Why is she waking at 5.30 ! AArgh !

[Tillysmummy]

Dd has always been variable with her wake up times. She goes down like clockwork between 7 and 7.30 every evening. I have tried to work out patterns of if her night sleep is related to day sleep and therefore cut out naps after 3pm etc and am trying to encourage her to have a long sleep 10-12 etc with no sleep in the afternoon to see if it makes any difference. It doesn't seem to although now I think about it maybe she has slept better with no afternoon sleep.

She is 11 months old and went through a good phase of waking at 6.30, sometimes 7 and rarely 7.30 but now has gone back to waking at 5.30.

Because she hasn't been well I don't like to leave her to cry and am also actually thinking that it is probably because she has been napping in the afternoon say 2-3 or 1-2 because she hasn't been well and sleep has been everywhere.

Perhaps I should try to go back to putting her to sleep at 10 ish ? It's so difficult to know because when she wakes up so early she really wants to sleep by about 9am so how do i break the cycle ?

Any advice would be much appreciated. She has just cut two molars and whenever she's ill everything gets disrupted but I wonder if it will go back to normal etc etc.

Just thought, when she was at Jigsaw yesterday she slept in the morning but not at all in the afternoon and still woke at 5.30pm although was in bed at about 6.45pm because she was so tired. Yet still she woke at 5.30am so that proves my no afternoon sleep theory wrong doesn't it ? The other thing is the other day she slept 10 - 11 in the car and then 3-4 in the car, not ideal but we had to go out and so she had to sleep then and there but that night she slept till 6.40 am !! Makes no sense at all....

What does she do at 530? Cry the house down ?
My DD who is 12 months went through a bout of 530 wakings but as she quietly plays away in her cot, I left her... can you do that or is it impossible ?
I have to add that she is back on a 7 AM waking time.

Hi Pupuce

She use to play in her cot but is going off that rapidly. When she did that it didn't matter. Now when she's well I'll leave her (never get her up before 6 rule in my house) and she'll cry for a couple of minutes, drop off again for 5 or 10, wake and cry again for a couple, drop off again etc and she'll do this till about 6.30 but it often means dh and I don't sleep again. I guess its not the end of the world as i'm a very sad person that goes to bed at 9am every night because of the early wake ups so I can cope if I know it's only a phase !

I think this is just a phase - my dd goes to bed at 7:30pm and is awake at 6:30 every morning. She has gone through a couple of phases where she was waking between 5:00 and 5:30 and there was nothing we could do about it (we tried keeping her up a bit later but she just got overtired and cranky and still woke up at 5:00ish!).

Thankfully she is back to 6:30 again. I just had to go to bed early to cope butit is an absolute killer when it happens!

Good luck - hope this phase doesn't last too long!

It's just a phase...and obviously you are already doing the best thing ; going to bed early yourself

Tillysmummy, sounds like you are doing the right thing - our dd woke a few mornings at 5.30 and it nearly killed me! I insisted she go back to bed (there's a 7am rule in our house ), and after a few mornings of this she started sleeping through to 7.30. Good luck.

Tillysmummy -This is only based on what works in our house, but I personally wouldn't put her down later. I have always kept my 2 ds's bedtime the same - around 8, bringing it forward to 7 if they're really tired. I also wouldn't cut back her nap too much. I know all kids are different, but my ds who's 1.5 sleeps min. 2 hours at lunch time (12-3 or 1-3 for eg) I have started to limit his nap, as it's starting to affect settling at night. ime, but hey, i'm no expert, the nap seems to affect ability to drop off, not waking time in am iykwim. Plus, if nothing else you need your sanity, and even with the worst days, I've clung onto the fact that by 8 at the latest I can put my feet up.

I'm sure you'll be exhausted if you keep her up till 10, esp if she still wakes at 5.30.

