9mo now waking for the day at 5am every day

[schplappo]

My DD has started waking at 5am every day. She sleeps through until then but wakes - happy and ready for the day - at 5am which is exhausting me. I leave her as long as possible before I get up and this isn't the same as when she stirs during the night as she self-settles. I am trying to reduce the amount of sleep she gets during the day (she never has more than 2 hours in the day) but she is absolutely exhausted by the time I put her to bed (between 7 & 7.30). Has anyone else experienced this and does anyone have any ideas for how I can get her to sleep later? Thank you!

Hopefully the clock change will help :)

At least tomorrow morning it will be 6am with the clock change

Not much use sorry, I'll get me coat!

Hang on in there....at least it'll be 6am from tomorrow! Seriously, my dd is the same. Don't have any other advice but would advise not to cut the daytime naps too early otherwise she'll be overtired and it can have an adverse effect.

@ xposts.

I have had two early risers (out of 3 dc) and my advice is to try and treat the 5 am wake-ups as you would any other wake-up in the night. Offer water, soothe, do NOT get them up as if the day has started.

what time are her daytime naps? sometimes its not how much sleep they are getting, but WHEN they are getting it that can cause early morning waking. The biggest culprits in my experience are

too long/too early a morning nap
not enough time awake between PM nap & bedtime
overtiredness

Sympathies, OP. DS (13 months) is an early waker too, it's usually 5.20am. 6am is great and after 6am is a lie-in :) It is the hardest sleep problem to solve, I am hoping he will grow out of it. I have no solution, I just go to bed early a couple of times a week. I think this is just how he is, he only has a 30 min morning nap at 9 - 9.30am, and 1.5 -2 hours after lunch.

2 hours at 9 months might be too little daytime sleep actually, unless your DD is happy with this (DS wouldn't, he gets very difficult if overtired). Fingers crossed they grow out of this!

Is she having one long nap at lunchtime or two shorter naps. I agree with omama that it might be just the timing of her naps which needs tweaking.

However, the fact she wakes up happy is a sign that she's had enough sleep in the previous 24 hours, so to get her back to longer nights, you may have to reduce the nap even further. I know, I know, it sounds mad when she is so tired by bedtime, but that's the 5am wakeup at fault (possibly caused by the 2 hours sleep in the day).

Let us know the timings of naps first as I think this is your first port of call.

Oh and if it helps put things into perspective, I do know of a baby who was on just 45 min nap a day at 1 year old otherwise he was up at all hours! :)

tootired have you considered trying to drop the morning nap? I think this might be partly to blame for your DS's early alarm calls.

We had this with ds until he was about 20 momths (sorry)- eventually he just went longer and longer. We accepted 6.00am was an ok start anything before that we ended up putting him in bed with one of us and refusing to interact. We tried everything- black out blinds, putting the heating on earlier, putting him to bed later but it didn't matter. There are plenty of babies who are early risers. He only had one 20 minute nap a day but still woke early.
We adjusted our day accordingly and one of us was in bed by 9pm if they were on the morning shift because we realised it wouldn't be for ever.
He still is an early riser and just before 7 is normal despite the fact he's not in bed until 9pm.

Thanks everybody. The clock change did help! Her normal naps are approx 3 hours after waking for 30 mins; around 12 (before lunch) for another 30 mins and then around 2.30/3ish for another 30 mins. If we're in the car, it's sometimes longer than this. I'm trying keeping her up half an hour later to see if that helps! Will let you know.

So is she waking at 6am now? And is the routine you describe what she is doing now i.e. since the clock change, or is it what she was doing before? I just want to be 100% sure on the timings. So can you confirm that since the clocks changed, her day is now like this:

Wake: 6am??
Nap: 9 - 9.30 (assume this moved later with the clocks changing)
Nap: 12-12.30 (has this nap stayed at 12pm?)
Nap: 2.30/3 - 3/3.30 (is this nap still at this time?)
BT: 7-7.30

Are you waking her from her naps after 30mins or is she waking herself?

And when you say you are trying keeping her up half an hour later is this before a specific nap, all naps or before bedtime?

If her current routine IS now as I've posted above, then I would say she is overtired. For us, 30min naps were always a sign of overtiredness. And 1.5hrs daytime sleep is definitely too little for her age.

Her day is pretty long & she is awake for an awfully long time between her 3rd nap of the day & bedtime, which won't help the overtired situation. At her age she should really have dropped the 3rd nap & be taking just 2 naps a day, however I understand the need for the 3rd nap whilst her naps are all are short!

IIWM I would probably try & do an early bedtime for a few days of 6-6.30pm latest & you might actually find she wakes at the usual time (6am) or even later. As she becomes better rested you can start to push her morning nap out a little bit towards 9.15-9.30am. Hopefully if she is better rested she will sleep for a bit longer, perhaps 45mins. Then you can push her lunchtime nap a little later to 12.30 & see how she sleeps. Ideally you want a 2hr nap here, & if you can get this then you can do away with the 3rd nap & gradually push her bedtime back out.

Might have some more suggestions if you can answer my Q's!

Loveisagirl, I tried dropping the am nap but he is so tired by 10 he gets VERY cranky and difficult, and then I feel it's not fair on him to keep him awake. Getting to lunchtime then is a nightmare for both of us. Also, he is now with a childminder Mon to Thu and she has other mindees, so can be out and about before lunchtime (so unless DS had a morning nap, he will fall asleep in the car anyway).

Today though he slept until 6.40!!! I couldn't believe it when I looked at the clock. I'm not getting my hopes up, he's done it before and it's always been a fluke, but boy do I feel better!

OP, can you put your DD down for her afternoon nap a bit later, maybe 1pm? Can she last that long? Maybe she would sleep for longer. Also, what I would recommend, based on my experience with DS, is going in after 30 mins and resettling her to sleep, even if it means picking her up and rocking her. If she goes back to sleep, you might find she is sleeping for longer and will drop the 3rd nap.

It is hard the drop the morning nap because they're tired. But they're tired because the nap is depriving them of sleeping at night. It's a vicious cycle (and one I've been through) and until you break it, it probably won't improve.

The other problem is that eventually, he will start to cut down on his lunchtime nap which will then lead to 2 very short naps a day and possibly more nighttime waking. I say this from experience.

I know it's hard to control naps when they're at the childminder but just thought I'd share my experiences with you...