BabyWhispererForums.com
SLEEP => Night Wakings => Topic started by: *foxy* on March 12, 2011, 09:18:29 am
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Hi
My 6 1/2 month old daughter is waking at 6am, she's quite happy in her cot for half an hour whilst mummy and daddy wake up but I want her to wake at 7 ideally as it fits in with our EASY routine a lot better and we get more sleep! What do I do when she wakes at 6?
During the night she can wake between 1-3 times. Last night is was just once at 2 but she didn't go back to sleep till 3.15. I breastfed her at 2.30 because she wouldn't settle. Her bedtime is 7pm.
Any advice would be much appreciated
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What's the rest of her daytime routine like?
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Hello, we are having an issue of progressively earlier wake time as well. Our LO is 10.5 months old and has been on EASY since 2 weeks of age. We have really found the BW book and this forum very helpful, and most things work very nicely!! Our LO used to go to bed for 7pm, wake for 7am, and take two 1-2hr naps throughout the day. He is on solids and doing well with finger feeding. He is very active and happy most of the time! Lately he has become much more mobile, crawling, "walking" with assistance (he is obsessed with this!!), pulling himself up etc. Also, over the past 3 months he has broken in 6 teeth and had the flu twice...phef!! With that in mind, I understand that developmental progress as well as teeth and illness may be the culprit, but just wondering if anyone has any wise advise to share regarding getting back on track with the 7am wake...
Oh yes, and there have been a couple of days in the mix where he has only had one long nap, or possibly two short naps, one nap, or even no nap...this tends to last 1-4 days and then we are able to get back on track...
Here is his typical day:
Awake 0600 (although if he babbles happily I leave him for as long as possible to get to the 0700 mark)
Eat 0700 (solids)
Activity 0730-0900 (we do start to slow things down around 0830, a bottle at this time too then some quiet activities like books or singing lullaby's)
Sleep 0900 (for 1-2 hrs, usually a good 1.5)
Eat 1100 (solids)
Activity 1130-1300 (same routine as above)
Sleep 1300 (same as above nap time)
Eat 1530 (bottle)
Activity 1500-1730
Eat 1730
Bath 1800
Bed 1830 (we have a bottle, books, sing lullaby's in nursery etc.)
Sleep 1900
So really my only issue is that he is waking up an hour earlier than he used to. Also, the days when his routine goes wonky, and he has difficulty napping...those are tuff days. I am looking for guidance on what to do about the early wake times...and also the possibility that he is starting to move from 2 naps to one.
I hope this is enough info, and I look forward to anyone's input! (I have read the link about 2-1 also, but nothing really seems to fit our situation!!).
Thank you so much,
Melanie
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Hi
Her day generally goes like this:
Wake 6am
In cot till 6.30
Breakfast (solids) 7/7.30
Bf 8.30
Nap 9 for hour 1/4 to hour 1/2
Lunch (solids) 12/12.30
Bf 12.30
Nap 1pm for hour 1/4 to hour 1/2
Bf 4
Nap 4.30 for 30-45 mins
Tea (solids) 5.30
Bedtime 7pm bottlefeed
Dreamfeed 10pm bottlefeed
Does that sound ok? We've only been doing the above for four days but she's had am and pm naps for a few weeks but not at strict times.
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Hey there {{{HUGS}}}
I'm going to move this thread over to the Night Wakings section of sleep so you can get more help and it won't get lost here :)
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Melanie, the first thing I'd try is to push your morning nap later. You need your morning nap based on the wake up time you want - so for 10 months old and a wake up of 7am, you'd be looking at an am nap around 10.30 or 11am.
Bellymonster, I'd try the same too. Try pushing your am nap 30 mins later for a few days, and see if that helps.
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Thank you My3girlsjde! I will look there:)
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hello Anna*,
I was wondering if this may be the response I would get...just a quick question regarding moving the nap back...how about if he gets OT?? I have thought myself that perhaps he should be staying awake longer, but bye the time we get around to even close to 0900...he's SOOOO tired, rubbing eyes, yawning, grumpy...I have been scared that he will become OT and then not sleep. Or will this happen, but just be one of those "bumps" that must be overcome with patience and time??
