13 month old baby mornings getting earlier.

[Oan32]

Sorry if this doesn't make sense as I am extremely sleep deprived. Baby has always been a pretty bad sleeper. She is still being breastfed but I go back to work soon and really want to be able to function and not be surviving on 3 hours of broken sleep a night. She currently wakes around 3 times during the night and then wakes at around 5/5.30am.

I feel like I have tried everything. Less sleep during day, more sleep during day, earlier/later bedtimes, room kept dark, white noise playing but she wants to wake around 5am most mornings. I think she is teething as getting upper front teeth and also seems to be going another regression (the joys of babies first few years). I am feeling really down atm as just not getting a break. Has anyone any advice on how to stop these early mornings???. I contact nap with her during day and she sleeps in her cot at night (has never been able to cosleep very long as she likes to sleep on my chest). I feel like im prisoner to her naps during the day and then up all night still breastfeeding her like a newborn. I have wanted to stop the feeds but always seems really harsh when shes been teething,unwell or going through regressions. Always seems to be something. Can anyone help with some advice? I need to get some sleep at night and go back to work in around 3 weeks time.

I'm really sorry but this is just parenting. You do get used to the early mornings, and once you are back at work they are helpful as you get lots done before work. I have an older primary child who still has me up at 5 most mornings.

I agree with this. It is hard OP but it's how it is.

The 5am start would be easier if she wasn't waking three times a night. You need to tackle this.

I remember this with my now 5yo. She still wakes at 5am but doesn’t wake through the night so it’s much easier.
In the end I had to start cutting down the night wake ups, it really wasn’t easy as I wasn’t comfortable with cry it out or anything so I had to really slowly cut feeds and replace them with cuddles to sleep, then when she was happy with no feeds I changed from cuddles to sitting next to her stroking her hair, then I’d sit on the edge of the bed etc… I basically just slowly worked my way out of the room and by the end she didn’t need anything to resettle and would either just sleep through or would wake and naturally go back to sleep happily!
I appreciate that doesn’t help right now, all in all it probably took about a month but I’m so glad I did it in the long run!

How is her food intake during the day? If she is not hungry at night (and there is no reason why she should be at 13 months old) then she is waking out of habit or for you to help her resettle.

You can do gentle sleep training to cut the night waking but as PPs have said, some children are just early wakes and that may be a harder nut to crack.

How old is she? What helped me was:

1. night weaning.
2. treating any wake up before 7am as a night wake up and settling back down accordingly.

Good luck, sleep deprivation is awful!

The issue isn't so much the 5am waking (annoying as it is) as what happens before 5am that you're only getting 3 broken hours before.

My baby is four months old, but I already have a firm rule of "don't try anything new at night" - so I'd be working on your baby's ability to do longer stretches in the cot during the day.

My baby goes down for his last nap in his cot, and I'm going to add in more during the day one at a time. So far it's helped him drop one night waking of the four month regression.

The secret reality is that many very young children wake early…I’ve had six and the two worst were 4.30am every day for months and months. The others around 5.15. A good bedtime routine in the evening and patience and sleep whenever you can - I used to often go to bed in the evening at the same time as the kids even though I really don’t want to; it’s exhausting.

i would tackle the night wake ups. Getting her to sleep through will make a massive difference to you.
My youngest is very similar age and was unwell last week so we had a week of night time wake ups. Once he was feeling better and he slept through until 6.30. I was like a new woman the next day.
I am naturally a night owl and early starts don’t suit me but I cope better when there is no night time wake ups.

If you don't want to go down a sleep training route I'd recommend Lyndsey Hookway on Instagram for info/ideas on sleep.

I would look at food intake. At 13 months she shouldn't need to be fed overnight. She is likely doing it out of habit and you are her sleep association to get back to sleep. Look into night weaning, think they recommend dropping one feed at a time. A great tip I got was a high protein dessert after dinner like Greek yogurt.

