9 month old babies need an average of 11-12 hours of sleep at night and 2-3 hours of sleep during the day at nap time. Most 9 month olds are sleeping through the night but if your baby is not, we provide tips below. This article outlines sample 9-month-old baby sleep and feeding schedules, including milk feedings (for breastfeeding and formula-feeding babies!) solids, naps, and nighttime sleep. As a sleep consultant of 15+ years, I’m also sharing typical sleep habits to expect. Or, you can skip to the schedule if you prefer.
9 Month Old’s Sleep Habits and Development
At this age, most 9-month-olds are sleeping through the night without a feeding and take two naps during the day.
However, some babies, in my experience, do better with one feeding after 4 or 5 a.m., and will then sleep longer than if they don’t eat. Otherwise, babies are more often going to wake up too early for the day.
I would need to know your specific situation to make a recommendation, as all babies are unique, but by this age, I would not expect more than one feeding, typically, if any at all.
Your 9-month-old should be taking 2 naps per day for a total of about 2-3 hours per day plus 11-12 hours at night. If you’re having trouble with naps, you might be interested in helping your baby nap.
How Many Naps for an 9 Month Old?
Most 9 month old babies take 2 naps each day that total 2 to 3 hours. Each nap is typically at least an hour long. Babies this age stay awake and have wake windows between 2 and 3 hours at a time, on average, but up to 4 hours before bedtime. Most babies drop the third nap by 9 months old.
If your 9-month-old is still taking three naps and sleeping well then you probably don’t have to worry. But, if you are having sleep problems such as isomnia or split night, you may want to simply transition to two naps. Even when babies happily take three naps, this is a sign they are napping for too many sleep periods during the day even if the total sleep isn’t “too much.”
Wake Windows for 9 Month Olds
The typical wake windows for a 9-month-old are 2-4 hours with the first wake window being one of the shortest. Usually, that first wake window is just 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Most 9-month-olds have dropped their third nap (or will very soon) and the last wake window is often 3 1/2 to 4 hours long.
If your baby is a rare baby who takes two 2-hour naps, you might find they only have a 2-hour morning wake window and sleep just 10 to 10 1/2 hours at night which is just fine if they seem to be happy and thriving.
9 Month Old Feeding
All babies vary, but here are a couple of sample sleep and feeding schedules you can use to make your own for your unique 9 month old baby. Be aware that breast milk and/or formula should be the primary nutrition for the first year, and solids come second.
Below are the average amounts we expect at this age but keep in mind that all babies have a unique appetite.
Average Milk and Solid Amounts Per Day for a 9 Month Old:
- At least 3-4 nursing sessions per day or 26-32 ounces formula or combination of both
- 2 servings (1 serving = 1-2 Tablespoons dry) baby cereal
- 1-2 servings grain (1 serving = 1/2 slice bread, 2 crackers, 1/2 cup Cheerios, or 1/2 cup whole grain pasta)
- 2 servings (1 serving = 2-4 Tablespoons) fruit
- 2 servings (1 serving = 2-4 Tablespoons) vegetable
- 2-3 servings (1 serving = 1-2 Tablespoons) protein
- 1 serving Dairy (1 serving = 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/3 cup cottage cheese or 1 oz grated cheese)
- You can also offer cooked egg yolk (but possibly no egg whites until 12 months old due to allergens — check with your doctor)
For more information on starting your baby on solid food, we have a series of blog posts dedicated to the subject. We include recommendations about how and when to start solids, as well as helpful information on food allergies, recommended products, baby-friendly recipes, and more.
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Sample 9 Month Old Schedules With Feedings
This first sample schedule is what I call a “staggered” approach. My first son did better nursing fully and then had solids a bit in between nursing sessions. He was a little hungry but not famished. He just didn’t do well with stopping nursing mid-way to eat solids.
