7.5 month old waking at 5:30am.

[laura.flaherty26]

My 7.5 month old started sleeping through the night (7pm-7am) two weeks ago. Five days ago, she started waking at 5:30am and would be in her crib talking to herself. Once she started crying, I tried for 40 minutes to get her back down to sleep by patting her on the back but eventually gave her a bottle because I read in the Baby Whisperer book that they are probably hungry after 40 minutes or so. Then she was up for the day. The next day, I gave her a bottle about 6am after she had woken at 5:45am and then she went back to sleep until I woke her at 8:10.

She naps from roughly  9:30am-11am and 2pm-3:30pm. She usually can put herself to sleep after we go through her routine. She takes three bottles during the way and a half a bottle before bed. She eats solids three times per day. She goes to sleep at 7pm and is usually very sleepy at that point and puts herself to sleep.

Is she getting enough sleep at night and I should move her bedtime to 7:30pm?   

[anna*]

Is she having any night feeds? Can you give her a full bottle at bedtime?

[laura.flaherty26]

She does not have any night feeds. She takes a full bottle sometimes but she usually falls asleep. She took a full bottle last night at 6:10pm and was asleep by 6:30pm. I just decided with naps yesterday to watch her cues instead of watching the clock and her cues.

She woke at 5am (I tried for about an hour to get her back to sleep).
Bottle at 6am.
Slept from 8:30-10.
Fell asleep during her bottle at 11am and slept in my arms for half an hour*
Slept from 12:45pm to 2:45pm.
Bottle at 2:45pm.
Cat napped in car from 4-4:10.
Bottle at 6:10pm.
Asleep at 6:30pm.
Woke at 5:30am this morning.

*She hasn't done this for months. I just wanted to follow her lead yesterday to see if she was trying to tell me anything.

I've been putting her to nap earlier in the morning (closer to 8:15am). Is this reinforcing the early morning wakings? Do I just need to deal with her over-tiredness until she sleeps later?

She wakes up happy at 5:30am but she rubbed her eyes at 7:30am. I kept her up until 8:10am.

Should I try the wake to sleep at like 4:30am?

[anna*]

well you know, 11hrs overnight is actually fine - many babies never sleep 12 hours overnight and 11-11.5hrs is a full night for them.

You could try wake to sleep but to be honest if she is asleep at 6.30, then 5.30 would be a reasonable wake up time. The other thing you  could try is giving her a 'dream feed' bottle at some point during the night, and see if she will then sleep through the 12 hours. Many babies are still having one night feed at this point, it's perfectly possible she may just be waking because she's hungry.

I know that over tiredness is a worry, but be wary of under tiredness too. Yes you can reinforce early wakings by putting down for a nap too early. She probably needs at least 3hrs of A time - maybe 3hrs 15 or even 3hrs 30 - and under tiredness can be cause of early waking, too.

[laura.flaherty26]

Thank you for the help and advice! I put her to bed later, did a dream feed, and did wake to sleep at 4:30am. It worked! She slept until 6:15am. This is a much better set up than a 5:30am wake up. She seemed more well rested this morning as well.