Thanks you for your advice, and looking forward to more:))
Melanie
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He's tired because he's waking so early! You don't have to push all the way to 10.30am right away - add 15 mins each day - tiredness is fine, an OT nap is fine (in fact you may need a shorter nap so that you can preserve the pm nap and bedtime) - you just need to let him know that if he needs extra sleep in the morning, he needs to take it at 6am, not at nap time!
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Ok great. I'll try a slightly later nap time and see how it goes. I seem to have ended up with two threads on this section so sorry about that. I'm going to extend her A time gradually as kindly advised by Jane also.
Many thanks
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Will this help at all with night wakings?
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Nope, this is only advice for EWs. If you're having other troubles it could be to do with overtiredness, in which case your EASY is going to need a tweak.
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Can you help me with that too please?!
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From looking at your other thread hun it seems like you're only on EASY a couple of days - I would wait and see what happens once bubs is sleeping independently, and you've tried pushing out those A times a bit.
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Anna's giving great advice on this and I completely agree.
I'd give it a little more time and see how things work out. It can take a few days for your lo to adjust to sleep adjustments. We're currently doing the same and it's a very gradual process.
Keep up the good work - you'll get there!
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Thank you so much everyone...we will start with extending A time by 15 min for a couple of days...then keep gradually adding. I think he should be closer to 3 hrs of A time at this age (from BW??), does that sound correct to you? If you don't mind can you please give me an idea of a "typical" day of EASY for a 10-11 month old??
Again, thanks so much:))
Melanie
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Hi
Thanks for your help, its really appreciated. She woke as usual at 6 and normally I start to wind her down about half eight as it usually takes half an hour until she's actually asleep. So today I started at 8.45 but she went to sleep really quickly (which is great, I only had to pick her up twice) and was asleep by 9.05 so I haven't managed to push it back today but will try again tomorrow. And will extend her pm nap.
Thanks again for all your help so far!
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Melanie, even 3 hrs is on the low-ish side for 10.5 months - most are doing 3.5-4 hrs after a good night or a long nap - less after a shorter nap
So a typical 10-11 month old routine might go
7am wake
10.30am nap 1 hr
11.30am wake
2.30pm nap 1.5 hr
4pm awake
7.30pm bed
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Thanks again so much for the help on this page...we implemented the suggestions to move am nap closer to 1000 and voila...our LO now wakes at 0715-0730 each day!!! This is our EASY now...
0730- wake
0800- Eat solids, Activity time starts
0930- Start winding down for nap, bottle, bed asleep by 1000
1130- wake
1200- East solids, Activity time starts
1430- Start winding down for nap, bottle, bed asleep by 1500
1630- Wake, drink & snack play
1745- Eat solids,
1800- Bath, ready for bed quiet activity, bottle, bed asleep by 1915ish
Thanks again so much:))
Melanie
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Great news!
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Hi anna
We've been settling into the EASY routine for a bit and had the first night where she slept through the night before last. I think this was a bit of a fluke as she'd completely missed her pm nap. She was OT when she went to bed last night (due to being out and about and only getting 45mins in the afternoon) and she was up for the day at 5am! Is this due to being OT?
I just wanted to clarify about what to do with her am nap. If she's up at 5, we still have 3 hours A time but do I add 15 mins to that to help with the EW?
Thanks for your time
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I think the problem is, she wakes up at a different time every morning and if its as early as 5am and I stick to 3 - 3 1/4 A times then then the last A time can be 4 1/2 hours and then she's OT before bed and we're back to NW and EW. I try a CN in the afternoon but it never works cuz she's not used to it and is wondering what's going on. I try an early BT but then she's up early because she's gone to bed early. Any ideas or is it just being patient and letting her settle into it a bit more?
