Nearly six-month-old waking at 5am, how can I shift it later?

[Girlmum0609]

Help, where am I going wrong?

My baby is almost 6 months and for the past month has been waking at 5am or sometimes even earlier most mornings.
She is a great sleeper and will go down at 7pm and sleep through which I’m really grateful for but any advice on how to push wake ups closer to 6am? I have a toddler who wakes at this time so ideally the closer they both wake the better. I’m on maternity leave right now but would love to gently change this if I can before going back to work (when she’s 10 months)

She has 3 naps a day, wake windows currently around 2.5hrs, I can’t get longer out of her. Her last nap usually ends around 3.30pm and bed at 7pm. It’s a very long last wake window but I don’t have time to fit another nap in. When she wakes in the morning she’s very happy, no crying.

Does anyone have any advice including how to gently push to a later bed time to see if this can help? The problem is because she wakes so early I don’t know how to get into a new routine with naps, wake windows etc.

I'm going to be completely honest with you, mine was like this and despite trying everything I could he still woke at 5am every day for 3 years😭 I'd just appreciate that she sleeps through for such a good amount of time and gets used to early mornings. Sorry 😐

My baby is 10 months and sleeps through now (amazingly) but wakes up at 4 🙃 he will sleep after that if we rock him in the dark (me while breastfeeding him) in a very light sleep, but we just don’t seem to be able to switch it later. We keep him in the dark until 5:30/6 hoping we can get it to 5-6 at some point! So no advice here! Haven’t found “wake windows” have made any difference!

My dd was like this until about 17 months! Nothing we did made a difference to her wake time.

Anyways, we waited until the clocks changed and stuck to her "new" bedtime of 8pm and now she has started sleeping past 6 and usually until 7.

Honestly if they’re sleeping through I wouldn’t change anything, this time is harder to sleep in later with the lighter mornings anyway and at that age babies and their routines change so quickly.

Ah Thanks all. Sometimes it’s good to hear that reality of it, as you question yourself constantly and it’s just one massive puzzle.

I did think this might just be her! I’m okay with it as I appreciate she sleeps through the night but I think my problem is I don’t go to bed early enough. By the time both are in bed and asleep and dinner is made it’s gone 8.30pm and the thought of a 9.30pm bedtime makes me feel I get no time to myself during the day.
I must say it’s easier to swallow in the summer months with the light mornings…

Our ten year old still wakes up this early, some people are larks rather than night owls. You could try pushing bed time later to see if that helps.

I find they do it long enough to train you to wake at that the time regardless. So eventually you're up working at 4am while they're sleeping in until 9.

Average overnight is 10-11 hours so exactly what she's doing. Can you shift by 5/10 mins a day to get to a 8pm bedtime? Or cut day sleep down so she takes more of her sleep at night. Can you have dinner before they go to bed? We always eat around 6pm altogether, I also think it's better to eat with your children. Then once our toddler is asleep we get 2 hours of evening and we're then asleep by 10pm.

What time is her first nap? Apparently, the earlier they nap, the earlier they wake up so you could TRY to delaying her morning nap a bit?

If it’s any consolation after raising five the ones who wake up consistently at 5am won’t be the ones having a problem catching the school bus, my eldest was the worst early riser and never missed the bus in the whole 7 years of secondary school. I know that doesn’t help with the tiredness now but it’s something to look forward to x

Can you shift tge day around a bit to eat as a family so your evening isn't full of meal prep and chores?

Cut half an hour off her naps and push bedtime forward half an hour to get you a 6am wake time.

sounds like she has just had enough sleep by that time, so you need to take sleep from elsewhere to have her sleeping til 6am.