For 5am wakes, we treated them like they were 1am wakes. We just didn't get her up. We also had to do loads of activity time during the day as realized of they spent more time in pram rather than being active she didn't sleep as well.

Do some research on what resettling strategies you are comfortable with/suit your babies temperament.

I think her eating during day is pretty good. She tends to struggle with some foods due to still not having many teeth. I have tried to up the food during day but doesnt seem to make much difference. I am aware it is mostly habit wakes but she then seems starving while feeding so makes me fee guilty trying to deny her. I done the first night after nearly 13 months of no feeds last night. She cried and struggled for 3 hours so hoping it will pay off as it was very very difficult and we are all very tired today. I have also tried the ferber method but tbh it was not for us as I felt she just cried herself to sleep. She has been getting abit better at self soothing herself so hoping it improves with age.

Thanks for the advice I think It will help trying to change my mind set and as hard as it is to just assume this is life now and I have a early riser.

5?!

My 11month old is the same. 6am then 5am now he stirs at 4am! I only go through if he cries, 3 times out of 4 he just chats to himself and rolls around until he drops off again. But I can’t get back to sleep and holy moly I’m tired. He also has a cold so is up every hour or two coughing and sneezing. Send help!

What time does she nap, go to bed at night etc? I don’t agree that 5am wake ups are just part of parenting. I’ve got 3 and they’ve all gone through a short period of early wakings but it doesn’t last long. I treat any wake up before 7 like it’s night time still, no talking, keep it dark etc. bring them into my bed if need be, but never get up and go downstairs! Look at how much sleep they get and need. My toddler still naps 2 hours and needs around 11 hours over night, so she normally sleeps 8/830pm-730am ish.

The not being to sleep even when they are is awful. Its like there is no off switch.

Night wean her now, she doesn't need feeding during the night and you are making things needlessly hard for yourself. It will take a few hard nights and she will sleep better. If you don't take the initiative she may well be still feeding several times a night until she's 2.5 or older.

Secondly, many babies can't sleep longer than 10 hours per night. If you want her to sleep until 7 try putting her to bed at 9. You will have to persevere with this for at least 2 weeks or more.

Thirdly try and get her sleeping in the cot for day naps, presumably she's on 2 naps a day now but should soon drop to one and that should make life easier for you.

This phase is so hard and it can be hard to see your way out of it but you can make changes, you need to be consistent and accept some crying for a few days.

The 5am starts can be really hard to crack but at least you should feel better if you are not up feeding all night.

I have started night weening as of last night . From she was born I tried to have a good routine with sleep and naps but over time things have caused problems with that. I followed huckleberry for a long time and also used nap guides for her age and wake windows. She used to sleep quite well but then 4 months came and she started sleeping awful. I followed many different advice and tried lots of different things but the early mornings seem to stick regardless. I have recently tried to make bedtime around 7.30/8. She also went through a awful month of split nights so depending on how long she was up during the night sometimes wide awake for 2+ hours. She then sometimes slept later than 5am but mostly was still up. She never seems to keep anything consistent but the early mornings. I have went through alot of challenges with her sleep and have recently moved her into her own room and now hoping the stopping the night feeding well help.

I went through stages of trying desperately to get her in her cot for naps. Very few times did she sleep for more than 15 or 30mins at most and just found it made things worse at the time.

It hasn't helped tbh that I dont have any help or support here. My family is mostly in Northern ireland and I live in England. I have been to and from many times over the last year to stay with my mum and so find the travel has also knocked her off.

I have tried the treating it like its a nighttime wake but then it can go on for more than a hour trying so I then fear it will cause problems for naps that day if she goes back to sleep say for 2 hours at 6.30. If that makes sense. She does be fully awake and ready for the day.

my DC1 woke up a lot at night until I night weaned - with a bit of crying. Being fed to sleep was all they knew and so every slight wake resulted in need for a feed. After stopping night feeds, they started mostly sleeping through