Baby wakes too early, help

[Sallymummy99]

Hi I’m after some advice on trying to get my baby to wake up later. Most days she is waking up at 5:30/5:40 and Is tired after a Couple of hours. She is 9 1/2 months old. She goes to sleep about 7:15pm and will nap 2-3 times in the day for a total of about 3-3 1/2 hours. She is sleeping through at night. I’ve been reading on a couple of sleep websites that when they wake early you shouldn’t get them up and dressed, don’t open the curtains, just try to settle them again. So currently I’m sat on the nursing chair listening to my baby crying which is not nice. I did her a bottle when she woke at 5:45 and she had most of that and then I put her back down and said sleepy time and went out the room, coming back in every ten mins to reassure her. I thought maybe if I’m sat in the room she might settle better. I wasn’t expecting Miracles on the first try. She has been waking this early for a few weeks now. Has anyone tried this technique or any other and had success with getting their baby to wake later? Baby is getting pretty tired during the day so feel she needs to sleep longer and I’m really struggling to get through the day without napping, which obviously I won’t be able to do when I go back to work in a few weeks. Thanks guys.

Have you got a blackout blind on the window?

What time is her last nap in the day? I think by this age my daughters were only having one nap from noon to about 2:30 and then sleeping from 7- 6:30, so getting around the same total sleep as your baby but in a different pattern. Maybe try keeping her awake after 2:30 and see if that helps.

I'll start by saying my son's absolutely not been a cast-iron "sleeper" so I might be biased but... You're super lucky she sleeps through at 9.5 months old! The light might be waking her but I think a 5.30 wake-up is within the realms of normal to be honest - in my & friends experience, very few babies regularly sleep 7-7.

If you've got a blackout blind and she's still waking at 5.30, if you're tired then maybe try going to bed a bit earlier yourself? I know that sounds obvious (and sometimes isn't feasible) but it took me ages to realise my son was simply an early riser and if I wanted to sleep longer I had to go to bed at 9.30 or 10 latest!

It might well just be a phase - my son woke really early for a month or two, then settled into a pattern of going to bed a bit later and waking later (he's older though - about 21 months).

Hope it gets easier in time for your return to work!

So hands normal for a baby with a 7:15pm bedtime!

*sounds

Sounds perfect to me! I could only dream of a sleeper like that at 9 months! Still at nearly two, nowhere near as much sleep as that!

Could you just make sure you are asleep yourself by a reasonable hour so you get enough rest? I think with all the effort in the world some children are just early risers. A friend of mine has two DC aged 4 & 6 and they are never asleep later than 6am!

Sorry but it's normal. I wouldn't leave her to cry.

Sounds about right with a bed time like that and no waking tbh.
My first used had that bedtime but woke twice and was up for the day at 6am, some babies just wake earlier 🤷‍♀️
My second slept through very early at 2 months and we would have to wake them up at weekends because they would happily sleep in until 10am!
The third has a heart condition and naps quite a bit in the day and wakes between 7-8am, they're all different.

If it's really a big deal to you then I would try to shorten the last two naps of the day and see if that makes a difference, but be prepared that it won't change.

That sounds tough, OP. Just because other people have bad sleepers doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek to improve your situation...

I wonder if you going in and out is causing some confusion, so she hopes you’ll come back and get her up, each time? Maybe you could use a toy that plays soothing music, or something else similar, to make it clear that this is still “quiet” time if she won’t sleep? So do bottle, and leave her to quiet time and don’t go back in for an hour for example (unless she’ll start getting really upset?), and after maybe a week of that stop using the prop and just say “quiet / sleepy time” when you leave? It must be a sudden change in expectations and routine for her.

Just an idea, I have a four month old so still a bit behind you :) when he wakes early, I feed him in the dark, no talking etc, and then pop him back in his cot. He’s used to the routine that we don’t interact unless the curtains are open and I’ve said “good morning” so it seems to work... Good luck 🍀

What time are her naps? You could try putting her down for a nap after lunch and cutting out any later naps. So say lunch at 12pm, nap from 1-2/3pm then she’s up and don’t let her sleep again until bedtime. But 7.15-5.30 is actually pretty good, yes it’s early but a lot of people would chew off their own arm for that much sleep.

Thanks everyone for your advice and comments. I know we are lucky she has started sleeping through the night regularly. She used to regularly wake once in the night and we would give her a bottle and she would go straight back down so was only be awake for about half an hour, and she didn’t used to wake up until 7/7:15. Today she napped 9:20-10;45 then 2:50-4:10 and went to sleep at 7:15 this evening. It’s not nice leaving her to cry but she we have to do that for her day time nap. She very rarely has a nap in the day without crying herself to sleep. She actually seemed to be in a better mood this morning after she had been back to sleep. I do think it may be a bit confusing for her if I go in and come back out so maybe it’s best to leave her. The soothing noise may be a good idea. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

I found it was better to wake them by 3pm if I wanted them to sleep longer at night.

I’m always awake early myself though (usually 5:30, always before 6) so I can understand her being awake & ready for the day then, I couldn’t go back to sleep either.

I am totally in the same situation 😩

My son (11 months) has always been an early riser at around 5:30, which I kind of got used to. But over the last month it's been getting earlier and earlier and some days he's waking up at 4:30 and we can't get him to go back down.

He naps in the morning around 9-10.15 and then 1-2.15 and then goes to bed at 6:45pm.

