5am wake up

[graysor]

My Dd (8mo) wakes up every morning at 5am and is absolutely impossible to get back to sleep after this time. Despite her clearly still being tired. This is after at least 3 wakes during the night.

I've tried everything and she won't resettle so I've resigned myself to it for now. But I don't know what to do about her naps. It seems wrong to have a nap at 7 am!

If you have an early riser when do they have their first nap?

My 21 mo old regularly wakes at 5am, and it's only the last 4 days that he's slept through til then! I used to push his nap to 9.30 to fit in with the school run but now he naturally naps around 1030/11.

I didn't want him napping at 7ish as I wanted him to understand the difference between 'morning' and 'buggering about in the middle of the night'.

5.30 wake up and 8.30 nap here.

What time is your daughter going to bed in the evening.

What do you do with him when he wakes? Can you bring him into your bed, keep it dark, feed him. Then just keep soothing him in your bed by stoking back, cuddling etc until he gets bored and goes back to sleep?

It might mean your awake 5-6.30qm anyway the first few days, but once he finds you don't all get up, and he gets a feed then nothing interesting he might start going straight back to sleep after a feed.

Once that is established then you can eventually a month or so down the line drop the feed part of needed

What time does he go to sleep?

What artandco said
Mines 10 months old and finally seems to have broken the habit.
I was getting up with her and she was wanting to nap early too but that just wasn't working out at all, so I fed in her room in the dark and put her back to bed, eventually she did start to drop back of until 7ish I didn't go back in unless she cried but she just did her chanting murmur that seems to go on forever! And dropped back off
It took almost two weeks though for her to get the jist it's still nightime!! But yeah worked for me

Both of mine have been 5am wakers, DD1 started sleeping later at 4 when she went to school, DD2 is 14 months and still does it now. In my experience many toddlers are very early wakers, so even if you manage to stretch it out now, chances are you'll end up back here in a few months anyway.

Maybe just embrace the extra hours in the morning to get stuff done! I lay most productive time at home is between 5 and 7! 😂

Thanks for the replies. To answer a few of the questions :
She goes to bed about 6.30 and is asleep by 7.
I do my best not to get up with her at that time, as I don't want to reinforce getting up time.
I have tried feeding and rocking back to sleep, that doesn't work. I usually bring her into bed with me. It's dark, quiet, I don't talk or interact. I feed lying down in the hope that she'll drop off but she never does. She finishes feeding and starts rolling around and getting frustrated. I roll her back, cuddle, shush, rub her tummy, pat her bum etc. But she just gets more and more frustrated and cries . I try and rock her and she cries harder, arching her back and flinging her legs around.

I literally don't think there is anything else I can do to get her to go back to sleep.

So is it worth trying to stretch out the morning from then till about 8.30 for a nap?

This happened to me around 8 month mark. I got done good advice on here about stretching out the time between waking and first morning nap. Took about 3 days to sort. Good luck!

Some not done!

So if shes going to sleep at 7 in the evening and waking up at 5 in the morning that's 10 hours, which is a good long time in bed.

How many naps a day and at what times are these.

Similar with my 8mth old but I've discovered if she wakes crying and I ignore her for a bit (listening and praying on the other end of the monitor) she goes back to sleep. If she wakes cooking and playing, she's not going back to sleep as she's had enough and is actually ready to get up.

Try leaving dd crying just a smidge longer at 5am and see if it helps?

Cooing! Not cooking!

I think 6.30pm bed to 5 am is fine though. That's 10+ hours sleep. I think if you want longer in the morning you need later at night

At 6 months mine slept roughly 10pm-8am. Plus 3 ish naps in between

Anything over 5hrs straight is classified as sleeping through btw. So you need to choose if you want those 5 hrs 7pm-12pm before first waking, or 10pm-3am for example. Personally I rather they were awake in the evening when I'm awake anyway, rather than waking more when I have just gone to sleep or very early

Twinkle - so what time did you start putting down for a nap to stretch out the morning?

Buttered - naps are generally cap, so she is exhausted by 7. We usually get 30 mins in the morning around 9. Sometimes she manages to stretch it to an hour. 12.30 / 1 ish another 30 mins. Never longer regardless of how much I try to resettle. Sometimes another 30 mins late afternoon around 4 or 5 but sometimes she just won't go to sleep even in he buggy or sling, so we tend to just have an early night.

Dolly - how long does she cry before going back to sleep? My Dd literally never wakes up cooing, she is always properly crying . I assume because she is still tired.

Art - so you think I should put her to bed at 9 if I want a 7am wake up? What time should naps be then ?
I worry about her getting overtired as her naps are rubbish, and she wakes so much at night.

For 9pm bed, and 7am wake. For 6months old I would be aiming for naps at:

9.30-10.30 ( 1 hr)
2-3/4pm (1-2 hrs)
6pm -( 30min)

All depending on how long she naps at time before. A sleep cycle is roughly 45min so that when many wake up from naps. After 35/40mins if she begins to stir I would try and quickly soothe back to sleep by gentle shhing or patting in bed, or by rocking pram gentle if they are sleeping in there. The pram is easiest way to get them sleeping through sleep cycle for longer naps as you can rock it gentle as soon as they stir, and also cover top halt with thin muslin so it's a little darker but the bottom half open so they can breathe and don't overheat

Oh and the 6pm nap I found best. As they can then have a quick nap when tired, and you have that time child free to prepare dinner. Then adults and baby can all eat dinner together at 7pm with baby rested. Rather than a frazzled 5pm dinner for baby, adults later and baby falling asleep in dinner

That sounds nice in theory art. But I do all those things to try and sooth her back to sleep and she just cries and cries after 30 minutes.

I stretched it out 15 mins every day till it was an hour later - from 2 hours after waking till 3 hours.

That sounds like a good plan twinkle - thanks. I might try and give that a go.

How you getting on?