Regular wakings, early rising 8 month old

[LilyPilley]

At the moment, my LO goes to bed easily just after 7. She then proceeds to wake 4-6 times a night and has lately started waking at 4:30am. I am knackered to say the least! She has a nap at 8:30 for about an hour and then at 13:30 for an 1 and half to 2 hours.

I still give her a bottle at night as its the easiest way to get her back to sleep, and we co-sleep to make it easier on me. Any suggestions as to what I could do differently to A) Get her to sleep longer than a couple of hours at a time and B) to wake a little later?

Firstly - the early waking:
I went through months of EW with my son who got up at similar times to your DD at a similar age. I too used to put him down for a nap at 8/8.30am because he was shattered from having woken up so early. However, what I didn't realise at the time was that the early nap was actually encouraging the early wakeup to continue.

IIWM I would very gradually push that nap later, perhaps by 5-10mins every 3 days (slowly to avoid her getting overtired) until she is going down for her first nap at 9.30am. This may take a few weeks, but should really help the early waking. You will probably need to continue limiting that AM nap to 1hr (and if it starts to affect how she settles or how long she sleeps at her PM nap as it goes later, then you may need to cut it a little shorter).

Secondly, the night wakings. It may, in part, be overtiredness from the early wakings, which will hopefully be resolved by pushing the nap out. However, it may also be related to the night feeds/co-sleeping.

Do you give her a bottle at every night waking??? Does she eat well during the day? Does she settle to sleep independently at naps and at bedtime or do you rock/cuddle/feed her to sleep?

Thank you Omama for your response. I have thought that the morning nap may be the cause of the EW but as you say, she's utterly exhausted by then. She's at the childminder during the day so I will need to ask her to shift her nap, even though she thinks it's not the cause. I suspect the nap time suits her for some reason.

Tbh she has never been a good sleeper, waking every 2 hours is considered a good night. Because I've tried and tested almost everything, I've basically given up and now do anything for a little sleep. She eats 3 good meals a day, 2 bottles and a full night bottle. Lately, she finishes 2x 6oz bottles at various times during the night. I try with most night wakings and if she doesn't want she wont drink. She falls asleep for naps and at bedtime within 5-10 minutes, mostly with me just holding her hand.

I've contacted the health visitor and asked for some help. Someone is coming to see me in a couple of weeks and I'm hoping we can come up with some solutions or at least a plan to work towards.