Early wake ups

[tatree]

Anyone have any tips for getting them to sleep a little longer?

I have a 4.5 month old, who now seems to wake up daily at anywhere from 03:50 - 4:30 for the last 7 weeks and I’m knackered! Before that it was around 6:00. She goes down really well at 7 after a bottle, I now give a dream feed at 10 (at advice of others to get her to sleep longer) which has replaced her 01:00 wake up feed she used to have, and she now mostly sleeps through but still only until around 4am as it was before.

When she wakes at this time I give her another bottle but she’s up and grinning and thrashing about. If I put her back in the cot she babbles for about 10 mins and then gets fed up of the dark and grumbles until she’s picked up. Putting her in our bed in desperation but that still doesn’t work. She has a dummy but not interested.

Naps easily, falls asleep best on my person but transferred to a cot without problem. Sleeps well in the sling or buggy when out. I try to get her to nap periodically throughout the day after every feed, sometimes she sleeps for more than an hour or so and other times 15 minutes, other times she’s awake and having none of it. She has at least 3 hours napping throughout the day, often more.

Does she need more of a routine? Structured naps? Less naps? I can go to bed at 10 and get a solid 6 hours which isn’t too bad (she had colic for the first 9 weeks so I feel like this is easy in comparison!) but the days are so long when you’re up at 4! Any advice greatly received.

God I don't get a solid 6 hours now and my DS is 6 months!!! I think you're very lucky!!
DS often wakes early (4.30am onwards). I think the best thing to do is decide when wake up time is (so for us, 6am). When he wakes before this, treat as night time, keep lights dim, no toys or screens, reduce communication. Sometimes he drops back off, other times we just sit in the dark while he babbles to himself and I try to doze! But the main thing is sticking to a routine in the hopes baby catches on! You could also check room temperature as it is cold atm and things like if the hitting clicking on is noisy/waking baby up? White noise is good for masking sounds in the night.

The HEATING clicking on not hitting

The six hours is only sometimes! It’s if she doesn’t wake in the night and I do know I’m better off than some it’s just so knackering being up so early. Trying to get myself in the gym to shift the baby weight but the only time is after 7 when she’s in bed and by that time I’ve been up so long I have no enthusiasm or energy left. My boyfriend gave me a lay in this morning and I was up at 6, by this time DD was ready for a nap for 1.5 hours.. if only she’d have that nap at 4

My DS is now nearly 8 months but he went through a period of early wake ups. As he was awake for an hour and a half, we just used to stay in bed and he’d fall back asleep eventually but this was about 6/6:30 so his first nap was effectively about then.

I tried just getting up (as long as it was later than half 4) and keeping him awake for at least 2.5 hours.
He now sleeps in till between 6-7am.

I think that it was because I was letting him catch up on his missed night sleep by having that very early nap.

Shift it all later? You can’t generally get them down early and up late. Mine slept till midday at that age, but she didn’t go down till midnight.

Oh gosh I've not the energy to lose my baby weight either! It's all too much with the sleep deprivation! Hopefully it's a phase and will pass. There is a sleep regression at 4 months- my boy essentially stopped sleeping for a bit (hourly wake ups/awake for 2 or 3 hours from about 1am or 2am) but he is (slightly) better now although the last couple of nights have still been two hourly wake ups....!!