Or is 4am a ridiculous time to get up?

[Cinocino]

Someone tell my baby!!

A month into 4 am wakes 😩
cooing, chatting and up for the day despite about 8 hours of broken sleep max.
5am I think I could do, wakes in the night I’m prepared for but night wakings and a 3:50 start!!! I’m dead.

Shes 7 months and getting 1 or 1.5 hrs of daytime sleep top s!

Mine did this. She's 22 now. My health visitor told me it was because she was clever - I'm sure it was a sop. (She is by the way.) The only thing I can say is it will pass.
Mine didn't like going to bed either but we just persisted. I made mornings as boring as possible and eventually she got the message.

Mine did this.
He's also bright.
And still a sleepdodger at 15y.
Just traveled overnight, and hasn't slept at all - so woke up 6am Friday, went to bed 10pm Saturday.....

Very unlikely to change them by much. Making all meals and naps, along with bedtime, an hour later might help.
And VERY early nights for you to ensure you get enough sleep.

They eventually get old enough to make their own breakfast - and if you are lucky with their personality pancakes for their parents breakfast!

Similar here - not quite such an early waker but not a napper unless there was a car journey.

One obvious question - do you have good blackout curtains in her room?

Mine all did this, my 3rd especially was allergic to sleep.

It does end.....eventually. I think mine started to make it past 5am around primary age and then 6am around 8 years old.

If she's only cooing and chatting then leave her, she might settle herself down eventually. Only go to her if she does her hungry/wet nappy cry. Then a quick feed or change and back down she goes. Make it as boring and quick as possible. She will either drop this time or self soothe but you do have to be consistent.

The chatting is just to point out that she wakes ready for the day at that point rather than a hungry or comfort night wake. Leaving her results in screaming to be picked up after a few mins and no amount of feeding, changing rocking can settle her after this point in the night. Her body is very much up for the day!
This morning after 40 mins of trying to rock/ cuddle her in the dark I offered a bottle at like 4:30 but she refused it.

Making it as quick as possible is exactly what can’t be done though.

Mine are teenagers now but both were early risers and went though the 4am phase. I found the trick was to give them some supper 1 hour before bedtime - something bland and boring like a weetabix or a slice of toast as I found they were waking early because they were hungry. Make sure your routine is cast iron too - bed at a set time each night so they get into a good routine. It will pass I promise - but until then there is always coffee (for you).

Let the count down begin!! 😂

The 3 year old wakes at 5ish at the minute which I can deal with and put down to summer as she was sleeping later in the winter, but seeing 3:50 on the clock is utterly soul destroying!

Have you black out blinds up in the children's room ?

The only positive is she goes down fine. I can count on one hand the number of times she’s taken longer than 5 mins to go down. She’s only just turned 7 months and is usually up from about 1:30 right the way through to bedtime so she’s just shattered by bed.

Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure the 3 year old naps more than the baby 🤦‍♀️

Sympathies OP

Mine did this. During the winter months it was even worse, getting up in the dark and cold.

35 years later I still remember sitting with a 2 year old and a 6 month old long before it was light in tears, believing I'd ruined my life lol

My little one at that age was a sleep fighter and I had plenty of 4am wakes😔 he still tries to fight sleep now at 21 months but he wakes for the day at 5am and has done from the start😭 is he nearly 8 months because they have a sleep regression at that age coupled with separation anxiety. Could possibly be that which lasts a couple of weeks but at least is a phase that really does pass😊

It’s completely and utterly pitch black! The only light is the small light from the monitor.
Plus white noise etc so nothing to be changed there unfortunately.

I feel your pain @Cinocino

Mine did this. Grew out of it eventually but had a good few months of it!

My nephew was, apparently, "too clever to waste time sleeping" (also probably said to make my brother and his wife feel better) 😁 Though, to be fair, he's 15 now and is very clever.

Possibly overtired, how is she during the day? Happy or grumpy? If grumpy then its worth getting some sleep advice to help - I recommend Elizabeth Pantley Gentle Sleep Training book (it's not sleep training but more about good sleep habits and gentle persuasion to sleep better/longer). Or also yhe Huckleberry sleep app, with the pro version you are offered personalised advice after logging your baby's sleep for a week or so. I found it really helpful with my daughter whose sleep was horrendous. She got much better once in her own room and 'big girl bed' at 2. If little one is happy during the day she may just have very low sleep needs so it would be more about trying to shift bedtime to adjust wake times. With my daughter moving bed time earlier actually meant she woke later. Good luck, it's horrid. Xx

My youngest did this, 4am on the dot and he'd be ready for the day.

Even now at 8 he still wakes up around 7am on days off school. 🥱

Also was told the same regarding my daughter being clever, which to be fair she is. But so is DC2 who is equally clever anda great sleeper .

I think she could probably do with a bit more day sleep but when they don’t do it there’s just not much you can do, you know?
I see sleep routines for this age and it’s like ‘put baby down at x for 30 min nap, put baby down at y for 2.5 hour nap’ but I can’t just put her down for a 2.5 hr nap! She will be tired within the normal window of wake time I feel, so I don’t think her sleep needs are overly low but if I put her down for the afternoon nap she will do 30/40 mins for example and you just can’t get her over for more.
Maybe/hopefully it’s a phase.

Blackout blinds, creating complete darkness, made a huge difference when both my DC were doing this.

I remember this. It was awful. It was just after I went back to work, he’d get up about 4am and then go back to sleep about 6 by which time it was too late for me to go back to bed

dh and I took in turns. It was a fairly short lived phase, 3 months at the most. Thank goodness. But fistbumps to you.

What time do you put her down for bed? Can you bring that earlier?

The more sleep a baby has the better sleep they'll have. I would work on increasing day time sleep, a 40min nap is fine if at that age they have 2 or 3 naps. Hopefully it'll start to increase to 2 sleep cycles/90mins

😂😂😂
Some babies just don't obey that sort of well-meant advice and it can drive parents bonkers trying to follow it.