Early wake up / dropping nap - what to do?!

[twiggytwoo]

My 6.5 month old consistently wakes up wide awake before 6am (usually at 5.40am). I decided to drop the third nap yesterday and it made it worse - today we have been up since 5am :(.
Do we persist with this or try something new?

She was v tired at bedtime but otherwise did manage the new awake time.

Our usual day time nap routine would be something like.

8.45 - 10am - nap 1
12.15 - 2pm/2.15pm - nap 2
4.15 - 4.45pm - nap 3 (to be dropped?)

I’m very tired. We are also still waking up at least once for a feed.

I think sleeping until 545 is amazing for a six month old!!!!!!

What time is bedtime?
Can you keep the nap and make bedtime later?

Sorry OP but it sounds like you have a good sleeper.
Some babies are naturally early risers. My little one is nearly 2 and 6am is normally around the time she wakes up (we get the odd day about 7am) but 6am is very consistent. Even when she goes to bed later it's still early doors!

Think they all have an early waking phase. Then they turn into teenagers who won't get out their bloody bed in the morning! (I have 2 of these )

@dementedpixie haha I keep saying this to hubby, when she's a teenager it'll be the other way around and we'll be trying to get her up!

We dropped third nap at that age! We followed wake windows of 3 hours before first nap, 3 hours before second nap, and 4 hours before bed time.
Also I woke my LO from naps after 2.5 hours (I KNOW but it helped night time sleep A LOT). She now sleeps 8-7 (usually, we still get some 6am wake ups) with 1 night feed still.
7 am - wake up
10 - 11.30 am - first nap
2.30pm - 4pm - second nap
8pm bed

We wake her after After 1.5 hours I mean

Is it hunger? Can you post your full routine including feeds?

You have to give it time for her body to adjust. You can't just drop one nap and expect her to sleep longer. Give it at least a week.

Although, at 6.5 months, I think you should just go with the flow. It could a regression or teething or just a phase. She's very young and she's a baby. Yes, she'll wake up early sometimes. You're going to get all kinds of wake ups over the next few years.

I feel a bit better and I guess I would be happy with 6am but as soon as there is a 5 in front of any number it feels early.

We also feed at around 1am/2am so she could be hungry. Last night I also fed at 10.30 because the increased wake up period meant she’d fallen asleep quickly on the boob so wasn’t convinced she’d had a full feed.

Is she on solids in the daytime? How many milk feeds and are you exclusively BFing?

@LapinR0se limited solids, try her with something three times a day but will only accept a couple of spoonfuls. Baby led weaning is more miss that hit - some things she won’t put in her mouth at all. She probable has 5 - 6 feeds a day: 8am, 10.30, 13.00 (if she wakes early from nap I feed to resettle), 14.30, 17.00 and then 18.45/bedtime feed. And then at 2am and whenever she wakes.

Just bf at the moment but she is a big baby - 98th percentile.

I’d just love her to sleep till 6am tbh! The 4 month sleep regression was really hard so it’s a small miracle she is doing as well as she is as last month she was waking hourly.

Ok so this is what I would do to tweak the routine and help with early waking:
If she wakes before 6 I would offer a small feed in the dark and leave to settle back to sleep with no interaction.
If she wakes at 6 I would get her up and start the day.
6-7am depending on time of wake - breastfeed
8am Breakfast e.g porridge or scrambled egg or mashed banana and avocado, with toast fingers on the side
9-10am nap. Stick to one hour absolute max here and do not start it earlier than 9am regardless of wake up time. Babies use this morning nap to compensate for wakeful nights and it can really exacerbate early waking.
10.30 milk feed
12noon lunch with higher nutrition foods such as sweet potato and a small piece of steamed white fish
12.30 -3pm nap. Your baby can sleep up to 2.5 hours here. Wake her at 3pm though, that's the latest she should be awake
3pm milk feed
5pm carbohydrate-based dinner such as baby pasta with mixed veggie sauce
6pm bath
6.45pm milk feed
7pm in bed asleep
I would aim to feed once at night, two times max.
Make sure her bedroom is fully blacked out with no light at all coming in.

Ok so this is what I would do to tweak the routine and help with early waking:
If she wakes before 6 I would offer a small feed in the dark and leave to settle back to sleep with no interaction.
If she wakes at 6 I would get her up and start the day.
6-7am depending on time of wake - breastfeed
8am Breakfast e.g porridge or scrambled egg or mashed banana and avocado, with toast fingers on the side
9-10am nap. Stick to one hour absolute max here and do not start it earlier than 9am regardless of wake up time. Babies use this morning nap to compensate for wakeful nights and it can really exacerbate early waking.
10.30 milk feed
12noon lunch with higher nutrition foods such as sweet potato and a small piece of steamed white fish
12.30 -3pm nap. Your baby can sleep up to 2.5 hours here. Wake her at 3pm though, that's the latest she should be awake
3pm milk feed
5pm carbohydrate-based dinner such as baby pasta with mixed veggie sauce
6pm bath
6.45pm milk feed
7pm in bed asleep
I would aim to feed once at night, two times max.
Make sure her bedroom is fully blacked out with no light at all coming in.

Ok so this is what I would do to tweak the routine and help with early waking:
If she wakes before 6 I would offer a small feed in the dark and leave to settle back to sleep with no interaction.
If she wakes at 6 I would get her up and start the day.
6-7am depending on time of wake - breastfeed
8am Breakfast e.g porridge or scrambled egg or mashed banana and avocado, with toast fingers on the side
9-10am nap. Stick to one hour absolute max here and do not start it earlier than 9am regardless of wake up time. Babies use this morning nap to compensate for wakeful nights and it can really exacerbate early waking.
10.30 milk feed
12noon lunch with higher nutrition foods such as sweet potato and a small piece of steamed white fish
12.30 -3pm nap. Your baby can sleep up to 2.5 hours here. Wake her at 3pm though, that's the latest she should be awake
3pm milk feed
5pm carbohydrate-based dinner such as baby pasta with mixed veggie sauce
6pm bath
6.45pm milk feed
7pm in bed asleep
I would aim to feed once at night, two times max.
Make sure her bedroom is fully blacked out with no light at all coming in.

My 10-month old does this too, and what I do is bring her into bed with me from her second waking in the night (any time from 2am). Then whenever she wakes/cries from that point, I breastfeed her lying down on her side, and she falls asleep again. This way I'm still dozing while she feeds, and can drift off easily after.

Using the above approach, she wakes up properly from 6.30am onwards. Otherwise we'd be looking at 5am or earlier, I think.

No idea why my message posted 3 times. Sorry!

No idea why my message posted 3 times. Sorry!

Can you reduce the milk and therefore in turn increase the solids to fill her up a bit more?

No advice but I'm right there with you. Mine wakes at 4.30 ever morning. I've just started using black out blinds which seem to have got her to 5.30. now I'm holding her while she sleeps. I'm hoping to get her to 6 30.

If you figure it out let me know

LapinRose has it.

5.40 am is classed as sleeping through at 6 months. Don't mess with her naps at this stage she's still quite young for sleep training . Give her time and as she gets older you'll probably find she drops a nap herself and slowly sleeps abit longer at night x

Thanks for the advice everyone!

And thanks for the food advice @LapinR0se which I’m definitely going to follow. Last night she was v unsettled up to 11pm when she had a big poo and then was wide awake for the next hour - I definitely think it was good related because she had a veg and fruit pouch and ate nearly the whole thing (it’s the fruit! Has only had veg purées before which are not popular).

Went to sleep again at 12:30, up at 4am for a feed and again at 5.45am. Even with a later feed we just can’t break that 6am barrier!