5.30am wake up

[H7]

It was a one off.

Thursday she had 4hrs day time sleep in bed for 7.15 and woke at 5.45. Yesterday she had 2hr 30 day time sleep in bed for 7.30 and woke at 6 (so nice to not see a 5 on the clock tho even if only just)

It really doesn't seem to make a difference on nap length or bed time or  anything really.

I'm tempted to try wake to sleep. For a week or more she was basically waking at 5.50 pretty much bang on give or take a minute or two so as much as I will hate my alarm going off at 4.50 I'm tempted to give it a whirl. Just worried that I will wake her completely and not just stir her which would really not be ideal!!

Anyone know of any successes at wake to sleep?

[trimbler]

You could try that, was never brave enough to do it myself but I know others have, I think it tends to work better earlier on in the night but you never know... Thing is, 10.5h could be UT (as I guess it was when she'd had 4h daytime sleep) or OT (might have been after 2.5h daytime sleep). Have you tried pushing the first A time at all? How's her routine been the last few days?

[H7]

I tried yesterday for the first time. Just pushed it  y 10 minutes but it led to a 45 minute nap which she woke from grizzly and it threw the day out nap wise etc she had 2 45 min naps and one 20 min one went to bed at 7 and still woke at 5.50 this morning.

Will try a 9.40 nap time again tho today as know it takes a few days to see a change if there's going to be one.

[trimbler]

Yeah ok some LOs (mine included) seem to be more sensitive to OT than others, in that they'll short nap - any chance of resettling if that happens again? Don't be afraid of EBT if you get short naps - it's counterintuitive I know, but EBT can help prevent OT at BT, which is the cause of many EWs. So we often find that EBT can actually lead to a LO sleeping a little later in the morning, or at least, doing a longer night, so that even if they still wake early, they're more refreshed and may manage a longer A than usual off the back of the better night.

[lily_layne]

So we often find that EBT can actually lead to a LO sleeping a little later in the morning

This is definitely true for both of my LOs.

[H7]

Have done early bed times and don't mind putting her to bed at 6 if that's how naps work out. If I put her to bed at 6 she wakes at 5.50 or if I put her to bed at 8 she wakes at 5.50.

I've tried moving her first nap time later over the last few days and it still doesn't shift the wake up time.

Hubby and I are now convinced its the birds in the morning. They are so loud and the early waking started around the time of the spring dawn chorus starting. MiL said that her mum used to say that Feb 14th was the birds wedding day as after that date they start getting louder and it ties in timing wise. A few times we've woken before her and just as the birds get really loud she wakes.

We are moving house in a few weeks time and keeping my fingers crossed it is the birds and that when we move there won't be such a loud one right outside her bedroom. If not then I think we've just accepted now that we are lucky she sleeps so well through the night and that it could be way worse!

Cheers for all the help with suggested tweaks.

[trimbler]

Tbh I'd definitely go for 6pm BT even if she wakes at the same time - she'll be much more restored after the longer night, which should make it easier in the long run to shift her day.

When you've moved the nap later, did you move the whole day later too, by the same amount, or just that nap?

How annoying about the birds - lovely to hear them, but wouldn't it be so much nicer if they'd just wake up a bit later do you use white noise at all? Could you rearrange the bedroom so that her cot is further from the window? Ok, perhaps not worth it before you move anyway, just the thoughts that popped into my head

Hope all goes well with that move - you're braver than I

[H7]

Moved the whole day forward dependent really on what time she woke from the morning nap and afternoon nap.

I should have gone for a 6pm bedtime today as had a very over tired bub at bedtime who hasnt been settled at all this evening which is totally unlike her but somehow the time ran away from me.

Unfortunately her room isn't big enough for us to be able to move the furniture. We were saying this morning about white noise but we've never used it for her so worried about introducing something like that.

[lily_layne]

You can gradually introduce white noise by starting it so quietly it can barely be heard and then slowly turn up the volume each successive night. If you do try it, I would turn it on during her wind down also.

