Tired mummy

[Irons]

My daughter, who is almost 9 months old is taking to the habit of waking at 5am. I'm trying to encourage a 7-7 routine. Actually I wouldn't even mind 6:30 wake up, but 5 am is tiring me out.

She has about 2 - 2.5 hrs sleep during the day and goes down around 7 pm in the evening. She eats well and sleeps right through the night. BUT, as I said, wakes up at 5am. I've tried putting her down half an hour later in the evening. I've tried leaving her in her cot in the morning. Sometimes she'll go back to sleep for another half hour or so but sometimes she'll just whinge and whinge. Then the next day she's back to waking at 5am! I've also tried giving her a little milk but that doesn't even settle her back to sleep. She just wants to get up and play

Are there any suggestions please on how I can encourage her to sleep to at least 6am or even 7 (that would be lovely!).

It's just a phase. What time does she go down for her first nap of the morning/day? I found when I had this problem that putting dd down half an hour later in the morning cracked the problem. Had to do it over a couple of days though cos she couldn't manage the extra half hour up. So first day down 10-15 mins later and again the next. Within 3 days she was back to 7-7. I know this sounds a bit weird and I was a little when I heard about it but it did work.

One other thought - it couldn't be light coming in? Suppose it's too early in the year for light at that time...

I have been trying to do this. For example this morning she woke at 5:10 and I kept her busy and only put her down for her first nap at 9am. Which, I know is still early but considering she'd been awake since 5:10, that's all she could manage.

Another thing she is doing is sleeping anything from 1 hour to 2 for the morning nap now, presumably because she's catching up after being up so early. She'll then only sleep for half an hour in the afternoon.

Should I cut the morning nap down and encourage a longer sleep in the afternoon?

Yes, that's why I'm hoping to break this habit before summer! I've got black out blinds with black out curtains over and I keep her door shut. So no light coming in at all.

I would definitely cut morning nap to 45 mins and then allow her to have longer nap at lunchtime (2hrs ish). It will be grotty for first couple of days as she adjusts to shorter morning nap but it will work. Hang in there and keep posting with updates.

Thank you. Will start on Monday. We're doing the sport relief mile tomorrow so routine is going to be a bit mixed up anyway.

9 months is classic regression time. Everything went to shit for us at that age, and it was just hell. Waking every 45 minutes, inconsolable because she was exhausted and couldn't sleep, etc. So yours will grow out of it, don't worry about the summer, she'll be older by then and the landscape will be different.

Sorry, no advice except hang in threre!

Thanks, sometimes you just need someone to say hang in there

How's it going???

Hi! A little better thanks. I changed the nap times so she has a short one in the morning then longer one in the afternoon.

For 2 mornings in a row she slept until 6:20, then this morning woke at 4:20! But I gave her a bottle and she went back to sleep until 7:30! Wow! It was nice to have a lie in .

This sort of sleep pattern is more bearable so I hope she keeps it up.