9 month old waking up around 5am

[Kvizzle]

My 9 month old keeps waking up early, between 5am and 5.30.

I've googled and googled but I'm not sure which of the many possibilities it could be.

He isn't hungry, he wakes up happy, we give him his first bottle at 7 and he isn't crying of hunger before then. When he's up he'll happily play until then.

He self settles when we put him down, and when he wakes throughout the night so I don't think he's relying on being rocked/fed back to sleep.

His naps seem on the right tracks for his age, of course I'm happy to be told otherwise for this and all the above, but here is a pretty typical day routine for us

His first nap is 9.15/9.30, regardless of when he wakes up. He'll pretty much sleep 1hr10mins most times.
His second will be 2/2.30 and I'll cap it at 3.30 if he hasn't woken up, then bed between 6.30 and 7, it's always 3hr30 from when he wakes up.

He isn't fighting naps, he falls asleep nicely and wakes up happy. And he seems rested when he wakes up and isn't cranky during the day. Having said that he's being a cranky nightmare this morning so perhaps he is still tired, but he wouldn't go back to sleep this morning!

His naps average about 2hr 30 which seems about normal for his age.

Another thing worth mentioning is that I don't go in as soon as he wakes up, so long as he's content I'll leave him to it. If he gets upset I'll change him, keep the room dark and try and put him down again. I don't get him up officially until after 6. Very rarely he goes back to sleep but most times he doesn't.

I'm really unsure how I can get him snoozing a bit later. Where is this instruction manual for this baby?

If anyone has any thoughts I am all ears.

Cap the morning nap at 30 mins. Lunch nap 90 mins, up by 3 latest.

I'm really sorry but that seems a good amount of sleep to me? He's getting 11 hours at night? And then some good naps. If you need him to sleep later maybe try putting him down a little later?

You're doing everything right. I personally would cap the morning nap and extend the later one, but as long as he's managing you'll just have to ride out the phase.

With the mornings getting darker hopefully this will encourage later wakeups. This is totally normal 9 month behaviour I'm afraid!

Thanks, is there any reasoning behind capping the morning nap instead of the later nap?

Young children wake up early?

I know it's hard, and 5am feels crap. But honestly, it sounds like he's sleeping beautifully. Does he sleep through the night? If so, I'd be going to bed no later than 9pm myself, and then wouldn't see it as an issue.

Thanks, he sort of sleeps through, he stirs around 4am (waking me up happy days), but gets himself back to sleep until about 5/5.30. A lot of people here saying it sounds normal, and just knowing that from others is a massive help. But when Google says to expect between 6-8am it just makes me wonder and doubt things I'm doing!

He went through a lovely phase 2 months ago of sleeping through until 6.30, and suddenly changed to 5am.

It does sound normal but I wonder if you want to start gradually moving his bedtime later? 4am wake ups are going to be with you soon with the hour changing at the end of the month.

My 9m old was doing this. He's now almost 11m and now waking at 6.30

At this age though my dd went to bed at 6pm and woke at 7, whereas I think ds needs to be put to bed 7.30 to wake 6.30

But he only naps 2 x 30 mins a day

It’s because he’s had enough sleep. If you want him to wake up later just move everything back an hour.

I'm sure I read in a book that no matter what time you put them to bed, they will always wake up early (5am-7am). It's just what babies do. So putting to them to bed later hoping they'll sleep in rarely works, they'll just be tired and grumpy the next day!

Mine didn’t! She slept midnight till noon.

OP, you don’t get a 7pm bedtime and a lie in!

My 2 children have never slept past 6. I've never found a solution apart from going to bed earlier myself. Some babies are early birds. No advice op, hope it improves for you.

Babies can’t read books. 😂😂

appreciate mine was something of an outlier but the only time she’s ever been up at 5am was to catch a flight!

Yeah I say this with kindness but , the kids that are sleeping til 6 or 8 aren't going down at 6.30pm the night before with the good naps you're getting. Mine woke at 8pm but he didn't fall asleep until 10pm and at 9 months was waking multiple times a night.

That is a fantastic amount of sleep, more at night than mine did at this age, even though they had very few naps, and were certainly not napping every day

5 am is completely normal

If it aint broke dont fix it

A lot of people saying it's normal and that he's sleeping well and tbh this is helpful just knowing it's not something I'm doing wrong. I can try capping his morning nap for a bit and see how that goes.

Thanks for the comments .

He sounds like a really good sleeper compared to both of mine. I think a PP hit the nail on the head saying that you can’t have an early bedtime AND a late wake up. It’s usually one or the other!

I'd still look at trying to gradually put him to bed later. Rolling back the clocks is on the horizon don't forget

My 9 month old is also a 5am waker upper. He goes to bed at 7 and mostly sleeps through til 5:00/5:30, though I anticipated this as my older son is 10 and has only just this year started sleeping past 6am!

Agree babies/young kids just naturally wake
up early - I’d rather have my evening to myself and start the day early although it does feel brutal when I hear him stirring at 5am 🥱

Have you tried later bedtime to see if it makes much difference?

It does feel brutal I know, takes me a good 30 minutes to feel human after I get up but I am grateful he is sleeping through.

Babies just do this, they honestly don't care about our lack of sleep 😂 my son woke every single night at 3/3:30 until he was 4 - it nearly broke me

Its much more common than you think and can go on for many years. My DS was up by 5am sometimes earlier for many years and I found it a killer tbh. He also used to wake in the night. You aren't doing anything wrong its just their pattern but you will never to consider the clocks change which used to drive me mad!

Even if he had later nights or didn't nap etc it made no difference. I used to try and go to bed early.

It is normal. You need to cut right down on that morning nap, make it 20-30 mins, do this by going to groups in the morning , imagine you had a school run so he just gets a cap nap on the way to an activity. This probably means you showering and dressing before your partner leaves for work (if you have one) or showeing the night before. Allowing him to sleep for over an hour at 9am is perpetuating the cycle.