7.5 month old early waking

[Krc09]

Hi all! My DD is actually a fairly good sleeping so I’m not trying to complain but she keeps waking in the 5-540am Range every day! We use black out curtains, she can self settle etc... I think she is trying to drop her last nap (since she refuses it no matter what I do) which then forces me to put her to bed around 630pm. She sleeps through the night without a feed and wakes 515-540am. So I know it’s great she does that long stretch, but how can I get it to at least 6am. When she wakes she will play happily in her crib until I get her at 6am. I have tried feeding her and she will drink the milk like she is hungry but will not go back to sleep.

Has she had enough sleep for the night? Do I need to push her bedtime back towards 7? Hard to do since sometimes her midday nap ends at 2/230.

I have tried to push the am nap to 9 which is hard with a 5am wake but she will do it.

Here is the routine:

515-540am wake
6 our of crib
610 - formula 8-10oz
720 breakfast
9ish - nap ( from 30min-1.5hr)
10 formula 4oz
12is - lunch
1ish - nap ( if short am nap will be 2-2.5hr, if long 40-1.5hr)
230ish formula 4-6oz
Won’t take a late afternoon nap usually
5 dinner
Sleep 630pm- 5/540am no night wakings

I realize this may just be how she is and that it’s not that bad, just curious if there’s any thoughts out there.

Thank you in advance for any help!!

Katie

Is she having a bottle just before bed?

Oops forgot she usually has a bottle around 430 and then one right before bed

She averages about 25-30oz of formula a day plus 3 meals

My dd is very similar routine wise. She tries to wake for the day at 5ish too, and I can usually manage to get an hour or two extra sleep out of her by cosleeping from 5. There’s no way she would settle again in her cot though. Not ideal but means I don’t have to get up for the day at 5-5.30! Could you try that maybe?

Hi milkand cookies1, thanks for responding!

I have tried bringing her into the bed with me which rarely works. Sometimes she will go back to sleep for another 40 min, but usually she will roll around and then smile at me haha.

One time she went to bed at 8pm (left her with my in laws and she wouldn’t settle for them earlier) , she still woke at 5ish but I was able to feed her and then co sleep til 7am. So maybe I need to push her bedtime to later?

I just don’t want her to be overtired with the lack of late afternoon nap.

I know what you mean, often at 5am we have half an hour of ‘blah blah blah’, getting punched in the face, scratched in the back before we get any more sleep

I personally won’t push bedtime back because I know that she is very ready for bed by then and I am very ready for a break.

Let’s see if anyone has any good ideas for us!

Oh yes, lots of talking happens at 5am, on her end not mine! Haha.

Today i put her down for her first nap at 9am and she is still sleeping.. been about 1.5hours. I have heard that you should cap the am nap at 45 min so they take a long afternoon nap and so it doesn’t reinforce EW. any thoughts on this? But I’m kind of in the don’t wake the baby camp.

I put dd down 1.5-2 hrs after waking (approx 8.30) for 2 hour nap then a 2 hour nap approx 1.30-3.30, then down for bed at 7. Think it’s techincally more sleep than needed but works for us (at the moment, sure it will change next week haha)

If dd only had cat nap in the morning she’d 100% still need a lunch time nap

Both my children (2.5yrs and 8.5months) have dabbled in the ol' 5am waking. My toddler grew out of it by 14months (i honestly got used to my day starting at 5am by then even when back at work!) and put it down to tiredness from nursery &physical activity. Like your LO he slept through the night and would wake happy so didn't try and change it. I guessed he'd had his nights sleep. He would sit and play quietly in his cot so I'd leave him for as long as possible (when LO is a little older leave a couple of books in the cot, preferably tje ones you read the nught before). Ok so you can't get back to sleep with the baby babble but you can at least doze in your own bed, alone! 😂
My 8 month baby so far only occasionally wakes at 5ish, if she does I try and keep her naps at the same time in the day and put her to bed at normal time to keep her in routine.

Think my advise is to wait it out....as hard as it is, learn to accept 5am as your daily start, rest when you can, get to bed early and when they start toddling about you should see a change as they are exhausted. One day you'll wake naturally at 5am and the little tike will be snoring away until 6am 😜

Chocolatedollymicture- thank you for the response! I think you’re right. I know I’m very fortunate to have a baby that doesn’t wake me multiple times a night. Yes 530ish am start is early but I can deal with it (thank god im a morning person haha), especially since she sleeps through the night.

I agree that once she becomes more mobile she’ll likely sleep longer. She scoots bow but no proper crawling yet.

I also Try to keep the same schedule but it’s hard to keep her up until 9 sometimes for the first nap.

Example today she slept 9am-1030am, then second nap was 145-220! So only having that 30min nap until bedtime (630pm) is rough!!! She won’t take a late afternoon nap. So I guess I’m worried I’m just creating an overtired baby? Idk haha