8-month-old started waking really early, am I feeding her enough?

[TrixieLox]

My little girl has started waking earlier than she ever has the past 2-3 weeks (6am, sometimes 5am, when she used to sleep in until 7/7.30). And I'm wondering if it's because I'm not feeding her enough during the day? I understand lots of babies wake at this time, but she hasn't since being a newborn. This is what she eats:

Wake: 6oz bottle
45 mins later: 6-8 baby spoons of porridge
Mid-morning: 6oz bottle
Lunch: Organix rice cake starter then a sandwich made up of 2 slices of white bread with a filling like hummous + grated carrot or grated cheese + mashed tomato (I then cut this in three - she plays with it and does eat some, am wondering if enough goes in as she's feeding herself with it?) then half a Rachel's yoghurt (which is the same size as an adult yoghurt)
Mid-afternoon: 6oz bottle
Dinner: Steamed broccoli floret and steamed cauliflower floret to eat herself, then a cube of meat mixed with veg mashed, with a cube of baby pasta followed by a banana, half mashed, half whole for her to eat herself.
Before bed: A 7oz bottle

As you can see, I do a mixture of BLW and more traditional weaning. I'm thinking she might need snacks introduced mid-morning and mid-afternoon and maybe I need to up two two cubes of meat + veg in the evening?

As for whether she seems to want more, it's difficult to tell, she gets easily distracted and doesn't cry for more when I finish. She's on the 25th percentile and has stayed on there after a difficult start so a smallish baby and has never had a huge appetite.

Would really appreciate your advice!

[Alexchallex]

I had this when he was 8 months. I started feeding him his dinner late in the day, like an hour before bed. He still had his bedtime milk and took as much as usual. Sometimes if he was hungry earlier, he had his dinner early and then porridge before bed. Now I will always feed him
'Food' no more than an hour before bed.
Just so you know he was waking before 5 now it is between 6 and 7.
The food solved it immediately, or it coincidently solved itself at the same time. Good luck . Know how you feel

[Eletheomel]

It looks like you're feeding her well, but I know my friends daughter's sleep very much depended on getting enough solids in and she'd have a 'supper' late on after her bathtime from 7 months, which paid dividends (nothing worked with dS1 - he'd sleep just as badly on a full or empty stomach .

However, DS2 is 8 months and he's just started waking at 9pm for three hours (going back down about midnight) and he has never done this before, but it's been going on for the last 3 weeks (could be something to do with teething, we're not sure).

I think 8 months is maybe just that time when babies rip up the manual and do a re-write without telling us... (just praying his current phase passes soon). Good luck, hope this doesn't go on for you for too long!

[TrixieLox]

Thanks! I did wonder if it might be one of those 'just when you thought you had it all figured out, mummy...' phases! I'll try giving her something a bit stodgier closer to bed time.

[rallytog1]

I have the same problem. I've just started giving my 9mo dd a bowl of porridge about an hour before bed. Touch wood, it seems to be helping.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Could you up her protein? This may work. If you think she is genuinely hungry though I'd up her milk a bit rather than her solids.

[Cordial]

Marking my spot ,having the exact same issue with dd -she is 8 months.

She isn't hungry when she wakes,she wants to chat