8 month old waking up at 4:30 - 5 am to begin the day

[Linda74]

Hi

My lo is almost 8 months old and has finally started sleeping through the night, but wakes up somewhere between 4:30 - 5:30 am.  I think it might be his naps because he sleeps an ave of 3 -4 hours during the day.  My question is...during the day, my lo still gets tired quite quickly...typically within an 1 hour 15 min of waking up.  I try to stretch this to about 1  1/2 - 2 hours of wake time.  But that still leaves him sleeping the 3 - 4 hours a day for naps.  What can I do?  He seems to be tired.  I don't want to keep him up to the state of overtiredness.  Since he's been getting up so early....I put him down for his first nap of the day around 6:30 am and let him sleep until 8 am.  The routine that he was on is now all out the window because he's waking up so early.  I have noticed too that he might be getting separation anxiety.  I can't even leave the room to go to the washroom without him crying or whining.  Any suggestions to help change his wake time to 6:30 or 7 am would be great!

Linda

[kim&savannah]

Could you outline your schedule a little bit more?  When does he go to bed (exactly how much sleep each day is he getting?)

We've had lots of early wakings--some things that could cause it:  Too cold/hot, hungry, bad habit?  Anything sounding like a possible problem?  And then some kids just get their clocks set to get up early--not always a lot you can do about that.  But there are things to try--I'll post more after you fill in the rest of his day.

~Kim

[Linda74]

Hi Kim

Sorry for taking so long to reply...it was a long week last week!  It's a little hard for me to give you a schedule, because it differs from day to day.  My lo doesn't nap the typical 2 naps a day.  He still gets tired within 1 - 1 1/2 of being awake.  I try to stretch him to 2 hours of A before putting him down for a nap.  Sometimes he naps for 45 minutes and other times it could go up to 2 hours.  So I will try to give a rough idea of this schedule.

5:30 am - wake
5:30 - 7:00 or 7:30 - BF, Breakfast and A
7:30 - 9 or 9:30 - nap
9:30 - 11:30 - bf and A
11:30 - 12:30 - nap
12:30 - 2:30 - lunch and A
2:30 - 3:30 or 4 pm - nap
4 - 6:30 or 7 pm - bf, dinner, bedtime routine

As I said...the above schedule doesn't happen all the time...he wakes at different times...last week...one time he woke up at 7 am, another time he woke at 6am, and 5:30.  It's never the same and the duration of hisnaps are not always the same and not always at the same time because he wakes up at different times.  The only consistent thing that I do is trying to keep him up for 2 hours between naps and putting to bed between 6:30pm and 7 pm.

I think the total hours of naps that he gets is between 3 - 4 1/2 hours.  I think that is too much but it's hard for me to reduce that time because he seems to be such a sleepy baby and it's hard for me to keep him up for the 2 hours between naps.

I'm not sure if you'll be able to give me any insight but if you can...that would be great!  Sorry for the long reply!

Linda

Could you outline your schedule a little bit more?  When does he go to bed (exactly how much sleep each day is he getting?)

We've had lots of early wakings--some things that could cause it:  Too cold/hot, hungry, bad habit?  Anything sounding like a possible problem?  And then some kids just get their clocks set to get up early--not always a lot you can do about that.  But there are things to try--I'll post more after you fill in the rest of his day.

~Kim

[kim&savannah]

I only have a minute, but here's my thoughts--I'll try to touch base again later when I have more time.  First of all, if he's tired, then don't worry right now about cutting out daytime sleep--sounds like he needs it and you don't want him to get overtired because that will probably make it worse.

So, he sleeps through the night without needing a feeding?  Then do you think that he's possibly hungry when he wakes that early?  Does he want to eat immediately?  We had lots of early wakings like that, but often if I bf Savannah, then she would go back to sleep (with me in the spare bed, but it still meant we got more sleep and got to start the morning at a more normal hour, so I still did it for awhile). 

If he's not hungry right away and you don't think that's the problem, then I would try the wake-to-sleep. I think its explained in Tracy's newest book--basically you jsut go in about 1 hour before they usually wake up (so for you, at 4:30) and jiggle them--not enough to wake them all the way up, but enough to disrupt their sleep--it is supposed to reset their clock and stop the waking.  It may take 3 or so nights to see a change.

Just some thoughts.  And if you do get him waking a little later, that will probably naturally help the daytime sleep to reduce because more time will be added to his nights.  You'll probably be able to drop the 3rd nap soon.

Hang in there--we struggled with a lot of similar issues (and more, but I won't get you worried about that stuff until it happens!

~Kim

[nourishdesoul]

I am having very similiar challenges. Should I post a new thread or put it here? My LO is 9mos. WE have been co-sleeping and BF though the night until recently. I started a new sleep regimin which included more routine, nap time, and now I am sleeping on the couch so that he doesnt smell the milk. I miss co-sleeping :-(. ANy advice on sleeping through the night while co-sleeping? I have a bed on the floor next to the big bed. Anyways, he is finally sleeping through the night-sort of. He has been waking between 430 and 5am! Should I feed him? SHould I BF and fall asleep with him. Will he start to wake earlier and earlier in attempt to keep me there?
This is his schedule (ideally)
630-7 wake and BF
730-8 solids
900    nap (45-1hr)
10-1030 bf
12 lunch
     bf
100 nap
2-230 up, bf
500 dinner
      bf,bath, wind-down
630 bedtime

[kim&savannah]

I don't have much advise on the co-sleeping arrangement because we never really did that.  I"m not sure how you do that without feeding on demand.  And since that is what he is used to, I don't know if feeding him at 5 am will make him wake earlier and earlier.  You might want to post a new thread so it will attract the attention of other people who have co-slept--they might have better ideas.

Hope you can find something that works for all of you--its so hard to stick to the routines if you really love the closeness--we had trouble with dh rocking her in the middle of the night because he wanted to so badly--and I let her fall asleep during our afternoon bf for a long time because I loved the snuggle time with her and I usually got to take a nap too.  But we also have dealt with nightwakings pretty much all her life and she's now 19 months!  So don't do what we do

~Kim