[H7]

So after thinking it was the birds, the last 3 mornings when she's woken I've not heard the birds. She's also now waking happy chatty and thumb suckling to begin with but we haven't been able to leave her til 7 as last 3 morning she's become grizzly by 6.30ish. Also last 3 nights she has randomly let out a cry at around 8pm just for a minute or 2 tops and then goes back to sleep and then a couple of times in the night probably around 1/2 and 3/4 she's done a really loud chatty bit for a bit not long at all but still doing it when before she was solidly sleeping through.

I know in the grand scheme of things we are lucky that she pretty much sleeps through from bedtime until the morning at 5.45 but I feel like gradually we are slipping backwards and would really like to get back to her waking at 7 and my accepting the 5.45 wake up has lasted all of 3 days!!

This is roughly how our day has gone the last 3 days

Wu 5.45
Out of cot 6.45
Bottle 7.15
Solids 8.15
Nap 9.40
Awake 11
Bottle 11.15
Solids 12.30
Nap 2
Awake 3
Bottle 3.15
Solids 4.30
Bath 6
Bottle 6.15
Asleep 6.30

I can't seem to get the afternoon nap right at the moment as it seems to be capping itself at an hour. Friday thought I'd try a 3hr 15 awake time and that resulted in a shorter nap with her waking crying. I can't resettle her when she wakes. I think that's because 3 o clock is the time her bottle is due so she wakes wanting the bottle but how can I alter this as can't really give her the bottle much later first thing.

I had wanted to do a 6pm bed time yesterday but struggle to see how to fit in bottle solids bath and bottle into a 3 hr period!

[trimbler]

I just had to read back to remind myself where we were, as I was wondering about fitting in a late afternoon CN - and I saw we'd already discussed it. How would you feel about trying it again? Doesn't even have to be as long as half an hour, if you think that would be too long. I just keep thinking there's some OT creeping in there, and a little CN might just help to stretch the day out a bit whilst helping to avoid OT. Wdyt?

[H7]

I was doing the cat nap I got down to 15 minutes around 5.15 and then waking her at 5.30 and going for a 7.30 bed time but she still woke at the same time.

Thing is if she wakes from her nap at 3 I think the earliest she'd go down for a cat nap is 5.45 and waking her then at 6 seems too late as she then wouldn't go down until 8ish.

[trimbler]

Ok, but she may surprise you and go down earlier for a CN, especially if previous naps were a bit on the short side... i'm just a bit wary of two slightly shorter naps without reducing the following A time, since that can lead to a build up of OT. She's actually getting a decent length night, which is why I wondered about pushing the day out a little with a CN, but I agree that 8pm sounds late if she's still waking at 5:45am afterwards. I guess ideally, we'd see at least one nap of more than 1.5h in there. Bearing in mind that in a few months you'll be wanting one of the naps to get shorter, which one do you think that's likely to be? Which one do you think she prefers? Does she tend to do better with a long morning nap or does that mess up the rest of the day? Just wondering about giving one of those A times a push, in the hope of getting a longer nap then...

[H7]

Tried for the cat nap a couple of days and it resulted in all out screaming until I got her back out of the cot at which point she was happy happy again. It's like she's going errrr no mum I don't do 3 naps anymore!!

Had a wake up of 6.20 two days when I put her down for morning nap at 9.15 and putting her down at 9.15 also resulted in longer naps ... 1hr 45 nap one day and a 2hr nap the next but then the last 2 days I've not been able to do the earlier nap time and she's woken with a 5 on the clock again.

It's definitely the morning nap that she needs. If she doesn't get that she is grizzly throughout the day. Don't even want to think about it all changing up again 🙈 altho know I will need to but hoping she won't go to one nap for a good while!

[lily_layne]

You should have a few months at the least before you need think about moving to one nap. It took a bit to get my DS settled onto 2 naps (and doing a decent WU) but once he got there it was nice not to worry about the CN and the routine lasted ages. We went for a longer last A and that worked really well for us.