Early morning/ late night wakenings

[Roisin86]

Hello
My daughter is 10 months old, but this has been going on for months!
She usually wakes at around 4 or 5am and will not go back to sleep.
(sometimes as early as 3am)
We have tried treating it as a night waking where we soothe and put back in cot, this can and has gone on for hours usually with her getting more and more hysterical until brought downstairs.
Often she will fall asleep on me or my husbands arms but wakes as soon as we lay her back in cot. She becomes so upset. She doesn't take a dummy.
I have started breastfeeding her in the bed with me to try and stall getting up so early but its uncomfortable for me and sore as she pulls and bites now. Id love her to doze with us in bed as we used to co sleep, but she becomes really upset if i lay her down even in our bed next to me.
Is this just something we have to ride out or am I doing something wrong?
She's healthy and crawling and eating well.
Her morning nap is 8.30am which I'm going to try to move forward to 9.30am.
Any advise appreciated! Thanks
Roisin

[JingleJohnsJulie]

Wow that is early. Have you tried the No Cry Sleep Solution? that has a good section on early wakings.

[Roisin86]

Yes! This book and Lucy Wolf sleep solutions. Both helped with what was a worse situation so at least now I'm not up 10 times a night!
Lucy wolf does conclude that some babys do just wake up early and that can't be changed so perhaps my daughter is in this category!

[JingleJohnsJulie]

If she's pulling and biting, it might be time to introduce some BFing Manners too.

Is there any chance that she's making up her calories at night too?

Are you managing to get her outside every day too? There's some evidence that exposure to sunlight can help sleep at night.

[JingleJohnsJulie]

Oh and one last thing, could she be a bit cool and that's what's waking her?

[MarahCarey]

What are the baby's day time naps like? I had a similar issue with a slightly younger baby and discovered that because he wasn't napping enough it was conversely causing him to wake early.

[Roisin86]

Im wondering if shes napping too much? Her morning nap is 8.30am which im going to try to push towards 9/9.30am (i read that 8.30 is a continuation of her night sleep as its too early)
Then she will be knackered again by 1 and usually sleeps til 2pm.
Then tired again at 4 and will nap until 5pm. She then goes to bed at 7pm ish. I know this is too close to her bedtime so want to drop this 3rd nap and try for later morning and afternoon naps. What you think?

[JingleJohnsJulie]

Yes, I'd drop the third nap too. She might be a bit of a horror whilst she gets used to the new regime but really most babies are on 2 naps at this age.

Once you've got her used to two naps you can start gently moving the first nap to a later time

[JingleJohnsJulie]

Or you could just do it the other way around by moving the first nap to 9.30 and then dropping the third nap.

[Roisin86]

Yea definitely need to do this! Thanks for your advice xx

[JingleJohnsJulie]

Good luck and let us know how you get on