Early morning waking and nap routine - 7 month old

[louisemiller19]

I have a seven month old who started waking at 4.30am like clockwork in June despite some previous evidence in April that she can sleep till 5/6am ... she's wide awake for the day instead of crying for milk. It was around the time we cracked napping in the cot and she started napping more.

Having done some research online we've tried the following nap routine for 5 days now as ppl say it should help, but the only results we've seen so far are 4.45am waking rather than 4.30am ... and a v tired baby who's desperate for her morning nap!!

Routine is:

8.45am/9am morning nap, limited to 45 mins

12.30pm nap up to 2 hours 15, sometimes put dummy in and try to resettle part way through if she wakes

4pm ish extra nap if the lunchtime nap was only 1 hour, limited to 30 mins

7/7.15pm asleep in bed

Has anyone else tried this for early morning waking? How long do you think it will take to work if it's going to work?

Keeping her up later makes no difference to waking time.

Previously we were more baby led and she was napping at approx 7.45am for 1-2 hours, 11 1-2 hours (depending on length of her first nap), 2/3pm 30-45 mins and sometimes and extra cat nap at 4.30/5pm. Bed 7/7.30pm. She seemed to struggle to go more than 2 hours between naps, but that gap seems to be widening now.

If she's widening her gap between naps, maybe you could leave her to sleep as long as she wants for the morning nap and then shift the afternoon nap a bit later. She might start to manage on two naps and no later cat naps (although some days she might need a power nap).

Thanks so much. Do you think I should still delay the start of the morning nap if I try that?

She's getting up early, so probably leave the morning sleep where it is and push the afternoon sleep a little later, so it's just 2 sleeps each day. You'll probably find over time that the morning sleep gradually gets later and the two sleeps merge into one sleep in the middle of the day. Just take her lead and it'll all balance out.

I’d not limit the naps times but try her with 2 naps instead of 3. Obviously, she may be hellish for a few days.

I think the No Cry Sleep Solution has some tips on early waking and how is Weaning going? Has the early waking coincided with a reduced milk intake?

My son is 11 months old and cannot last any longer than 3 hours from waking up to needing his morning nap.

I have heard numerous people tell me actually that in terms of ‘awake periods’ the period between waking and the first nap should be the shortest awake period in the day.

If you baby is up at 4.30 and having to wait 4+ hours until their first nap then you may find that this needs addressing and I wouldn’t be restricting them to 45 minutes either.

My son’s morning nap is 90 minutes and I’ve been advised by a sleep consultant that this is the perfect amount of time.

My son sometimes wakes up at 5am which means his first nap is at 7.30am which sounds ludicrous but he’s so tired 2-3 hours after waking.

Have you heard of them 2-3-4 theory in terms of naps? I think it’s the 1st nap should be two hours after waking, the 2nd nap should be 3 hours after waking from the first and then bedtime should be 4 hours after they wake from their 2nd nap.

My son follows that kind of routine and it works really well...

Up at 6am
First nap at 9am (90 minutes)
Second nap at 2pm (90 minutes)
Bedtime 7.30pm.

My first son was on a very similar routine and had these two naps w day until he was about 2 years old and then he dropped to just having one longer nap after lunch which lasted 2-3 hours. He continued having his afternoon nap until he was almost three years old.

Early mornings are awful but I’ve found that always allowing the first nap to be 2-3 hour after waking and not restricting it is the first step to getting a good daytime sleep routine going and then leading on to normal sleeping patterns at night.

The No Cry Nap Solution might be helpful too OP.

Thanks everyone. We're lucky that weaning is going well, so I don't think that's related. Will give it a few more days on the schedule we've been trying and if no results, move to trying 2 long naps I think. Ideally I think I'd prefer her to wait till 8.30/9 to start the first one though.