Sample 9 Month Old Schedule — Staggered Approach
| 7 Month Old Sleep Schedule With Feedings | |
|---|---|
| Time | Activity |
| 7:00 AM | Wake and Milk |
| 9:00 AM | Breakfast |
| 9:30/10:00 AM | Morning Nap (at least one hour long) |
| 11:00 AM | Milk (upon waking) |
| 1:00 PM | Lunch |
| 2:00 PM | Afternoon Nap (at least one hour long) |
| 3:00 PM | Milk + Snack (possibly) |
| 5:00 PM | Dinner |
| 6:30 PM | Begin your bedtime routine |
| 7:00 PM | Milk and Bedtime (goal to be asleep by this time) |
If your baby doesn’t mind a more “consolidated” approach to eating, like my second son, here is another type of schedule:
Sample 9 Month Old Schedule — Consolidated Feeding Approach
| 7 Month Old Sleep Schedule With Feedings | |
|---|---|
| Time | Activity |
| 7:00 AM | Wake |
| 7:30 AM | 1/2 Milk Feeding, then Breakfast, then offer the other 1/2 Milk |
| 9:30/10:00 AM | Morning Nap (at least one hour long) |
| 11:30 AM | 1/2 Milk Feeding, then Lunch, then offer the other 1/2 Milk |
| 2:00 PM | Afternoon Nap (at least one hour long) |
| 3:00 PM | Milk + Snack (possibly) |
| 5:00 PM | Dinner + 1/2 Milk Feeding |
| 6:30 PM | Begin your bedtime routine |
| 7:00 PM | Milk and Bedtime (goal to be asleep by this time) |
Notes: If your baby is uninterested in the second half of the milk feeding, consider decreasing the amount of solid food. In addition, when giving any feedings during your bedtime routine, be careful not to create sleep associations.
Want more information about how to help your 9 month old sleep well? Check out our detailed case study about Carrie, Ben, Elliot, and Andrew.
Read how Carrie and Ben helped 8-month-old Elliot learn to sleep longer stretches at night (and, eventually, to sleep through the night completely!) and take better naps – and how they helped to change those sleep associations that were keeping Elliot awake!
Just join our VIP Members Area, and access the case study instantly. And that’s not all – our VIP Members Area is packed with additional premium content and resources: e-Books, assessments, more case studies, peer support, and more. It actually costs less to join than to buy products separately!
Looking for more sample 9-month schedules?
We have over 40 sample schedules for all ages in our e-Book, Mastering Naps and Schedules. Banish naptime battles and regain control of your day (and your sanity) starting today!
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- The 8/9/10 Month Sleep Regression Explained
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- Custom Schedule Maker (for VIP members)
- Mastering Naps and Schedules (VIP Members Area digital e-Book)
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- 8 Month Baby Sleep Coaching Case Study (VIP Members Area case study)
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10 Month Old Baby Feeding and Sleep Schedule: With Milk, Solid Food, Naps, and Nighttime Sleep – For Breastfeeding and Formula-Feeding Infants
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My daughter is almost 10 months old and I think she associates formula feeding with sleep. I cant get her to nap without having a bottle.
Her routine is
7am awake and bottle
9am breakfast
11am bottle and nap
1pm lunch
3pm bottle and nap
5pm evening meal
Bedtime routine
7pm bottle and sleep (on a good day)
Can I do anything to change my routine so that she does not rely on a bottle to nap?
She sleeps well during the night, sometimes waking before 1am for dummy as teething but this is manageable for us.
Thank you
@Jade – Thank you for reading and for sharing with us. Sleep associations like needing to feed in order to be able to sleep are very, very common and almost happens naturally as many of us like the idea of feeding before sleep to keep those little tummies full throughout sleep. To help ease your way into breaking her from this association, you could work to gradually remove the bottle from directly before sleep time by introducing other tasks between the bottle and sleep (diaper change, story, etc.). We have dozens of articles available on the site for ways to get started and get through sleep coaching and various ways to decide on a method that I know will be helpful to you. Here’s one that can get you started: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/sleep-training-5-easy-ways-to-start/ Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you need or would like more support, Jade. Hang in there!
Having such a hard time with our 9 month olds night times at present
Current schedule
6.30-7 up breastfeed
8am breakfast
9.30-10am breastfeed and nap until
11.30 -12
12 breastfeed
1.30 lunch
2.30 breastfeed and nap
5pm wake and bf
5.30 dinner
6.30 bath bed by 7.30
9pm screaming awake won’t settle unless bf
Have tried the pick up put down method but he does not calm down and screams until he is choking. This goes on every two-3 hours and has done since he was born. Also involving at least two nappy changes as he gets very wet.
He shares a room with our 3 yr old who luckily sleeps through his non stop waking so far.
My partner has to get up at 4am for work so I’m mindful of trying to keep him quiet and invariably he ends up in bed with us at 3am so I don’t have to keep walking the landing in the dark.
He has had reflux and constant colds, also has a soother but only to go to sleep with
Any advice would be greatly received we don’t have the money for a package.
