8.5 month old waking at 5-5.30am!

[Tootiredmum4321]

Hi all I need help! My 8.5 month old has been waking at 5-5.30am for weeks. It's exhausting ! We've tried blackout blinds, cry it out, and offering a feed. Most of the time he won't go back to sleep even though I get the impression he needs more - he's usually ready for a nap by 8am and will often nap for 90mins. He has another nap about 1.30pm for an hr. How can we correct this , its tiring !! Xx

You can't. It's normal. All part of having a baby. Mine were 5am wakers yes it is exhausting but you just have to ride it out. It doesn't last forever !

Yep my 9 month old has woken at 5 -30 for ages now. Think it's normal. Sometimes she wakes at 4:30 so I'm usually pretty pleased when at anything past 5!

It’s normal I’m afraid, and not abnormally early. Just embrace having that 8am nap yourself if you can!

Seems to be very common around that age, it's usually just an exhausting phase though.

It is not pleasant but it won’t be forever! I hated the early mornings with a passion. DS (8) still likes an early start but is now old enough to just stay in his room and read or quietly play. The upside of it is that he goes to bed relatively early and we have the whole evening to ourselves. We have tried to shift his bedtime slightly later (and get him to sleep in a bit longer) but it has never ever worked.
to you, it’s really really hard.

My 2 year old still gets up at 5. Or 4:45 today. Nothing helps. It's just something that many kids do.

It's funny how we are all different isn't it!?Our baby wakes around 5am and this is perfect for us all. Dogs get walked, workouts get done, everyone gets breakfast, the house gets a bit of a tidy and we all head off for our day fully prepared for the day. Baby is ready for nap about 8am and will have at least an hour if not 2. If we had to hang around waiting for him to get up we'd get nothing done. Baby is ready for bed at 6.30pm and we're ready for bed at 8.30 and sometimes we have a late night and go to bed at 9.30. I never used to be a morning person but I adjusted my day to fit around baby and its worked beautifully, I don't think I ever want to go back to being a night owl now.

@Tootiredmum4321

Hi all I need help! My 8.5 month old has been waking at 5-5.30am for weeks. It's exhausting ! We've tried blackout blinds, cry it out, and offering a feed. Most of the time he won't go back to sleep even though I get the impression he needs more - he's usually ready for a nap by 8am and will often nap for 90mins. He has another nap about 1.30pm for an hr. How can we correct this , its tiring !! Xx

That's not enough sleep in the afternoon.

It will either lead to a very early bedtime. Or baby going to bed over-tired, so sleeping restlessly in the light sleep phase of the night. Both these will give you early morning wake ups.

So your baby needs more daytime sleep, especially in the afternoon. I'd suggest either adding in a third pushchair nap at around 4.30pm and then make bedtime much later. Or lengthen that lunchtime nap to at least 2h. Napping in something that moves would help this.

he's usually ready for a nap by 8am and will often nap for 90mins. He has another nap about 1.30pm for an hr

That's really normal for that age. The awake window between get up time & first nap is usually a bit shorter.

But if he's waking up from nap at 9.30 and then another nap - that's a 4hrs awake. That's pretty long to be honest.

From Huckleberry sleep site (which I thoroughly recommend)....

"At 8 months most children need 2.25 - 3.5 hours of awake time in between sleep periods at this age."

What time is he going to bed?

To posters saying that your baby needs more sleep during the day - not necessarily true. People give advice based on their own babies but they're not a homogenous group. Just like my sleep needs are different to yours. Some babies you can not physically get two naps out of despite lullabies, dummies, bottle, stroking, patting shushing etc. Just like some babies need a lot of help to get to sleep snd others you just have to push in the pram for a few minutes. So don't worry about your baby not getting enough.

I know 5am is an ungodly hour but it kind of just becomes normal. Can you take it in turns with your partner if you have one on who goes downstairs with the baby so you can have a lay in?

Thanks for your support and advice guys . He's going to bed at 7pm and he does seem knackered by then . Xxx

@Tootiredmum4321

Thanks for your support and advice guys . He's going to bed at 7pm and he does seem knackered by then . Xxx

11h overnight sleep is average for this stage, with anything within the range of 10h-12h being considered perfectly normal.

So a 7pm bedtime giving you a 5am wake up isn't anything to be concerned about. That's enough sleep for this age.

If you want a wake up nearer 6am-6.30pm then shift bedtime to 8pm-8.30pm. Obviously that needs you to add in extra daytime sleep to enable your baby to get through to a later bedtime. But the idea would be that adding in a third nap in the short-term will ultimately make your morning wake up later so that all of your naps are later and so the third nap isn't needed.

