Please help with persistent early waking - 8 month old

[Confuzzled]

Hi ladies,

I am at a loss with my 8 month old who has been waking at 5.20 for over 6 weeks now. I will post the background and our current EASY.

Previously breastfed baby used to wake multiple times in the night, transitioned to formula at 6 months and dropped night feedings and began sleeping 7-7. Also terrible napper up until 6 months and then we had a gradual improvement in nap length. Currently on two naps (dropped the catnap a few weeks ago).

Baby is not happy when he wakes at 5.20, he is crying and tired and seems to want more sleep. He doesn't use a dummy normally however I have taken to giving him one and bringing him into my bed which helps him doze on and off until half 6. If I don't do this he just screams and I have not been able to resettle him in his cot at this time. I do not get him up at this time - I do not open the curtains until 6.30 as I don't want to enforce the idea that 5.20 = morning! In the past 6 weeks he has twice slept through until 7 - on these days he woke happy and chatting to himself. I cannot pinpoint anything I did differently on those days. I really don't believe that he has had enough sleep when he wakes at 5.20.

Current EASY.

Wakes - 5.20

Nap - 9.10. For a long time this nap was 2 hours after he woke but I have worked at gradually pushing this back later and later as he was just continuing his night sleep if he went down before 9. I am still working on trying to get this to 9.30 but don't know if this is right? He is currently looking very tired by half 8.  This nap is usually 80 mins (it can be anything from 70-90 mins) so usually wakes around 10.30

Nap - 1.30. Again, nap is usually 80 mins (but can be 70-90) so usually wakes around 2.50

Bath 6.30 and asleep by 7pm. He is very tired by 7pm - we put him down awake after his bottle and he sleeps immediately with no fuss.

So in summary:
2 naps a day around 80 minutes in length
Bedtime 7pm, wake-up 5.20

Any idea where we are going wrong? The early starts are starting to take their toll!

Thanks so much in advance.

[jessmum46]

I wonder if an earlier bedtime may help for a while if he is clearly showing tired signs?  Particularly as the start is so early in the morning.  Could you get him down for 6.30pm for a while and see if it helps?  It may be if he goes down earlier he is rested enough to sleep in later and then you can push that morning nap to closer to 9.30/10am to avoid the situation of an early nap perpetuating your early start. 

((Hugs)) its a tough one to crack but if he's waking upset and tired, my bet would be OT so offering more sleep would be the direction I'd start in x

Oh  just one more thought - have your ruled out teething pain?  A 'dream meds' around 3am can sometimes help get them through the early morning discomfort if so

[Confuzzled]

Thank you!

No I haven't ruled out teething pain. Do you mean giving medicine while he is asleep? I would worry I would wake him up at that time!

I have tried putting him down 30 mins earlier and 30 mins later to no avail, sorry I should have mentioned that.

If he is waking at 5.20 and first nap is at 9am do you think that nap is still early enough to perpetuate the early waking?

I am also thinking of capping the morning nap at 1 hour and then trying to get a longer afternoon nap, possibly a bit later in the afternoon so he is less tired by bedtime? Is this worth a try?

[jessmum46]

9am is a bit early for a long morning nap.  I would aim to push that closer to 10am if you can over a few days to a week or two.  However if you want to go the short am nap route many people do keep that morning nap at 9/9.30am - the fact you cut it short supposedly prevents the EW as LO can't make up for missed night time sleep.  Or so the theory goes!  Which way do you think you'd prefer?

[Confuzzled]

I don't think he can make it to 10am. He is waking at 5, he is exhausted by 8 so 9 is hard enough!

[jessmum46]

No he won't initially, but that would be the aim over a period of time if you want to keep a long morning nap.  So if nap is at 9 currently, push it to 10 past and hold for a few days, then to 20 past etc etc Hopefully WU time should get later too so it gets easier but as I said, that's only one way to do it.  The alternative is to stick with the earlier nap and wake him up from it, aiming for a longer pm nap x

[Confuzzled]

Thank you! Im going to go with the shorter early nap and longer later one. Because we do classes etc around 10.30 some days so its best if he is up by then.

At the moment I am letting him nap 9-10. Is that still too long do you think? And what do you think is the ideal time for the afternoon nap in that case?

Two days ago he did 9-10am and then 2-3.45pm. That night he slept til 6.10am which is the latest in ages.
Unfortunately yesterday he was really under the weather and ended up taking an extra nap at 11.30 which is unheard of - that threw off naps for the whole day, he ended up having his third nap at 3.30 and wasn't up until 4.15. This morning he woke at 5.10.

Am not sure if the 6.10 wake up yesterday was a fluke or if it is because the set up of naps the day before was good. The stretch from 10am-2pm is quite long, what do you think, for a 9 month old?

Thanks so much for your help!

[jessmum46]

If he can do 4h after an hours nap I'd be tempted to cut the morning nap more I think.  Ideally on that sort of routine you want the afternoon nap falling 1-3pm ish otherwise the day may well end up too long.  But it's all a case of experimenting