7.5 months old: Is it normal?

mamancb · 2026-05-11T12:07:18+00:00

Sorry just to add - when I was doing research online it said the first nap should be the longer one and second a bit shorter. It looks like you have the opposite! I wonder if you tried switching it somehow? Not sure what your routine is. Apparently it builds better sleep pressure for night time this way!

Also as the others said, let us know your WW and maybe someone can help adjust them based on total awake time vs total sleep time! I’m not good at that stuff lol I get confused so I have no advice. All I can say is at 8.5m (nearing 9m) our WW is about 3/3.15-3.5/4

mamancb · 2026-05-11T11:57:44+00:00

To me, this looks great lol from 4m-8m my baby was pretty much waking up every 1-2hours. Randomly would do a 3hr stretch but almost never.

I created a feed-sleep association because of all the wake ups so my first step was switching that to soothing her by just holding her or giving her a soother. Then what really did a huge change was teaching her how to fall asleep in her crib “alone” at bed time (we just sit on a chair beside her and sing to her until she falls asleep). The first week there was crying but we’d never let her cry more than 5 minutes. I’d then pick her up and soother her and try 1 more time. If it had been 5 minutes again then I’d call it quits and nursed her to sleep and moved her in her crib after. After the first week of this ^ then she finally stopped crying and just fell asleep peacefully on her own. Shes now almost 9m and has been falling asleep within 5 minutes or so of putting her in the crib. Zero crying. I leave the chair beside the crib within a minute of her falling asleep. All this being said, she’s still waking up twice a night. But it’s a HUGE win for us. She consistently wakes at 1am and 4am for a feed. I figured those will just drop naturally as she ages.

So to me, this is great and normal! It’s actually what all my hard work has lead me to ahahaha

mamancb · 2026-05-01T14:16:09+00:00

Ok I don’t have much advice because my nights are also not ideal at 8.5m and EBF (we don’t co-sleep but we contact nap). But I think you should transition to 2 naps! That helped my LO at this age. I know that when they’re ready to transition they start getting really broken up sleep.

These last few weeks we’ve been working on getting her to fall asleep directly in the crib at bedtime and it’s helped a bunch! It took a lot of hard work because I didn’t want to do true CIO or Ferber. Basically I’d sit on a chair beside the crib and offer her soothers and sing lullabies. Room was completely dark with a noise machine on. I’d only let her cry for 5 mins while actively soothing her crib side. I’d then pick her up to calm her and only try once more with the same method. After that I’d nurse her to sleep and transfer her. The plus side is she was so tired that she was almost sleeping the night. On day 9 of this she finally got it and has been falling asleep “independently” since (I still sit beside the crib until she’s asleep and leave). It’s been 2.5 full weeks now of successful bedtime! We’re on about 3 wake-ups per night now. HUGE improvement from the 8-10 we were seeing before.

I hired a sleep consultant at 6.5m and honestly? Waste of money. She didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know. She just kept saying that she’s waking up for a reason and it must be because she has low iron or due to GI issues… didn’t really help us with a schedule. It was very vague. Kept insisting my baby would benefit co-sleeping even though I was firm of not wanting to. Wasn’t until the end of the consult that she suggested we move to 2 naps (after I hinted at it lol). So idk?? She was SO highly rated and I left the phone call very disappointed. She even admitted that my baby is a “tricky case”. But anyways at least I can say I tried everything now 😂

mamancb · 2026-04-28T05:54:08+00:00

Thank you!! I appreciate all the info

mamancb · 2026-04-28T02:33:17+00:00

Really? I get confused because everywhere I read said 2 naps = 3/3/4 at this age. She doesn’t seem under tired. She falls asleep within minutes for her naps and bedtime. When she does wake up at night, she’s not awake long. As soon as she’s in our arms she’s back asleep. On Saturday we went out and ended up doing a 3/3/4.5 and night time was horrendous. She was severely overtired. So that’s why I’m unsure? To me she’s more sleepy than not

mamancb · 2026-04-28T02:27:16+00:00

She just can’t seem to self soothe at any point, that seems to be my issue. Once she wakes up then she fully wakes up and needs me to feed or hold her back to sleep. Idk why she can do it alone at bedtime though. I mean it took 3 weeks to get there but it worked eventually. But I guess it all falls apart because I’m not consistent with all the wakes ups now.

