5.5 months early waking

[tathi-b]

Hi, it's me again!  Another milestone and a new challenge!  We survived the 4 month sleep regression and jetlag; our issue now is early waking.  I was hoping that one of the other mummies might have an idea on what I can do to push my baby's sleep a little later in the morning. 

It might be worth mentioning that before the sleep regression and the jetlag (we went on holidays to a time zone of 7hours difference!) she used to sleep 7pm to 7am with a dream feed at 10:30.

For a couple of weeks now she has been waking between 5:30 and 6am and having a party!  Smiles, sings, talks and after a while gets bored so calls for mummy for some company... Fully awake and happy.  I don't start the day until at least 6:30/ 6:45 and will stay in the darkened room with her until the proper wake up time.  That doesn't seem to bother her though, we will sometimes sit together on the feeding chair and she will just sit up on my knee and talk to herself until wake up time... the child is tenacious!   She definitely isn't hungry - I wait until 7am to feed her and there is no complaining on her part to have to wait.

Her EASY looks a bit like this at the minute -

Wake up - 6am
E - 7am (milk)
S - 8:30

Wake up - 10/ 10:30
E - 10:45 (fruit + milk)
S - 12:30

Wake up 2pm/ 2:30
E - 3pm
S - 5:15/ 5:30

Wake up - 5:45/ 6pm

Gentle play on the play mat in her room with reduced lights and soft music.

Bath - 6:30
Dinner - 7pm
Bed - 7:15/ 7:30

DF - 10:30

She manages to stay awake 2 - 2.5 hours at a time and then gets very grumpy and tired and tends to fall asleep with a bit of bottom patting but mainly on her own.  She is moving towards dropping the 5pm nap and sometimes she resists it but is still tired so we shush pat her until she is almost asleep.  The gap between 2:30 and 7pm is too long for her.  I find that when she does her naps well during the day she falls asleep at 7 easily where if she is overtired I have to pat her for 20 minutes or more. 

I have tried awake to sleep a couple of mornings but I think I'm missing the window because the minute she stirs and I try to settle her she opens her eyes like a Jack in a box and starts smiling at me and wants to play.  No win!

Anyone have any ideas?

xx

[lolsyb1982]

Hi I would say that technically she's not EW as she's sleeping 11hours at night which is what you would expect from a baby on 3 naps. Your routine looks pretty good!!

Once her A times are 3hours you should then be able to drop the cn and bring BT earlier so she does a 12hr day.

You could try pushing her first A out a little by maybe 10 minutes to see how she handles it but you may just have to accept the earlier start until she drops the 3rd nap. Or you could cap each nap to 1.5hrs as it could be that she's getting a bit too much day sleep.

[Buntybear]

Hi I agree wth Lauren, she is probably getting a tad too much day sleep and you are heading towards dropping the catnap. Can you try and extend the A times a bit? You may just have to push her a bit as she will look ready for a sleep but her body needs some help adjusting.

This might help;

All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

[tathi-b]

Hello, thanks for coming back to me.  It's so much easier when you "speak" to someone!  I think that the overall aim is to get her to stay up for 3hrs and have 2 naps a day, that should then push her to a 12hr sleep cycle (fingers crossed).  We'll start working on pushing her awake times a little at a time.  I prefer to do things slowly for her...

Thanks again! x

[Buntybear]

Good Luck x