Sleeping through but waking early - 9 months

[Lgw20]

So we’ve basically dropped babe to two naps.

However now he seems to be waking early because he sleeps through and is going to bed at 6pm and then waking 5am. Getting enough sleep I assume.

Schedule roughly looks like this

5-5.30 am wake (don’t get out of cot till 6am)
2.5/2.75 hours awake time from 6am

8.30/45am - 10am nap
3 hours awake

1pm - 2.30pm - nap
3.5 hours awake

6pm bedtime.

Any advice to strech this out? Or what will help?

I know it’s because I need to put him to bed later but don’t know how to strech him any longer in the day!

That looks entirely normal for a 9 month old - and vastly better than many. I think you just need to accept that’s how it is right now and count your blessings.

@CinnabarRed

I am very grateful that he is sleeping so well.

Was simply just asking any advice regarding early wakings if it could be changed by pushing his bedtime later.

I know he's doing really well for 9 months!

Mine did this, he's now 3 and still wakes at 5.30. Nothing I ever did changed it, and trust me I tried!! The only thing that's helped is that he now understands the gro clock and will stay (fairly) quiet until 6am.

Later bedtime never helped, just meant he was more tired and struggled to make it to his first nap, meaning he ended up in bed earlier in the evening and up even earlier in the morning. Sorry that's probably not what you want to hear

You could try shifting everything very gradually, or try a few really late nights to see if that shifts his wake up.

@saywhatwhatnow

Thanks for your reply! Yes we deffo know he's an early waker. Me and his dad are tbh just not 4.45/5am some days 😴

Yeah we will try shifting it.

As the days he doesn't nap well we do a 15 min cat nap and 7.30pm bedtime and he wakes 6.30am!

Try shifting the naps, everything seems to be happening a little too early.

For a 9 month old, first nap should start at 9:30/10am. Second nap should start at 2:00/2:30pm but not go past 4pm!

Bedtime at 7pm.

I used this for my DS. Wakes at 6:30/7:00am most days. If a nap wasn't had or wasn't long enough I'd just bring bedtime back by half an hour.

@sleepsuit

Yeah that's what I want to achieve more!

Do you think it's a case of stretching his awake times to get naps around 9am atleast? And then the rest follow suit?

Defo try bedtime at 7.

Looks amazing! Not sure what else can be done really...

Coming from an envious mum here (my 14 month old still wakes 3-4 times a night and my 4 year old only started sleeping through the night about 6 months ago ha )

@lgw20

Yes, keep an eye on awake times but don't be concerned if they aren't always the same. I also should have said don't do this all in one go!!

Gradually push the naps back 15 mins at a time. If you start with the morning nap being pushed back then the rest should gradually fall into place. Baby might be a little tired and grumpy with this to start with but hopefully will quickly adjust.

I've got everything crossed for you. Early wake ups are such a pain!

My son is 2 and early wakes have been one of our most consistent issues. Not helped by DH who is an early riser and im sure encourages it at times . Sounds like you are doing everything right, but I just wanted to add don't stretch the window before bed as that has the biggest impact on night wakes. If you want to shift his routine later stretch the early wake windows.

To be honest I wouldn’t play around to much with that schedule. Gradually push everything back by 5-10mins till you get bedtime at 7pm.

I would shift everything 5 to 10 minutes later. Start nap in the morning a bit later. It takes a few days, if not more, to make lo realise they need to sleep longer in the morning, but they get the idea. It can take up to 3 weeks to reset their internal rhythm.

Ds has never slept 11hrs in one stint and he’s nearly 2 years!

At that age we had something like:
6am wake
9.30-10.30am nap
2-3pm nap
Occasionally a quick 15 min nap at 5pm
8.30-9pm bed
9pm-6am wake every 1-2 hours. Repeat!

Some babies and children just need less sleep. At 21 months he ideally needs one afternoon nap of 90mins, but he often powers through from 6.30-7am to 9pm without.

Could you try waking him from his morning nap and then encouraging a longer afternoon nap so tgat bedtime can be closer to 7?

It might just be that he's having enough sleep with the naps that he's ready to wake early.

Our routine at that age was

7am wake
9.30-10.15 nap. Would always cap this at 45 mins max

12.30/1-3ish nap

Bedtime 6.60/7

I’d try pushing the first nap later. No matter what time my DD woke I’d still put her down for her first nap at 9:15/9:30 at that age. Second nap was then at 2 and bedtime at 7.

@Vicky1989x

Even if she woke at 5am? X

Yep, I did that as pp said. If my lo woke at 530am, then no nap before 9am at the extreme earliest. I wouldn't let my lo sleep longer than 1 hour either. Once we settled in that, we moved the first nap forward more.

That is very, very good for a 9 month old. Unfortunately they do tend to wake early at that age.

Mine were both up at 5 (if not earlier) for quite a long time. Eventually it just sorted itself out.

I know it's hard but an awful lot of babies aren't even sleeping all night at that age.

[quote Lgw20]@Vicky1989x

Even if she woke at 5am? X[/quote]
Yep. It was hard keeping her up but she soon got the idea. She then started waking 6-6:30 but I wouldn’t get her up/give milk until 7am and pushed the nap back to 9:30 and she soon started sleeping until 7am.

Shift the whole routine - either by 15 minutes a day or do it an hour in one go like you would when the clocks change.

Not just naps but bottles & meals too.

Does she wake by herself at 2.30? If she can sleep closer to 3, then you could manage a 7pm bedtime. That’s what we had at that age and dd would normally wake about 6/6.30.
I think we went by awake times of 2/3/4 between the sleeps and worked great. Morning nap was always limited to an hour and then would sometimes get a 2 1/2 hour lunch nap. Good luck!

Eldest did this for ages. Started doing 12 hours when she dropped the final nap at 18-20mo.

Her wake time while still on one nap was around 4.30am. We spent over a month stretching awake times for a later bedtime and she still woke at the same time - and the later bedtime was tricky for me as I’m a primary teacher so need to get about three hours of work done per evening.

Once she stopped napping she regularly did 6pm-6am, now it’s 6.30pm-6am.

If it works for you I’d leave it to resolve itself. If not, you could try shifting things but be aware you just might have an early bird on your hands.