Sleeping Hours - what's the norm/average??

I have three 'expert written' (lol) books about how much a baby should be sleeping at night at certain ages, etc. All three say something different

So, I'm looking for an 'average' and what the norm is for most people and figured I would ask here as you are all real people and not statistics from some far off land

Julian will be nine weeks old on Monday. So, he goes down around 8:45pm - 9pm the latest, poor kid hits the wall. Then, he wakes up at 4:30am for a change and feed. He usually is back asleep before his bottle is done. Back to bed until around 8am - sometimes 8:30/8:45 if he's extra pooped. We are very happy with this - he's happy, content and all is good.

DH wants to enact the next phase of the sleep/feed schedule according to '12 Hours Sleep by 12 Weeks' which so far has been a fantastic book and has worked well. We followed it since day one and Julian has slept the same, like I described above, since the beginning. Only difference is that one wake at night went from 2am at first to 3 and then 3:30 and now we are 4:30 bc the book is walking us through how to push it back further and further until it becomes is 8:30 feed and he is sleeping through the night completely. Cool process, honestly.

So, if you have a baby around 7/8/9 weeks OR if you remember when your baby was this age -- what was your experience at night? Waking? Sleeping from what time until what time? I'm really trying to gauge if DS is average and where he's supposed to be at this time. This plan of phasing out that night feed should be done by 11/12 weeks.

Thanks so much!! We are first timers - hoping we are doing this right

Re: Sleeping Hours - what's the norm/average??

I never followed anything specific to get them to sleep, I just followed their lead. Luckily, both of my kids were good sleepers from the get go but every baby will be different. I think your DS is sleeping a great stretch for his age. Here's what my kids did.

DD - 8 weeks old - Slept from about 10'ish to 9'ish am Then at 12 weeks she went from 8pm to 8am. She's 5yo now and still has that exact schedule only some days, if she doesn't have school, she will sleep later.

DS - He only ever woke up once from NB stage on and then he would eat and pass right back out. By 8 weeks he was in bed asleep by 8pm and slept until 6:30 - 7am. He's now almost 8 months old and he is still on that same schedule. Occasionally he'll sleep until 7:30 but that's rare.

No matter what, both kids are ALWAYS in bed ASLEEP by 8pm. I'm a total stickler for bedtime. I need time for myself and my DH at the end of the day.

Re: Sleeping Hours - what's the norm/average??

I think your DS is doing extremely well with sleeping! Well, compared to mine anyway (he is 13 weeks tomorrow)! At 7-8 weeks he was still a disaster & would scream all night... then around 9 weeks it was like a switch went off & he started sleeping at night, yay! Since then, he's been pretty regular... falls asleep for the night around 11-12 (would love for it to be earlier but he's too wide awake before this), then he usually sleeps pretty much straight until about 6-7 am. Then he screams for food, eats & passes out shortly afterward until about 10 am. He naps here & there throughout the day, sometimes only half hour at a time, other times 2-3 hours at a time. I wish my DS would sleep for 12 hours straight, or even 8 would be amazing! I think I have a light sleeper though, so he's easily startled & wakes up, also he gets too hungry to go that long without eating (I think the longest he's ever made it between bottles is maybe 8 hours). Not sure what I can do about that.

Sleeping Hours - what's the norm/average??

I have two suggestion-

First, start an earlier bedtime now. Follow the natural rythms and use them. I would aim for bed by 7:30.

Second, I think it's pretty unrealistic to expect a 9 week old baby to sleep 12 hours without a feeding. Especially if you are bf, it's a great way to kill your supply. If you ff you might be able to get away with it more by topping them off.

Around that age, my ds could do 6-8 hour stretch. So instead of letting him sleep from bedtime until he woke in the middle of the night, I would go in his room right before I went to bed and did a dream feed. Didn't wake him, just popped it in and he ate and stayed asleep. You can do this either be or ff and it shifts the long stretch so the sleep stay 11-5 instead of 8-2.

Sleeping Hours - what's the norm/average??

IMO at that age you take what you can get.

Re: Sleeping Hours - what's the norm/average??

It sounds like things are going pretty well so far!

My DS started STTN at 9 weeks and went 10 hours consistently beginning then and to this day (13 months). I agree with the PP that much longer night sleep might affect your milk supply...I didn't wake to pump and mine dwindled, but everyone is different.

I also agree about trying for an earlier bedtime routine now...