I think 5/5.30 is pretty normal for many. Not sure there’s much you can do about it.

If he's sleeping 7pm-5am I think that's bloody brilliant for that age. My eldest is now 4 and has started waking later in the last 6 months or so but when he was up at 5 we just took it in turns (or one of us get up in the night and the other the morning).

Agree it’s normal for that age. My daughter was the same, gradually it improved and by about 18 months she slept until 7.30am. I think if someone had said to me 5am is fine, just adjust your day and get used to it I would have cried! A 5am start for my family simply would never work.
I now have another girl who is 9 months and just getting through the 5am wakes. Unfortunately she now wakes up my older one, so by the time I get her back to sleep the other one wakes up! I would persevere trying to get your little one back to sleep even if it takes an hour, you are teaching them this is sleep time and not wake up time.

Thanks guys 😣 we pushed the morning nap back today, cut it short and we are going to try a 3rd micro nap at 4pm and a later bed time ! Xxx

How's it gone?

You could be me honestly. A fortnight ago I was googling this exact issue because it's just ridiculously hard if you're not a morning person! The best thing I saw (and worked for us until the heat came and having the window open ruined everything) was that by allowing them to take an early nap they are catching up on the sleep they need but are missing by getting up at 5. If you push the nap to 9-10am ish then do the afternoon nap they should sleep later as they connect that last sleep cycle rather than waking and catching up on the nap if that makes sense? We did this for a week and he slept until 7 or 8am with a bedtime of half 7. Unfortunately the light coming through when the window was open has thrown off the routine a bit but hopefully it'll work for you if you do try (and also, you have my sympathy. Early starts absolutely drain me. And it makes you feel even worse when you see responses saying that's what having a baby is etc. Just because that's what babies do doesn't mean it's easy and I think sometimes people forget that)

I subscribed to one of the well known sleep programmes because I was interested in solving early wakes. Mines does this, but not all the time.

I think the pushing the morning nap as close to 9 as you can, cutting it short - I always do max 1 hour - they say 40mins!!

Another nap at 1pm - ideally until 3.

If they wake early from that PM nap, a micro nap as you said you were going to try at 4ish - just 10 mins. Seems mental though doesn't it.

Oh and try not to feed them until as late as you can in the morning when they wake.

I dont really understand paying for a sleep programme for a baby that has perfectly normal and healthy sleep habits. They are sleeping around 10/11 hours a night, although it's not nice for us to get up at 5 it is normal for this age.

Thanks @BeHappyAndSmile it's tough !

So yesterday he had 45 min morning nap at 9.10am then 80 mins at 1pm ! (Not sure how to lengthen this 😣🤷‍♀️) We tried a third micro nap at 4.30 but he refused it so I think the 3rd nap is truly over ! Bed at 7.15 but he woke even earlier at 4.30 upset ! I rocked him back to sleep then and at 5.15 but eventually made a bottle which he took really quickly and went back to sleep till 7.45 so I'm thinking he must be getting hungry !? I'd stopped bf as I thought the night feeds were over but now I'm worrying he still needs an early feed ?! Xxx

@Tootiredmum4321

Thanks *@BeHappyAndSmile* it's tough !

So yesterday he had 45 min morning nap at 9.10am then 80 mins at 1pm ! (Not sure how to lengthen this 😣🤷‍♀️) We tried a third micro nap at 4.30 but he refused it so I think the 3rd nap is truly over ! Bed at 7.15 but he woke even earlier at 4.30 upset ! I rocked him back to sleep then and at 5.15 but eventually made a bottle which he took really quickly and went back to sleep till 7.45 so I'm thinking he must be getting hungry !? I'd stopped bf as I thought the night feeds were over but now I'm worrying he still needs an early feed ?! Xxx

How much is he eating during the day? If he's waking because he's hungry that's better than waking because he wants to be awake, easier to help haha. What time do you do his last solid meal before bed? If it's too close you'll struggle to get enough milk in him for his bed time feed to keep him topped up.

I actually don't think a 5am wake is normal, some kids do it, sure. But as with all things baby, there are ways to mould things so that they work within your family schedule and routine. It's the same as if your baby was waking at 9am for the day, but it didn't work for you because of your work schedule/getting other kids to school. You equip yourself with knowledge and skills to work out how to gradually change it.

The poster asked for help, because the 5am wake doesn't work for her. It doesn't really matter if you understand why people do things, but from what I can see you, you had no useful suggestion for the OP.

So baby is sleeping ten hours at night but you want him to sleep longer? Waking at 5 is very normal.