Breaking the 5am waking habit.

[Elvisking]

Hi,

Our baby girl is 17 weeks old, she is on a pretty good routine in the day & is excellent at going down for the night. She is fed at 7pm & since 8 wo has slept through until 5:30 am- however now, she is waking at 5/5:30 to sing/play coo etc!! She isn't hungry- dinks 2/3oz- just wants to shout/sing play!!!
  During the day she has a2 hour max nap in the morning & a 3hour nap in the afternoon. She takes 8oz bottles every 3/4 hours. We have tried dropping the dreamfeed & it makes no difference. We don't really want her to continue this habit if we can help it.

Here was yesterday's day

5:15 wake- drank 2/3oz
8:00 sleep
10:00 eat & activity
13:00 sleep
16:00 eat & activity
7:00 eat & sleep

 Activities include playmat, bouncer, no nappy time, tummy time & walks to the park in pram. She is rolling over both sides- so she is very active.

The early wakening kinda throws her day a bit, so any suggestions would be great. She had her 16 week injections yesterday- & slept until 8 am- but that was a one off I think!!) she is never cross at this time- just extremely vocal!!!!

She uses a dummy- but it doesn't bother her if it falls out, she self soothes, doesn't really cry & is basically an angel baby. We think it could possibly just be the light mornings? (she's in our room- but going into her own on the weekend)

Do you think we need to do wake to sleep? Just let her play? All suggestions welcome!!! Thank you.

[Smurfette]

Hi there
How long ago did you drop the cat nap?

[Elvisking]

Sorry, what cat nap do you mean? She has a 1-2 hour sleep in the morning usually around 10, and one around 1:30/2 for2-3 hours. Sometimes she'll Cat nap  in pram between last sleep & bedtime?

It's got worse!!! She woke at 2:28am- it is now 4:41 & she is still awake. Not agitated, just cooing, ahhing etc- but dummy/pacifier has been a nightmare- in out in out help!!!the hv told me today to give her meds rather than try food- which I did. She is wide awake. As I say she is notgrumpy- just awake, I really shouldn't complain, but I don't want this habit to form.  Thanks

[Smurfette]

Usually at this age, babies are either doing 4-6 multiple short naps in a day or
2 long naps and a 3rd short catnap (30-45 mins) in the late afternoon.

To go from 3-7pm at this age is really quite long and I think she's getting really overtired.

You need to either put her to bed much earlier (like 5:30 or 6pm) or add a 3rd catnap in there-perhaps around 4ish.

[Elvisking]

Sorry, been a busy few days!! I don't leave LO from3-7, she sleeps usually until 4:30/5, then bed at 7. The night before last she dd 7-7, last night up at 5:10- went back at 7:30. She is wide awake!!! Perhaps overtired?

[PixieD]

Hi - I'm new so I'm just writing something here so I can see any suggestions you get as I don't know how to mark the post so I can nosey in later ha!

Having exactly the same problem, wakes up between 5-5:45am most mornings - happy as Larry in there, chatting and shouting, laughing, squealing - never sure if that counts as 'awake' and if I should go in and feed him so he stays on EAS or what really...?
 
Xx

[Smurfette]

last night up at 5:10- went back at 7:30. She is wide awake!!! Perhaps overtired?

Sorry, I'm confused-do you mean that she was up at 5:10 am and then went back to sleep until 7:30am?

And in regards to the nap thing-sorry to that too. I was confused by what I was reading. If she is getting 5 hours of day sleep in the day, that is quite a lot so perhaps that's all she's going to do right now. There is only so much a baby will sleep, you know?
Is she waking happy all the time? From naps and in the morning? Does she seem to be in a good mood later in the evening or is she cranky and tired?

[Elvisking]

Hi Smurfette- sorry I keep confusing you- I write in a panic!!! - PixieD- hope you get some help from this too!!!

right, basically I think you're right Smurfette- too much sleep in day?- she usually has between 4/5 hours in the day, is this too much? We tried cutting the naps on Saturday & she woke at 4:19 & was up happy as can be. She went back to sleep at 7am. Yesterday we let her sleep as normal- she woke at 4:32!! She went back to sleep when I put te dummy in, then woke again at 5:19 & was really wide awake! She went back to sleep at 7:15!!!! I have just woken her at 9am as I don't want that first nap to be ages long!!

Tonight I am going to put an all in one sleep suit on her under her sleep bag- she did feel a bit cold this am, to see if that helps.

Please can you guide me on the amount of sleep she should have in the day?
If she is happy do you think I should just let her play, shout & scream until she goes over again? & wake her at 7 to start EASY?!

Oh, all the questions & mumbo jumbo- I'm sorry!!!! 6am with me would be fine-4:20 is just too early!!!!

Thanks soooooo much for helping! Xxxxx

[PixieD]

I reckon my man is having too much day sleep too then? I'm so obsessed with EAS that sometimes his last bottle is gone 8pm because that's how the naps worked out and stuff! But I was reading the sleep interviews with Tracy last night and understand a bit better now how to compensate when things go a bit wrong...

That said, I left him in bed screeching and all sorts for aaaaaaages this morning, I had to go in eventually as he sounded like he was gettin a bit ratty, still wasn't what I'd class as a 'cry' but he was definitely like 'where ARE you?!'. Went in, gave him a bottle - and he only took 4oz the little wotnot - he tricked me!!! Ha!

Try again tomorrow then!

[Elvisking]

It sooooo hard to know what to do- by 7 this morning Erin's eyes were hanging out of her head- I had to let her sleep- but now- with the nap she's having now- she'll have had her day's sleep!!! I can't keep her awake until 7- so here starts the vicious circle- AGAIN!!!!!!

I'm going to read the sleep interviews now too! Google mst be exhausted with sleep problem questions!!!! At least we're not alone eh?!

[Smurfette]

@ Elvisking

If you are going to cap naps, I would do it really gradual and go slowly. Your DD obviously likes her sleep! And usually when babies wake up super early, it's because they're OT-so you need to really, really make sure that that isn't the case. I personally hate suggesting to cap naps, so I rather let her sleep and try to move things around instead. But if you are going to shorten a nap, then I would start with the afternoon one first.

What you could do is also try to offer her a late afternoon cat nap to help extend bedtime. Have you ever tried that?

[PixieD]

Is three long naps and a catnap too much for 17wks? Plus about 9-10hrs at night?

[PixieD]

He's due for a nap at 3:30 (2hrs ish after he last woke) if I made that a catnap he wouldn't be hungry when he got up would he? And he'd have to go to bed at like half 5? Mind you - that'd be his 12hr day.... Ok I'm seeing it now, I need to move him round bit by bit don't I? Xx

[Smurfette]

@ PixieD-I meant for the other poster (Elvisking) to try capping the pm nap and then offering a catnap as an option.

You might want to start your own thread so that you get more eyes on your situation.

[PixieD]

Yeah i know, its ok I meant to apologise for thinking out loud and butting in anyway