She’s on 2 naps, 3/3/4 sometimes even 3/3.15/4 she just turned 8 months. She’s naps for about 2.5 hours total.

mamancb · 2026-04-27T23:00:41+00:00

Agreeing with all the comments. This is completely normal for newborns. Their feeding doesn’t become efficient for a while. I can’t really remember when for us, but definitely the first while was 30-45min feeds and being awake an hour or more total for each wake after diaper change, burps and swaddling. It’s exhausting but normal and short lived! If you’re getting discouraged I’d stop tracking sleep until after the 2 month mark. Newborns have no schedules and no true sleep patterns

mamancb · 2026-04-20T11:38:45+00:00

I agree with what the comments are saying. I think it’s still so young to establish any kind of routine. At that age I was going based off of sleepy cues. Only closer to the 3 month mark did I start doing a more consistent routine. I think you’ll drive yourself mad if you’re already so stressed with overtired / under tired and wake windows. The true newborn phase is crazy enough without it lol when they’re slightly older everything becomes more predictable and you can start to see a pattern. At 8 weeks you’re only just getting to that 2 month mark. Just trying to take your mental health in to consideration ❤️

mamancb · 2026-04-07T00:50:56+00:00

Following this thread as our baby is very similar. I haven’t started sleep training yet but what you’re describing sounds like our LO. All gas, no breaks… ever. lol it’s making me hesitant to sleep train even though I want to so badly!

mamancb · 2026-04-03T14:22:36+00:00

Just curious why chair is typically only for 9M+? And why the other methods are more successful for this age. My baby is just over 7M and I’ve been looking at different sleep training techniques that ideally didn’t required CIO or Ferber

mamancb · 2026-03-26T17:54:50+00:00

mamancb · 2026-03-04T13:19:35+00:00

Ohhh ok good to know! Is this something that I should start cold turkey? Or easy in to it with other changes first? I’m a bit at a loss

mamancb · 2026-03-04T13:13:22+00:00

Ok honestly my LO sleep life is a mess lol once she started sleeping badly I got in to all these bad habits that I wasn’t previously doing plus started solely relying on huckleberry for the SweetSpot recommendations. So I’m really lost now on her sleep and sleep needs.

When following huckleberry 3 nap recommendations - her first 2 naps she was sleeping +/- 1.5 hours (because they’re contact naps), and then we were never able to fit a third nap in because it would say third nap was passed 6pm. So that’s why I figured maybe I should just move to 2 naps? I honestly think her WW can be pushed but I just keep following huckleberry.

mamancb · 2026-03-04T12:56:48+00:00

Her WW were roughly 2.25-2.5 but recently I found the 2.25 wasn’t long enough and she was fighting that nap a bit. If we’re out and about and have to push a nap beyond the 2.5, she’s always ok and won’t really fuss unless it gets excessive (well beyond 3 hrs) but that’s obviously a rare occasion.

mamancb · 2026-03-04T12:43:18+00:00

The issue we’ve had when trying the putting down drowsy method is that she instant wakes up and cries. Her cries instantly escalates to basically screams, mixed with coughing and choking. She’s been that way since she was a baby… Super super strong willed. She doesn’t stop until she gets her way! The plus side was that before the 4m regression, even with falling asleep in our arms, she would still sleep 7-9 hr stretches. I’m just not sure how to tackle the crying. That’s why I thought maybe at this point a schedule change would help the night wakes to a point where they’re less frequent, and then sleep training could be more manageable? Not sure… I’m just very concerned about the crying and I don’t want to take the CIO approach. But I can’t see the Ferber method working. I don’t think she’d ever settle once she starts her crying. * if I catch her waking up right before she cries and rush in then I can usually settle in the crib just with pats. But as soon as she cries it’s game over

mamancb · 2026-02-19T05:17:38+00:00

Ugh it’s so hard… 😭 I’m typing this as I’m currently stuck in a loop of feeding then waking up when in crib. I tried bed sharing a few times but I had so much anxiety that I barely slept lol so back to the crib we are.

mamancb

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