How do I stop the early morning waking?

[Raquelita1]

Hello, hope somebody can help..... 

We've made quite a lot of progress with our spirited DD in the last month in terms of getting her to nap and helping her to fall asleep in the first place.  But we've really got a problem with her waking up about an hour and a quarter before her first feed of the day is due.  This has been going on for as long as I can remember, so I'm sure it's not a developmental thing.  She's on an 8-8 routine and manages to go 3.5-4 hours between feeds during the day.  I'm sure she's not waking up because she's hungry, as she seems to hold out easily till 8am for her first bottle.  Apart from the DF which we still do, she hasn't fed in the night since she reached 2 months old. 

Anyway, she wakes up and lies in her cot cooing, squeaking and singing for anything from 30-60 minutes before getting a bit agitated and then I go in to her room to get her.  Btw, she has been in her cot in her own room since day one, so I can't attribute this early waking to any changes there.  You might say that she's just an early waker and there's nothing to fix, but the problem is that she then seems to want to make up for the lack of night sleep during the day and this usually makes the routine very tricky as she is often sleepy at feeding times.  So our routine may go like this these days: AEASASEASEASAES, basically with a 45 minute nap about an hour after her first feed (though occasionally she might nap for 1.5 hours), perhaps a catnap sometime before lunch, then a long nap of up to 2.5 hours after lunch (and I often have to wake her to feed, as if she'd sleep longer if she could), then another 45 minutes later in the afternoon.  Things generally seem to get back on track after her long lunchtime nap, but the mornings are tricky.   Even so, after her afternoon nap she always wakes up cranky and only wants to be held while I'm standing up (I can't sit down, and she won't play at all) until it's time for bath, bottle and bed.   

Over the Christmas period I tried doing wake-to-sleep by going into her room an hour before she normally wakes up, and for the few nights I tried it, it went horribly wrong.  Even though I opened the door as quietly as a mouse, she stirred and woke up fully straight away.  Once awake it can easily take an hour to get her back to sleep - it has always been this way, even when she was feeding in the night as a newborn.  Doing this perhaps changed the time she woke up properly, but it wasn't consistent each day.

I just don't know what to do to help her get more sleep at night-time, and to get her feeding and napping times in sync.    Please, does anybody have any advice or ideas that might help me?

Many thanks xx

[Jaime]

let me see if i've got her day figured out from what you posted...

7am wake
8am eat
9am-9:45 nap
11:30-12 nap
12 eat
1:30-4 sleep
4 eat
5-5:45 nap
7:30 bath, bottle, bed at 8pm

i think if you could extend that first nap, you could drop that mid-morning catnap and cut down to 3 naps a day.  around that age, i think my ds was napping about 1.5hr in the morning, 1.5 hr in the afternoon, and 45 min catnap in the early evening.  bedtime was at 8pm, and he'd usually be up at 7am. 

truthfully, 8pm - 7am is a really great stretch of sleep, and since she's waking happy i'd wager it's cause she's not tired anymore.  i think you might see improvement in her personality if you can get her daytime sleep steadier...

there is a thread in the nap forum about extending naptimes that you might want to check out:
http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/teaching-sleep-to-3-5mos-and-overcoming-the-45min-naps-vt39769.html

[Raquelita1]

Hi Jaime

Thanks for your reply.  I did post something back to you earlier, but when I looked again later on it had disappeared - must be teething probs with the new site.....  Anyway, you're more or less right with our routine, it goes kind of like this:
6.45am wake up (OK, so if she's simply had enough sleep and wants to get up, should we just give in and dress/play with her till the feed is due?)
8am bottle
8.45/9am nap (may last 25 mins, 45 mins, 60 mins, 100 mins.......very inconsistent but generally 30-40)
11.45am/12pm lunchtime bottle plus small amount baby rice/veg (recently introduced first tastes)
12.30/1.30pm down for nap (depends how long she napped in morning as to what time she needs to go down, or whether she catnapped before lunch - which is only occasionally in pushchair if we're out running errands)
3/3.15pm wake up
3.30pm bottle
5/5.30 down for nap in pushchair while out for walk (can last 20-45 mins)
6pm small amount baby rice/fruit (we moved from bedtime to 6pm as she seemed to be too tired by bedtime)
6.45pm bath
7/7.15pm bottle
7.30 in bed, generally asleep by 8pm

In the past (about 5 weeks ago) I tried to extend the morning nap by going in to lay a hand on her when she started to stir after the first sleep cycle.  It worked the first day, but never again.  So I gave up.  The link you posted doesn't seem to be working for me (perhaps due to the new site?), but I'll see if I can find it and have a look at some of the other posts on that board.

I'm also thinking that we might try wake-to-sleep again this weekend, and give it 3 nights to see what happens.  Even if she wakes up fully when I go in at 5.45am and it takes me till 7am to get her back to sleep, at least by sleeping till 8am we'll be getting the day off to a good start.  Who knows, it's worth a try.  Wish me luck......

Thanks again. xx