...to keep my baby awake as long as possible so she doesn't wake up at 4am?

[Boomerwang]

Pretty short OP, this. She used to be in bed by 7pm but she wakes up at 4ish in the morning and won't go back to sleep after being fed. I can't just try to make her sleep again as she's usually full of wee and poo and needs to be changed.

Is it ok to put her to bed around 9pm instead, in the hope that she'll sleep til 6?

sorry, forgot to mention that she's 7 months old.

I would like ot say yes try it.

But the chances are all that will happen is that you will have a very grumpy baby who will be overtired and as a result will sleep worse than ususal.

I used to put mine to bed at 6:30/7pm and they woke at 5. If I put them to bed later they still woke at 5 but were really grumpy all day because they hadn't had enough sleep.

But it might work.

Good luck.

Ime, that doesn't work. My dd wakes up at the same time no matter how late I keep her up. I find putting her to bed earlier makes her sleep later, as long as she's not overdone it on daytime naps.

you've got nothing to lose by trying it. see what happens.

IME, it didn't matter what time my DC's went down, they still woke early. But every baby is different.

It might help if you try it for a couple of nights and then when she's waking later, push the bedtime back. If it's just a habit then that might break it.
How old is she? All three of mine went through an early waking stage and it did stop after a while. DD is doing it at the moment at half five/six ish. She does go to bed at half six though so I prefer the early mornings to a grumpy evening.

Sorry, just seen that she's 7 months. DD is just one. What do you do with her when she wakes? Try changing, feeding and putting her in your bed.

Try 7-30pm then get later and later so your building it up over the week if that makes sense
day 1. 7.30pm
day 2. 7.45pm
day 3. 8.00pm.

I don't mind early starts but we wanted quiet evenings, so do whatever is best for your family

My DS slept much worse if he was overtired by the time he got to bed. He'd have ended up a nightmare to get to sleep and then woken up every couple of hours or so.

So I hope it works, but be warned that it might not help at all!

You could try it, but it won't work

I used to bath my babies at about 10:30, last feed then bed, I never fed them in the wee small hours but every baby is different.

No reason why it wouldn't work. Mine all went to bed late at that age for that very reason. But as suggested already, make the change gradually.

What naps is she having?

I found the less daytime sleep = earlier waking.

YANBU but it never works

well she's had long naps today owing to me sleeping alongside her. it's 7.45pm and because she was starving I fed her at 7pm but she's not tired. She's currently shouting at her toys.

I'll put her to bed at 8pm and see what happens.

Thanks for the responses, btw.

well I put her to bed at 8.45pm because she didn't seem tired. Not surprised since she had a nap from 4.30pm til nearly 6pm. I don't normally let her nap that late but I didn't care today.

Good luck!

Put her to bed at the usual time but then you go to bed earlier too. Then 4am won't be so painful!

DD is 7 months old, tried that progressively over a few nights and it was a huge disaster - she was just overtired, took longer to settle and STILL woke up at stupid o'clock. In fact, the earlier she goes to bed, the better she sleeps.

Having said that, all babies are different so it might work for you. Good luck!

Good luck. Early wakers are a special kind of torture.

Bizarrely sometimes putting them down earlier can help. Or waking them up just before when they normally wake up for a change and a feed. Messes with their routine and can help shift things a bit.

she used to wake up for a feed at about 11-12, as young babies do. It made no difference to the time she woke up in the morning.

Fingers crossed though. I'm off to bed in a few minutes. I'm usually in bed by 10pm out of exhaustion and fear of the early morning but I napped with her this afternoon so I'm not so bad.

How many naps does she have and what's here total naptime? Maybe she is looking to drop a nap? Or is she working on a new skill like trying to crawl etc? Or teething?

Ps is this since starting weaning?

Worked for me! I used to keep my little boy up till about 10 when he was 3 months old.. He would then sleep till 8am. He's now 11 months and sleeps 8 till 9am

OP I could have written your post word for word three days ago, DD also 7mo and waking at 4 (or between 4am and 5am).

This has been going on since we started on solids proper. Occurred to me that she was waking at that time STARVING, so maybe she wasn't eating enough during the day? Then read something on a website saying that there is no need for a baby older than 6mo to wake in the night for food.

So, since Weds, have been getting her to eat more during the day - never stuffing her, always stopping when she says she's had enough - and so far (only been three days, but still!) she hasn't woken until 5.30am, after going to sleep at 7.30pm. So am going to keep with it and hope this sticks.

Incidentally, she eats porridge with fruit puree around 8.30am, milk around 9.30, nap 10am to 12.30pm, banana (whole thing!) with a bit of milk, nap 2.30-4pmish, rice with veggies and meat/chicken and more milk around 4.30pm, yogurt around 6pm, bath at 7pm, milk and bed.

Like I say, keeping fingers crossed!

do you have blackout blinds in her/your? room?

We would change and bottle/bf ours around midnight before we went to bed. In almost darkness. Mine didnt have teeth until almost a year though so I didnt have to worry about that.

Potbelly, that doesn't sound like much milk...?? Milk is meant to be their primary food at that age.