Hi @Elizabeth –
Thank you for writing us today and I am sorry to hear about your baby’s sleep issues and his crying before bed and night wakings! It sounds like he needs some help learning how to fall asleep on his own, and the pick-up-put down method does not work for some babies. Some babies get “angry” and cry more! You may want to try different ways of helping him learn to fall asleep. We have hundreds of articles on our blog that can help you learn more, and a great search bar so that you can search our site for specific help! We help families with these same issues, and we’d love to help you too if things do not smooth out!
For families on a tight budget, our biggest bang for the buck is our Members Area. Our Members Area gives you unlimited access to all of our e-Books as well as all tele-seminar recordings, case studies, and do-it-yourself tutorials! My favorite feature is the access to a “members only” expert chat. During the expert chats, one of our expert sleep consultants will answer your specific questions about your little guy’s sleep. You can read more about the Member’s area and sign up from here:
https://www.babysleepsite.com/diy/
If you find that you need affordable sleep help that is more customized than what you will find in a book or an article, and you feel confident about implementing the plan at home without a consultant’s help, you will definitely want to check out our Express Sleep Plan. Simply fill out a brief survey, hit the Submit button, and your plan will be ready instantly – no waiting! You can learn more about the Express Sleep Plan here:
https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/#esp
Hang in there Elizabeth!!
This entire site is so helpful!!! Thanks!
My son just turn 9 month two days ago hes the best baby he sleep all night and he wake up around 8 am hes a very happy baby at the beginning he did have a few night with trouble but after that hes doing just find i want to see what kind of solid food will be good and nutrient for him he eat mash potato and fruits but i will like to know about meats and vegetables
Hi Isa,
Thank you for commenting on The Baby Sleep Site! I’m so glad to hear your son is sleeping so well for you 🙂 We mostly work with baby sleep an would refer you to your pediatrician for questions about feeding. We do have a chart on when to introduce certain kinds of solids, like meat, if that would be helpful: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-solids-how/solid-food-feeding-schedule/
Good luck!
My 9 month old is a terrible sleeper at night. He has always been a late sleeper. (Sleeping at 2 am was normal for him at 3 months because of mine and my husbands schedules) His typical schedule as of lately has been sleeping at 730/8 AM until about 6 PM, nap at 730 PM until 1030 PM, another nap at 12 Am until 2ish AM and then awake until he goes back to sleep again. Sometimes taking another nap between 2 and 4 AM. His sleep is very backwards. He’s up at night and sleeps during the day. I have tried everything to change it but nothing has helped. What do I do?
Hi @Princess – Thank you for writing, and I am sorry that you are struggling with your 9 month old’s schedule! This schedule is likely very different than the one that you want him to have, and because you’ve already tried changing this on your own, and since you want to flip the schedule around completely, I think it would be a good idea to get one on one help from a Sleep Consultant here to help you through this in a way that will disrupt all of your sleep the least! She can help you with specific plans that you can follow, and help all along the way too!
You can read about all of our sleep consultation packages and purchase directly online here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/
I hope that we can have the opportunity to help your family sleep! Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
Hi Rabiya here.
My son is 9 months and 15 days old. He wakeup 7.30 am have breastfeed and sleeps again then at 8.30 or 9 am wakes up has his breakfast and plays for while. Later on sleeps at 10.30 for about 15 to 20 mins. Then sleeps at 1 pm for again 10 to 20 mins. He takes 2 or 3 naps a day but all are about 1 hour a day. And sleeps at 10 pm or 11 pm at night. I am so worried about his sleeping routine. Please guide me what to do. Our days are long then uk and usa.
Hope I’ll get a guide for my lil one
Hi @Rabiya – Thank you for writing to us. I’m sorry to hear your family is not sleeping well! It does sounds like your little guy may need a bit more sleep, and we’d love to help!
Based on what you have shared and wanting a guide just for you, I would recommend that you consider our Express Sleep Plan. Our Express Sleep Plan provides custom sleep – instantly. Once you purchase an Express Sleep Plan, you will take a brief survey and provide easy information about your son, and your current sleep issues. Then, once you hit the ‘Submit’ button, your plan will be ready instantly – and your Plan will include a schedule just for you! You will be able to read the plan immediately, and start putting the strategies to work. You can learn more about the Express Sleep Plan here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/express-sleep-plan/
Hang in there Rabiya!
So my 8-9 month old we are having problems with naps he has a schedual very similer to your first list but he will cry for like 20-30 mins before finally falling asleep for his naps and only sleep like 20-30 mins twice a day. How do I get him to sleep longer. If I sleep with him he will sleep for 1.5 hrs I just can’t get him to in his crib ?