He has a black out blind so it's not the light, we've tried a later bed time and that doesn't help one bit. We try feeding him and putting him back down and that doesn't work. He just gets really angry and upset when we try to settle him back down.

I'm sooooo tired and it's wearing me down. I work 4 days a week 8:30-5:30. 6am would be an absolute dream!

Sorry I just think it’s something some babies do. Ds2 (10mo) wakes at 5am (blackout blind) no matter what time he goes to bed. He’s asleep around 5.30pm generally though so I feel I can’t complain - when he’s up til 8 then still up at 5 I complain though 😬

Mine is 2.5 months, still wakes once at night. In bed by 8pm latest (when no early start is required, early starts mean 7pm latest usually), wakes up naturally around 6.30-8.00am.

Ds is 2 years 4 months.
He was on 2 naps a day at 9 months (one nap a day by 11 months).
He went through a phase of waking at 5.30, we would be up for work at 6.30 so I really hated the 5.30 starts. He wouldn't cry but he would be quite moany so we ignored him till he did cry. Then we would go in and put him in our bed till our alarm went off and during this time no tv, no talking no lights or anything. Sometimes he would go back to sleep others he wouldn't but after about 3 weeks he realised that it was not worth waking up that early. That was at around 10 months old. Since then he has slept 7pm - 7 or 8am every night.
On weekends it's often 9am before he wakes!

I am not a mean parent at all and I hope my advice doesn't make me sound like I am but he wasn't getting enough sleep and nor were we so it needed changing.
Good luck

I really think you need to adjust your expectations. She's sleeping for a solid 10 hours at night so it's normal that she's waking at that time with an early bedtime. Given that she's sleeping through (lucky you!) the obvious thing would be for you to go to bed at 9pm a couple of nights a week. By all means try and keep things low key when she wakes for a few weeks in the hope that she'll go back to sleep, but many babies are just wired to wake at this time.

What are your childcare arrangements when you go back to work? Unless she's being cared for at home by somebody who can stick to the existing schedule, the new routine will probably put a spanner in the works and change her sleep anyway. So if you manage to achieve anything now it may not last for long.

Hi guys thanks for all your advice and comments. I totally understand that it’s great she is sleeping through the night. She has been doing it on and off for a about 5 months now but the last couple of weeks she has been doing it solid. She used to sleep until about 7 and even 6/6:15 would be a bit better. I thought we were making some progress as Saturday she woke at 5:40, Sunday 5:55 and yesterday 6:20 but today it was back to 5:40 again. I gave her a bottle and then put her back down. She just chatted away until about 6:20, then she cried 6:20-6:40 and then she went back to sleep and I woke her up at 7:10 and she was all cheery. We are going to give it another couple of weeks and see if we make any progress but if there has been no real change then we will just leave it and hope she starts to sleep in longer on her own. I think it’ll be better for her and for us if she does sleep in longer as she only lasts two hours or less before she needs a sleep but when she gets up later she can go about 3 hours before she needs a nap so I feel like she needs more sleep. She will be in nursery when I go to work. I’m hoping they will try to put her down for her naps at a similar time to what she has now. She’s not going until the end of July.

she cried 6:20-6:40 and then she went back to sleep and I woke her up at 7:10

Why?!

Have you tried experimenting with her naps? You ideally want the longest awake time the one before bed. At this age 2 naps is what you're aiming for.

she cried 6:20-6:40 and then she went back to sleep and I woke her up at 7:10

Why?!

Because the baby sleep site says to wake them up when you want them to start waking up to try and get their body’s used to that being their wake up time.

I wonder if two 1.5 hour naps in the day is too long and whether I should wake her after an hour and she might sleep longer at night.

Because the baby sleep site says to wake them up when you want them to start waking up to try and get their body’s used to that being their wake up time.

What site? Sounds like total shite to me.

I wonder if two 1.5 hour naps in the day is too long and whether I should wake her after an hour and she might sleep longer at night.

I’d never wake a sleeping baby, myself. Slippery slope to madness.

I don’t have a study to reference, but my understanding is that you shouldn’t wake babies generally speaking, as they’ll be in an unsuitable part of the sleep cycle for waking up and you can cause ill effects. I’m not clear on what these ill effects are, and that might be BS- but I know I feel like crap if I’m woken up when I’m not ready to wake... Maybe someone else can shed some light...?

Unfortunately it sounds like you just need to keep persisting with the routine and no “fun” until you’re prepared to get up and start the day. Were things any better last night?

Simple, give her a later bedtime! If she is sleeping for 10 hours and waking at 5:30am, put her to bed at 9:30pm to wake at 7:30am, 10:30pm for 8:30am etc. You need to do it consistently for 2 weeks to get her into the new routine. And get blackouts for the windows, Dunelm do premade linings for curtains.

Hi user. She has had a few mornings now where she has woken at 6:15/6:20 which has been a lot better. I’ve still been leaving her to chatter to herself and then she isn’t crying for long before I go in and get her up.

We have a dunelm blackout blind up plus lined curtains so it’s pretty dark in there. The website is the baby sleep site. I found it useful when my baby was a newborn and trying to get her used to day and night etc.

I think it's useful to read info on sleep but take with a pinch of salt as you can get so wrapped up in it.. I've been there! Think about what you're trying to achieve and go from there not what you think you should be doing.

I've woken DS from naps for a long time and used to wake him at 7.15 to in still routine. I found if he woke later it would kick out his other nap times. It's worked for us. Try taking 20 mins off the second nap and see what happens after a few days. If it gets worse then put the 20 mins back on.