Hi
My 11 month old DD really doesn't seem to get as much sleep as all the 'experts' say she should be getting. She wakes very early, and I'm not sure what I can do to help this, and whether it's having an impact on her daytime sleep too... I'm torn between just going with the flow, and trying to impose a routine to see if it helps... In addition, I go back to work in a couple of weeks and don't want to be getting up at 5am to BF...
At the moment she wakes at about 5-5.30; she'll sometimes go back off til 6.30-7 or so with a BF (especially if she is brought into our bed). Then she gets tired about 3.5 hrs after waking, so has a morning nap at about 10am for 40 minutes (she wakes herself, I don't wake her). Milk after nap, then lunch at about 12.30, then afternoon sleep at about 2.30pm for 1h15 on a good day. Milk after nap, dinner at about 5.30, bath at 6.30, milk and bed by 7.30pm. Often wakes briefly in the night but can be shushed back to sleep.
She started sleeping 7.30-5ish a few weeks ago and I was so overjoyed not to be waking every 3 hours that I was happy to BF her at 5 regardless of whether she went back off to sleep or not. But now I don't know whether the 5am waking is actual hunger or just habit, her body clock waking her at 5am as she has got used to a feed then. She eats a HUGE amount of food in the day!
Any wisdom about this? Do you think she'll just one day sleep later than 5am and not wake for a feed? Or should I try to wean her off this early morning feed? I don't want to leave her to cry by herself, I could try shushing and patting which works for getting her off for naps and when she wakes in the night, but at 5am I think will be much more difficult...
Thanks for any ideas or stories of what worked for you...