Cause of early wakings

[Eggimou]

Here is my EASY...please any suggestions are welcome as to why DS wakes at 530-6am!!
530-6am WU
630 BF
730-8 solids (whatever he'll take)
815 sleep
10 wake
1030-11ish BF
12 solids
1 sleep
230-3ish wake
3 BF
Catnap if needed but usually push to bedtime at 630-640ish.
Wakes at 230ish for a FULL feed.
Up for the day at 530-6am! Gad Suess!!

[~inbalance~]

I think your LO is the same age as mine?  7.5 ish months?  We just had a long spell of EWs like this, 5:30-6am (occasionally earlier!).  We are still getting some 6am ones but she is sleeping until 7am again some mornings.  I have no real idea why she was doing it.  I suspect teething was a part of it, and I do seem to remember all my LOs going through periods of EWs while teething.  Also when she is going through developmental things like learning to roll or crawl she wakes earlier to 'practice'.  I don't believe, in our case, that the routine is causing the EWs.  I would however avoid a catnap at this age.  Perhaps someone with better routine advice might pop along soon.  Hugs!  I despise EWs, even more than NWings or short naps! 

[Anmarnad]

Does it mean that 7.5 mo is notorious for this terrible early waking? Does it go away? Are there any tricks to get rid of it? My DD (almost 8 moths old now - but I think yours and mine are the same age) is now waking up at 6am every morning, then tired again at 8 while she needs to be up till 10:30 as that's the time when she goes to sleep at the day care. IF she wanted to wake up like normal people do :-) i.e. at 7:30 she would have a great routine. And now... it's all a mess.

[Charjanemom]

We went through this at 7.5 months and it was on and off for a month probably then one day it just stopped and we had a few good months again and now at 10.5 months we are up early again

I really think development has a lot to do with it

I did try pushing the morning back and it would work for a week then we would have ew again. I ended up going to set nap times last month and it was brilliant for over a month but now not working

Hang in there. Early mornings are no fun!

[Anmarnad]

How did you do it with the set nap times? You mean that no matter what time LO would wake up the nap time was fixed in stone, say at 10:00 - so sometimes going for 4 hours A time etc? Or always say 3 hours after WU? I'm willing to try anything that has a chance... and my DH even more I think :-)
Hang in there too! Hope you will get your mornings back to yourself soon!

[Charjanemom]

Ya pretty much. I was told to stick to it like glue for a week. You have to let go of worrying about ot or ut naps etc which is hard at first. For my dd she was 9 months and we did
Nap 930-1130
Nap 245-345/4
Bed 730

Wake up was 630/7 odd time 715. I would wake her by 730.

Yes I put down even if she slept in at the same time. We are now resisting naps so our naps have been pushed back a touch. I really loved set naps because I wasn't chasing a times or guessing cues. My anxiety lowered too.

[Anmarnad]

Thank you so much! I'm going to give it a try. Lets see!
And I'm thinking (but then, I don't have much experience) that if your dd is resisting naps and waking up early - maybe you also need to set her nap times - but then a bit later? And reduce the overall day time sleep somehow? I guess that's the general "theory"? I really wish I could be more helpful than that.
In any case - good luck! Will keep my fingers crossed for you!

[Charjanemom]

Good luck to you too.

Yes I am pushing back the am nap and pm one and capping pm nap. The one thing I habe learned is to really give things a week. I used to jump around like crazy and I think her body never got adjusted. Just trying to be patient.