9 month old taking really short naps and waking early

[Newtothecrew]

Hi there I’m looking for some advice. My 9 month old has started waking between 5-530am, previously woke at 615am which is fine. She wakes early but doesn’t want a bottle, infact she has gone totally off her morning bottle but she wakes at this time and doesn’t want to go back to sleep. Problem is she seems really tired and cries a lot until I put her back for a nap 2hrs later. Her naps only last 30mins max which means her first nap can sometimes be over by 8am! She still takes 3 naps a day because they are so short. She is usually cranky when she wakes from her naps like she has not had enough sleep. Her bedtime routine has not changed, she goes to bed about 630-7pm and her last nap usually finishes between 3 and 4pm. Her room is quiet and dark for her naps and I have a white noise machine. She sleeps fairly well through the night with a few wake ups just to settle her but not for a bottle. Any ideas to help her nap longer and ideally sleep in til at least 6am would be great thank you x

Stop treating her early waking as a sign that she's ready to start the day. Treat it as though she's woken up at 1.00 in the morning and put her back to bed. Don't offer milk.

Treat the morning waking as one of the "few wake ups just to settle her but not for a bottle" as you do in the night.

Thank you
I’ve tried this but it’s a different kind of wake she sits up and starts playing a cooing, during the night she just cries a little for her dummy or if she’s got uncomfortable but goes straight back to sleep x

Does she cry or just have a play?

She will play in her cot for 5 mins or so but then cry if I don’t go to her after that

We went through this - sadly it's just a phase you need to get through probably. I was at my wits end with the 5am starts but it stopped after a few weeks. He's 1 on Friday and has been back to sleeping through until 6.30-7am for the last few weeks.

Like you, I knew that the 5am wake up was 'different' from the nighttime wake-ups/resettles.

Go to bed by 9pm and take turns with your OH if you can.

It will pass.

Thank you that’s reassuring to know it’s a phase. 5am is just too early to be starting the day. 9pm has been my new bedtime for a long time now haha.
Did your baby have short naps too? X

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Mine was a 40 min napper always, unless I took him out for a drive to engineer (force) a longer nap. This went on until the 7/8 month point when he learnt to stand up and cruise and crawl. Then he started to sleep like longer, because he was physically more tired.

I tried so many things to get him to sleep longer (at the 4/5 month point I was doing 60/80 miles a day in the car over his three naps) but it eventually clicked into place for him.

I wish I hadn't spent so much of the early days being stressed about it. It was very limiting for all of us.