9mo waking too early?

[lrj]

hi all!
I have an almost 10 month old who has been consistently waking up too early in the morning for the last week or two. I could really use some help figuring this out...

a normal schedule goes like this:

6 wake up and nurse (sometimes 6:30)
7ish breakfast (solids)
10 nap
11:30 nurse
12 lunch
3 nap
4:30 nurse
6ish dinner
8:30 bedtime
10 nurse (df)

so I'm pretty sure 8:30-6 isn't enough night sleep for her just based on the number of hours. but she also has been a little fussy since this 6:00 thing started. not super fussy, but it has been building up.

oh, and I know it's strange that I don't nurse at bedtime but I still do a dream feed. it's so that I'm able to be out while she gets put to sleep since I'll have some commitments at that time soon and I wanted to prepare for that.

okay, as far as the early wake goes, I would guess that the main cause is that we're waking her up. for the foreseeable future, we're all in one room. usually I hear her stirring and wake up. then I guess her stirring also stirs DH and he rolls over. then she really wakes up for real. doing pu/pd doesn't seem to put her back to sleep or to move the wake up time back the next day. I've also tried getting her up straight away and leaving her in her bed but nothing seems to affect the 6:00 part. the stirring usually starts around 5:30 or so, so by 6 she's standing and babbling.

are there ways to get her to stay asleep longer? I know using the noise machine would help, but I really dread it becoming a prop. this morning at 5:15 I stiff armed my husband and so he didn't roll over. DD didn't wake up but that may have been because of it being earlier. but is the strategy really to stop rolling over? that seems a bit much...

any suggestions?

thanks for your help!!

[PaulsMom]

Hugs for the ew.  A couple of things that can contribute...

I think that some of her As might be a bit long.  So her am A is four hours but I'm wondering if 3.5 might be better.  Also the A before bt is 4 hrs and she might do better with a shorter a and an earlier bt. 

I also agree with you that she may be waking early do to early morning noises.  Biologically we will sleep lighter in the morning and external stimulus will cause us to wake so your DH rolling over, birds chirping outside, traffic noises, etc as well as light.  To stay asleep longer you would need to block out those stimuli.  Do you have black out curtains or blinds?  White noise can help but you would need to run it all night or turn it on in the morning before she stirs. 

HTH

[lrj]

sure, I can try shortening the morning A time. it didn't use to be that long since she would wake up at 7 and then nap around 10 or 10:30. I can shorten before bedtime also, but she's usually really happy and full of energy around then. maybe I'll try shortening the morning time and then watch her closely at bt? what do you think?

we do have curtains on our big window but they're not special blackout ones. I could put curtains on the other window also and see if I can find something darker for the big one. I guess I'll try that first and see what happens.

thanks!!

[ZacsMumme]

Do you think maybe she is getting too much day sleep? Her avges are still 13-14hrs am I right? So maybe she needs them distributed a bit differently? X

[lrj]

hmmm could it be too much day sleep? I hadn't really considered that. I could try fiddling with that. would I cap nap times or something?

this morning we put the noise machine on, which helped me sleep better than normal  but she woke up at 5:45  DH didn't even roll over. it was also a lot darker in here than I thought it was. when I got up to get her I couldn't really see. so that kind of confused me. although I guess I can't expect the noise machine to work straight away right? because probably by now the EW is habit, right?

I was also wondering what I should be doing when she wakes up. should I be doing pu/pd or just getting her up? or leaving her in the crib for as long as she's not screaming? I usually just get her up

thanks y'all!!

[PaulsMom]

I do think that ew's can become habit.  For me, anything before 6 am was considered to be night so I would resettle (which for my dd meant a feed).  If you can settle in the crib without having to pu, I would do that. Of course, if she's really upset then pu. 

[ZacsMumme]

I wonder if shortening the first A as PM says, but capping it at 1 hr would help. Leave the next A at 3.5 but see how she goes for the last one, you may need to pull it back a bit too

[Layla]

I would also try a shorter morning nap (1 hr) as Sarah mentioned and she might add that extra 30 mins to her wake up time. We also use white noise... its a good prop because you can easily wean it by just turning down the sound every couple of days when you're ready

[lrj]

okay I put her down after a little over 3 hours and woke her up after probably 1h10 since I was sleeping too and didnt quite wake up until then. 

I'll let you know how that affects things!!

Thanks for all your help!

[lrj]

okay! here's how the last few days have gone...

I've been putting her down for her first nap after usually 3h30m. then I've been waking her up after usually 1h10m. then she stays up for 3h30m and sleeps for 2h for the second nap, which seems like she's just moving the lost half hour from the morning to the afternoon. but the great news is that she's been waking up around 6:30!! i think it was 6:30 the first day and then 6:20 the next two days. but I already feel a lot better and she seems happier too!!

so this is great!!

do y'all think I should try to push for an even later wake up time? 7:30 seems ideal but 6:30 is already a huge improvement!

[Layla]

Try and hold it for about a week before you make more changes just to get her used to it and she's on a regular 6.30am wake up time, you can start with pushing morning nap by 15 mins increments every 3  days or so and with it the pm nap and bedtime and hopefully that will give you a later wake up time. Just go slow as you don't want to make too many changes but great news!!!

[PaulsMom]

Yay for the better wake up times!

[ZacsMumme]

great update!