9 month old started to sleep badly, up at 5.30am and hints of tantrums, please help!!

[ljhooray]

My DD who up to know has been a really good sleeper has for the last week been crying on and off from 5.30am. She's just started to crawl which I thought may mean she would be sleeping really heavily, but it appears to be worse. The problem is she is then exhausted by 8.30am which also means her daytime naps have gone crazy too. She has also started to get pretty stroppy too, she's a lovely little girl but since crawling, and having this disturbed sleep, it also means she loses her temper.

PLease help, is this normal/common, any hints on helping her sleep?

Sleep patterns can change as babies learn new things....when they can do more in the day you would think that this would make them more tired but sometimes it can have the opposite effect!! What is she like if you just give her a small feed at 5.30am and then pop her straight back down?

They get stroppy because once they learn one new skill they want to be able to do others! It can be very tiring....

Is she still going down at the same time at night? I just ask because my dd is nearly 9 months and I have moved her bed time half an hour later.

Hi Karen,

Funny you should say that, tonight we;ve moved her bedtime by half and hour. The feed one sounds like an interesting tactic (she does seem pretty hungry) only worried she'll always wake at 5.30 then for a feed. What's your experience?

Hi ya. My little man did this and it nearly drove me mad - it was when I returned to work so it was a bit of an unsettled time for him. I wish someone had suggested I actually fed him. I was starting my day at 5ish and was shattered. But he was actually hungery poor guy. So after a few early feds I just reduced them down until he decided it was worth waking for.

If dd wakes at this time, I feed her (just a small amount) and then pop her straight back down. I found that she would wake because she was genuinely hungry. Once she was fed she went back to sleep no bother. Because I was only feeding her a small amount she would still waken at her usual time and have another feed.

My experience is, is that if dd is hungry she will wake - if not she will sleep straight through. What is important is that you treat it like a night feed, ie quiet, low lights etc.....just feed and then straight back down. I know it can be a pain but it beats being up from 5ish in the morning....and in my experience dd did not get used to it - she would merely wake because she was hungry.

Thanks ladies, my main worry with the feed was that it would just encouage early waking instead but sounds like you've ot it just right, will give that a try. Fingers crossed, as I'm absolutely exhausted and as I run my own business too, its starting to take its toll!!