I think 5 ish is a really common time for babies to wake - I've pleaded for help on this one before myself! I know it's harder to not go to them when they're ill, I'm exactly the same. Hopefully she'll be back to normal in a day or 2, and then maybe you 'll be able to be strict & regular with nap times & bed time & not going to her, or at least going in, offering her milk & telling her to go back to sleep - whatever is the norm in your house. I was told recently to treat a 5 ish wake the same as I would a 2 in the morning wake, and that made me think, because I guess I did treat it differently - sort of resigned myself to an early start, but maybe it was a conincidence, but following this advice ds went back to a more reasonable 7ish.

Good luck - I'm sure the phase will pass quickly.

My nearly 11mo ds has a sleep for about an hour at 9am and another at 1pm for an hour and a half. he does down very well between 7pm and 7.30pm and wakes around 7am. But even if he sleeps more during the day, he still sleeps until seven, so I don't think cutting out naps in the day is necessarily the answer. I do think 10pm is too late - for him and you! I think a bit of ignoring might work in the am.

Tillysmummy - I have just found this thread and can totally relate to your problem.
After a healthy 7pm-8am straight through sleep routine, a few spaced out bugs and teething incidents have taken a huge toll on our pattern.
One tactic that has worked for me has been to darken her room - the early morning sunrise was streaming into her room and may have been a factor. I have made some temporary sun blocks by putting a couple of old heavy blankets over the curtains and it has worked a treat. She still wakes at about 4-5am but now is happy to go back to sleep fairly quickly after a small drink of milk and quick cuddle.
Good Luck

Ok ladies, thanks for all the advice, maybe I'll give her the bottle in bed and let her have it and hopefully go back to sleep. Will try tomorrow am.

BTW, i meant shall I keep her up to 10am not pm for her sleep in the morning, you see when she wakes at 5.30am she is desperately tired by 9am and keeping her up till 10am seems hard. The though of trying to keep her up till lunch time is even harder !

Another 5.30am wake up. I have sort of resigned myself to the fact that this will happen and she'll grow out of it. I still don't actually get her up till 6 but then she's falling asleep on her bottle so can see she's still tired.

I think part of the problem is that DH and I go to the loo normally around 5 ish and we try and be as quiet as possible but this is her light sleeping time. I have her door open so that we can check her when we get up to go to the loo. We still like to be able to hear her breathing but perhaps I should shut her door to save her being disturbed by us. She doesn't wake up immediately but often shortly after we've been which makes me wonder.

Also, I am definitely in full agreement about not putting her to bed later. I won't put her to bed later than 7.30 because selfishly I feel we deserve our evening and relaxation and end up going to bed at 9am anyway so would have no evening to ourselves.

Sorry, misunderstood your post. My ds goes for his morning nap by 9am or even earlier, but doesn't stop him waking around 7am, so I don't think a later nap would necessarily help. I expect it is just a phase and if you don't go to her or get her until later, she'll get fed up with it and go back to sleep out of sheer boredom!

Here's hoping Aloha !

I would definately shut the door so as not to disturb her. The only thing about giving a bottle in bed at that time is that she may well wake up looking specifically for it and you will have started another problem. If you can ignore her ( unless she is very upset) I would, and she will probably just go back to sleep through boredom.

Don't think the naps are the problem. At 11 mths old, my dd still had a short nap (less than an hour) around 9.30 and a 2 hour nap around 12 or 12.30. Then she would last through til 7pm and wake up at 7am (normally.)

We also had occassional wakings at 6ish, but unless she was crying hard we didn't go in to her. Usually it was just tired sounding crying - like she still needed more sleep. When she has woken up rested she normally chats to her teddy. (We also darkened her room and closed the door to minimize the light.) Except on very rare occassions, the day doesn't start in our house until 7am (and later if possible!) So anything before 7am is treated as nighttime.

Tillysmummy

I think it may be the timing of the naps that's the problem. I think you said that your dd has her long nap between 10-12.

It may seem odd logic, but I think you need to push it back until it's later in the day (probably 12 - 2pm). What may be happening at the moment is that she is actually getting overtired in the afternoon, by being awake from 12 ish through to bedtime. So when she does go down at night, she's not sleeping as well as she might and hence wakes earlier.