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The thing is, if the EWs are caused by OT, you're going to make things worse by stretching out the first A. In that case you want her to get MORE sleep, not less. If she wakes at 5, will she not settle back to sleep if you treat it as a night feed? The mornings are getting lighter earlier, is her nursery very dark?
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Thanks anna, sorry Im probably asking stupid questions but I just dont want to get it wrong and then create more bad habits! Yes, I treat the 5am waking at a night waking. She woke at 3.15am for a feed so she wasnt hungry at 5, I tried until 6.30 to settle her back down and she almost fell asleep a few times but couldnt quite seem to properly fall asleep. If shes awake and happy in her cot, do I pick her up or try to settle her in her cot?
She had a 2 1/4 hour sleep this morning, she woke a couple of times but I settled her back down as I knew she needed to catch up. Shes had 3 1/4 hour A time this afternoon and has just gone to sleep (2.45pm) so Im hoping she'll have at least an hour but Im never sure. It took a few pu/pd's to get her to settle.
Her nursery isnt pitch black but she sleeps there in the day without too much of a problem. We've put very thick lining on the back of the curtains so that very little light comes through - only from the top of the curtains. Do you think it needs to be darker?
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If she's awake and happy in her cot, just leave her there! You don't need to intervene at all if she's not crying!
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Lol, fair enough, makes sense! I do do that if she wakes at 6 so I have no idea why it would be any different at 5. And if she cries Ill try pu/pd.
Sorry one more question.......if she wakes at 5 and I stick with 3 hour A time (or whatever she needs) then I try a CN in the afternoon as she'll wake after her pm nap at around 2.30pm. If she doesnt have the CN and then I have to bring forward BT again, she'll wake early and it'll start all over again?
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Most babies don't wake earlier from an early bedtime... but:
* remember you can AP the catnap. Many, many people struggle with the catnap so don't hesitate to take her for a car ride or pop her in the sling or whatever you need to do to get a catnap
* if she still doesn't catnap, you really have no option but to do an early bedtime.
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Ok thanks anna, that's really helpful. I didn't think that APing for the catnap was ok but its good to hear that a lot of people do it. And of course its (hopefully) only for the short term.
Thankyou so much for all your help
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Hi there,
Sorry to interrupt this thread, but my LO is having the same problem waking up earlier than usual. He is currently 4.5 mths and is FF.
His bedtime routine is around 620-630 - bath, massage, pj, feed, book & he will sleep from 7 - 740pm.
However, he is now waking up between 545am to 645am. There are days he would wake up at 6, sometimes 630, sometimes 645, and today he woke up at 555am, today I pushed his A time until 820am and once I put him down in his cot the slept straight away, he is still sleeping now, I will see how long he can nap.
My question is why is this happening? He is not teething, nothing unusual about him, he is not learning to roll or sit up or anything like that yet. However, yday he was so unsettled, that he would so many times at night, he usually sttn after bedtime and only wake up for nite feeds.
I am thinking if he wakes up at 6, I would give him his full feed (he normally feeds frm 7,11,3, cluster feed at 5 & 645, nite feed) and then pop him back to sleep and see if it works and hopefully he will wake up may b about 8 and then I can slowly push his bedtime later and later? I am aiming for wake up at 7, but because in about a weeks time we will be going on a holiday and there's 3 hrs difference in the time zone, and its 3 hrs ahead, so I am thinking of moving his bedtime later so that he does not wake up at 4am in the new country. Is this workable?
THanks
Khim
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Hi Khim. He doesn't need a later bedtime to sleep later in the morning. Sounds like you may need to take a look at your routine, I'd start a new thread on the General Sleep Issues board with your routine on it.
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My 7 month old has started waking up at 5.30, not out of hunger, but ready to play! I have noticed many people recommending to have a later morning nap in these cases. Can anyone explain why this would work? We have been trying to generally reduce his nap-time, from a total of 3 hours to 2.5 hours, but still waking up at 5.30am:( sharon
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Sharonx - this is *usually* something to do with EASY tweaking.
Why don't you start a thread on the general sleep forum so you don't get lost here and we can take a look at your EASY?