Hi Miranda,
Thank you for using The Baby Sleep Site as a resource! I’m sorry to hear you’re struggling with naps. We do have an article on lengthening naps here that I hope will help: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-naps-2/short-baby-naps-explained/
And an article on transitioning from co-sleeping into the crib here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-training/co-sleeping-transition-how-to/
I hope these will help you, but please get in touch if you need further assistance. Good luck!
My daughter will only nap during the day for 30 minutes at a time. She also wakes up 30 minutes after I have put her to bed for more comfort feeding. She is BF and has always refused a bottle. She is then awake 4-5 times during the night. Each time she wakes she wants to feed back to sleep again. How will I break this cycle? And how do I get her to nap for longer than 30 minutes?
Hi @Trudy Burns, thanks for writing to us. I am sorry you’ve been struggling so much with your daughter’s sleep. Since there are several things going on I personally would focus on one area (whichever seems more beneficial first – perhaps nights so you can at least get some sleep too) and then once you’ve got that down, start focusing on the next. Here is a link to download a free guide with tips to help your baby sleep through the night: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-through-night-free-ebook/
Pay attention to the sleep associations section as I am going to guess that’s a big factor at play here (I went through this with my son as well, who I also EBF). If you find you need more help, please know we are here! We have a TON of resources from exclusives articles and ebooks that go more in-depth than our free guides and articles, all the way to one-on-one personalized consulting with a sleep consultant and lots of stuff in between. If you want more information on any of our additional resources and services, please email us directly anytime at [email protected] and we can help you more from there. Hang in there!
Hi. I have a 9 months old baby boy that gives me so much trouble with his sleeping! He takes nap very well during the day! Will say the total of 4 hours nap ! He goes to bed a 10 pm but he doesnt sleep well! He get up every 45 min to 1 hour and crying! I really so t know what to do with this situation!
@Susan – thank you for writing to us. I’m so sorry to hear your 9 month old has been giving you so much trouble! We actually have a free guide with tips to help your baby sleep through the night, so be sure to sign up to download it here: https://www.babysleepsite.com/sleep-through-night-free-ebook/ Hopefully the guide gives you some insight to what could be the cause and an idea of where to start. If you need more help or feel overwhelmed of what to do from there, let us know! We have an incredible team of sleep consultants that can walk through this with you so that you can all start getting some much needed sleep. Here is a link to read about our personalized consulting options: https://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-toddler-sleep-consulting-services/
If you have any questions about that or the other resources we have available (that don’t go as in depth as a Personalized Package would) then we would be happy to explain those as well. You can contact us directly anytime at [email protected]
Hang in there!
My 9month old sleeps 7pm-7am however he always fights me on naps. I tried warily (8:30) for the first nap he will just cry and cry I try later (9:30/10) he cries. He has 4 bottles a day and solids 3 times a day but his naps the last month have been horrible. He is clearly tired but nothing I do will help him nap
Hi @Elyse – Thank you for writing to us! I am sorry to hear about your 9 month old’s sleep issues with naps recently, but please know that you are not alone! Don’t give up and keep on offering those naps, especially if he skips one! You may want to consider our eBook: Mastering Naps and Schedules. This book is perfect for helping you teach your child healthy napping habits.
If you buy the ebook, you also have the option to purchase the book along with an Express Sleep Plan. The Express Plan is great for families that want sleep help that is more customized than what you will find in a book or an article, and feel confident about implementing the plan at home without a consultant’s help. Simply fill out a brief survey, hit the Submit button, and your Express Sleep Plan will be ready instantly – no waiting!
You can read more about the Mastering Naps and Schedules Ebook packages here:
https://www.babysleepsite.com/mastering-naps?utm_source=crs&utm_medium=desk
I hope that things smooth out soon! Please let us know if you have any questions!
Help! My 9 month old daughter only sleeps 3-5 hours and wakes up. I give her a bottle and she sleeps 2-3 more hours and then shes up for about 4 hours then takes a morning nap that is 1-2 hours. I need some solid sleep! My first child slept around 12 hours straight very early.
@Kylie – Thank you for sharing with us – isn’t it crazy how different one child’s sleep can be from the other! Mind boggling and frustrating at times, we know! You don’t give many details on how your little girl falls asleep or how long this has been going on. Perhaps check out this article on helping your 9 month old sleep better – some tips may be useful to you: https://www.babysleepsite.com/how-to-get-my-baby-to-sleep/how-to-get-my-9-or-10-month-old-to-sleep/ Hang in there!