I appreciate that this may be difficult to achieve at first, since if she's waking at 5ish, she'll be completely knackered by 12pm. But I do think it's worth perservering. You're right not to let her nap too late in the pm though, as this would mean she wouldn't be tired enough.

Our dd, who's 18 months, has been having 2 naps a day until recently - a small one about 9/9.30 - 9.30/10am, and then a longer one after lunch - 12/12.30 onwards. We were finding though that she was starting to wake at 5.30, having always done 7am-7pm. We decided to cut out the early am nap, but had to do this gradually, as she was finding it a struggle to get to even 11.30am at first (particularly if she'd woken at 5.30am!). Some days we do still give her a short am nap - particularly if she's doing something busy in the am, but it tends to be only every other day, or every 3 days. The aim is to eventually cut it out all together, and just have the one 2 hour nap.

The problem with lengthy morning sleeps I've found, is that a vicious circle starts whereby the baby gets increasingly knackered earlier and earlier, and hence wakes earlier and earlier.

Hope this helps.

Hi...

Thought I might reserect this thread as am now having the same problem.

There was some really good advice about naps on here and was wondering if someone could give their opinion on our nap schedule ie. too much napping or timing a bit off!!

Currently getting up anytime between 5.30 and 6.30am, then has a nap at about 8.00/8.30am for about half an hour.

Then next nap is at about 12.00 for maximum hour and half. Then has another half hour snooze at about 4.15pm. Both these naps are in the pushchair. I don't think she will get through the afternoon without the third nap but am beginning to think it could be the problem - I havn't tried cutting it out yet as havn't had the energy to cope with the resulting v.v. grumpy baby.

She is asleep by 6.45-7.00pm.

Any thoughts?? or is it a phase as mentioned earlier?

How oldis she ?
What/when does she eat ?

I currently have a similar problem (although think my dd may be older as she has fewer naps) so I'm sending sympathy and will be looking at everyone else's suggestions with great interest, hoping for a magical solution for mine own little dawn-greeter too

Ellasmum, my sympathy too. My ds (8 months) has just gone through a couple of weeks of 5 o'clock waking after having been a 6.30 - 7am boy for ages.

He's been getting a bit hit and miss with his morning nap as well. It is usually between 9 and 10, but can be anything from 0 to 80 minutes at the moment.

I think the early morning starts may be teething, as he used to stir at this time and settle himself, but now just starts screaming.

I'll be very interested in any replies as I'm knackered !

Pupuce - sorry forgot the vital info!!

She is 5 months and eats at 6.45am (ish) then solids an hour later.

Then next feed at 11.00am followed by solids - usually quite a lot. Feed at 2.30pm, then solids at 5.15 and final bottle at 6.30pm.

Her total milk intake is between 27-30 fl oz.

Having written this post yesterday she then went and slept until 6.40am - hurray!! Not sure if it was because she had loads more solids than usual at teatime. Am not holding my breath for a repeat performance tonight so any advice still v. welcome.

I am too knackered to write something now but I will do tomorrow morning.... promise !

Hi Ellasmum.

I think what I would try to do is push her first sleep back to 9am then her second back to 12.30 if poss, then keep the fourth really short - no later than 5pm.

Her routine sounds very similar to a GF routine (like my ds's was) and at 5 months your dd would not be ready to drop the late afternoon nap. 2pm to 7 pm is too long for her to go. If you bring the morning nap back to 9 am it might bring her back on track.

HTH a bit!

My daughter is just over one and sleeps from 6.30/7.00 till 6.30/7.00. She currently sleeps for half hour at 9.00 and then hour and a half at 12.30...she is exhausted by 5.30 but then I read with her so she is sitting and not getting even more tired. She has gone through several stages of sleep where she has woken 4.30 etc but generally has stopped of her own accord. I also make sure she gets plenty of fresh air during the day to knock her out at night and that she has black out blinds in her room and a sleeping bag to sleep in. Stick with it early riser mums as they all go through little phases especially when teething etc...I am also advocate of being in bed by 10.00 myself...boring but necessary!

lilly72 - 10.00pm, that would be daring for us! Current bedtime is about 8.45pm.

V.V.V. sad I know.