Daytime Nap Routine

[meowcatuk]

Help, my nine month old baby goes to bed at 7pm no problem but then wakes up at 4.30am each morning. I have tried feeding her then putting her back to bed, but it won't work, tried leaving her to cry to see if she goes back off but still no good. So she has her first nap of the day at 7.30am!! Any ideas on how to stop this and cut out the 7.30am nap???

i think you just have to sit it out im afraid. my dd did this (although she was a couple of months younger) and she just slowly slept longer and longer - it took a while, but now she sleeps til 7am (shes 12 months now)

its crap i know but it happens to a lot of us

have you tried keeping her up til 8?

I will give it a go tonight and see how we get on, she is really good when I put her to bed, I just put her in her cot and she is straight to sleep!! I am just scared incase she gets over tired and won't settle because she has her last nap in the day about two! And I can't get her to sleep after that.

In 'Solve your child's sleep problems' they suggest that in cases of early morning waking it can be that the final sleep cycle has become separated from the rest of the night. It suggests keeping her up progressively later each morning before allowing her to nap. In addition not to go in to her as soon as she wakes but to leave her for 15 minutes and gradually increase this time.

meowcatuk, my dd was like this until relatively recently (she is now 6 mos).... then realised that her 4:30/5am feed was like her breakfast (!!!!! no!!!!!); she would go back to sleep no problem, but then wake at 8am, and not want a proper feed, which would knock her whole days feeding out. I eventually phased her off this early morning feed by offering her only 2oz milk (i felt so mean!), and then 2oz water (she wasn't pleased), then just a cuddle, and then for whatever reason, she decided it wasn't worth waking up at that time any more. She generally goes through to 7-7:30, but we often hear a few squeaks at 5:30-ish, but just ignore them now (we stopped using the monitor a few months ago now!)

do you have a monitor? turn it off

meowcatuk - i just wondered if you had cracked the 4.30am waking each morning?! my DD (9 months) is exactly the same at the minute....4.30 is killing me....i thought getting up at 6am was bad enough!! i manage to get her back to sleep with p/u p/down but it usually takes at least an hour....she will then sleep until about 6am and then i usually cave in and get up and start the day with her.... her 1st nap is then 9.30 until 12! which messes up the day as she isn't quite ready for her 2pm ish nap until gone 4....which is too close to her tea time and night time!!

Papaya - I would try cutting down on the morning nap, you could do this gradually by reducing it by 5 -10 mins every few days and then this should lead to an earlier afternoon nap which would be longer. It's worth a try. My daughter who is now 16months was waking early at 9 months and I did what I have suggested to you and it worked for us.