Almost 6MO waking at 5am

[Newmum29]

I’ve seen a sleep consultant but her recommended routine is not working.

My almost 6MO can self settle but despite putting her to bed at 7pm and making sure she doesn’t nap for longer than 3-3.5 hours a day she is regularly waking at 5am.

Nothing convinces her to go back to sleep (feeding, rocking, pram). Our routine is wake 5, leave her in her cot as long as possible. Up at 6, milk 7. Nap 8-9. Milk 10/10.30. Nap 11.30-1. Milk 2/2.30. Nap 3.30-4. Milk 6. Bed 7.

Any help much appreciated.

Fatedestiny will probably be more help, I posted similar post. Do you wake lo from naps?

10 hours might be her natural sleep cycle, try putting her to bed a bit later? Mine at that age didn't go to bed until around 9pm

So she sleeps for ten hours? I can't see that is anything to complain about.

At 6 months old bedtime wasn't until about 8:30/9 here, ot gradually became earlier by 11/12 months. Now at 15 months he does 7-6 pretty solid

I think you need to shift your whole routine. Try gradually moving everything by 10 minutes so you slowly get a later bedtime. Then in a month or two she will probably start to drop the last nap and you might be able to bring bedtime earlier again. Mine have typically slept from 8-6.30 which is only slightly more night time sleep than you are getting and still allows an evening.

You need to put her to bed later or go to bed earlier yourself to align with her body clock. Don't expect her to adjust to yours. She's so young yet.

She is doing great. Ten hours down is fine. Especially with all that nap time too. There is nothing wrong with her at all.

Too many parents want both their evenings to themselves and a lie in in the morning too.

This social conditioning that has led parents to believe that their child needs to be trained to fit around their convenience really frustrates me.

Why not find some acceptance of her for who she is and recognise she is an individual little person with her own patterns and traits and not a programmable robot...

I do accept who she is and no she doesn’t sleep for 10 hours, she still has a night feed (it’s not regular but we feed her when she wakes, sometimes it’s 10 or 2 or 3).

I do also go to bed early (9 as any earlier I’ve no chance of falling asleep). I’m with her 5am-7pm but unfortunately I start work again this week so I am trying to get an extra hour in the morning.

Yes we wake from naps.

Thanks to those suggesting we put her down later, we do try but she’s so tired by 7 (she’s usually pooped from 6 to be honest) because she’s been up for 14 hours with only 3 hours of naps. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle, she’s up so early that she wants to go to bed early. Will try pushing it 10 mins at a a time.

I think she's awake too long before her first nap as well

Personally I went through same thing. I was advised on here and generally (obviously can't always be perfect) works.

Awake - 630am (when I hear her she doesn't always make a sound when awake straight away so I'm guessing that's her awake time)
Sleep - 9am
Awake - 1030am (I do not and will not wake her. I'm in that camp of never waking a baby unless I'm desperate to be somewhere) I do have to resettle at end of cycle at times, she's 50/50 atm of needing resettling. The other day she slept till 11am 🤷🏼‍♀️

Sleep - 1pm unless tired before hand. Usually another 1.5 hours but depends last few days only been 45mins 🤷🏼‍♀️ I may have to extend awake time at some point.
Awake - 2.30pm

430pm/5pm nap - this one is variable and depends on previous nap. Sometimes goes down earlier. I have to wait till 5pm for her to go off sometimes as she simply not tired enough and fights it. But this is due to drop at some point

that means a bed time obviously depends on when it is. I aim for 730pm bed for routine with mummy, in cot about 745pm sleep about 8pm ish.

My LO used to go bed at 6/630pm some nights and would wake at 5-530am 😴

So I do awake times of about 2.5 hours. Maybe just over (my LO is 7 months now though, so may be too much 2.5 hours. I would keep to 2 hours for now) That does mean later bedtome within you lose your evenings a bit but hopefully your then not up at 5am 🤷🏼‍♀️ pick your poison.

I keep saying to myself it's just short term going bed at 8pm. Some people say put lo to bed at 9pm. I'm literally asleep by then so no can do for me.

Some people say cut naps 🤷🏼‍♀️🤔 it's your choice. When I made changes to my LO schedule it did take about a week for her to settle and we had a few unsettled nights. But that's to be expected.

I think you have to let your lo find their routine

Ours was the same. About 15 months old she started sleeping through until 7am or even later. We didn't do anything to change it. I think it's just the way it is for a lot of babies to be honest!

I try not to let my LO sleep longer then one cycle at the 5pm one. So at least I can keep bedtime on track. But if she goes sleep at 4pm I let her sleep as long as she likes 🤷🏼‍♀️ until 530/545pm. If I don't have the naps and if I woke my LO she would be an overtired mess and be up early and all night whinging.

I almost 39 years old and I still wake up around 5am every day! Please let me know when you find out the magic secret to convincing a brain to go back to sleep when it has woken naturally.

It’s hard isn’t it, I agree 5am seems to be her natural wake time but equally if I let her sleep as long as she wants in the morning nap, she won’t sleep at lunch and by the time we get to the afternoon she’s so cranky.

It’s not about forcing her to sleep through, I know it’s completely natural for her to wake in the night, it’s about trying to help her in the day but she fights each and every sleep.

How long are you leaving between morning and afternoon nap? And how long is morning nap if you let her sleep naturally ?

Ok, that's settling question. For me, i do exactly the same each and every nap time. In pram. White noise. Dummy. Hood down over pram. I will sit beside pram without her seeing me wait a min if she grizzles, reinsert dummy - it's like it resets her and that helps and if we having bad day I will pop hand on chest remove once calm. And keep doing that. I find consistency works with my LO.

Huh? That's brilliant isnt it?

Id be happy with that