. Remember, this can vary per child and per day depending on length of naps, your plans for the day, etc. If you’d rather go off of time awake between sleeps, see the recommend wake windows for a 9 month old below.
How long can a 9 month old stay awake?
At 9 months of age, a wake window should be between 2.5-3.5 hours. Throughout infancy, you will notice a shorter wake window in the morning followed by longer wake windows throughout the day, with the longest wake window between last nap and bedtime. An example of what this looks like for a 9 month old:
AM wake up time to first nap of the day: ~2.5-3 hours
First nap to second nap: ~3-3.25 hours
Second nap to bedtime: ~3-3.5 hours
What time do most 9 month olds wake up?
Most 9-month-olds wake between 6:00 and 7:00 AM. Certainly this can vary between child and what works best for a family’s routine.
How many times should a 9 month old wake up at night?
The short answer: zero. A nine month old should be able to sleep 10-12 hours per night without a feed. If your nine month old is suddenly waking up in the middle of the night, you want to rule out physical challenges such as illness or teething. If these check out, this could be due to the 9-month sleep regression. This typically lasts a few weeks (or less) and is most often due to developmental milestones. Read more about the 9 month sleep regression causes and how to navigate it, here.
If your 9 month old has been waking in the middle of the night continuously for weeks or maybe months, it could be because their schedule needs tweaked or they lack independent sleep skills. Wondering how to get your baby to master independent sleep skills and sleep through the night consistently? Enter -> your personalized sleep coach. Dovely Dreams provides 1-on-1 sleep coaching customized to meet your child’s temperament, your parenting style, and your family’s specific goals. We work together to meet one common goal, get your baby sleeping through the night consistently so YOU can sleep through the night again too!
Ready to be a well rested mama? Start with a sleep evaluation call here to see how we make this happen. Your baby can sleep through the night just within the first few nights of working together–whoa, that really is changing lives one sleep at a time!
Wishing everyone more “Dovely” Dreams!
About Kendra..
Kendra Dove is happily married to the love of her life for the past 10 years and is the mother of 2 amazing boys. She is an Indianapolis-based sleep consultant and primary care trained physician assistant. She has helped countless families, both locally and all over the US, get restful nights sleep. She loves sharing her sleep knowledge and expertise and is passionate about identifying each family’s sleep struggles and deeply understanding their needs to reach success!