6.5 month old early waking

[Gully]

Hi all,

I'd really appreciate some advice about my 6.5 month old, who has for the past week been waking very early. She has always woken about 6:30 am (15 minutes either way) but now is waking between 4 and five am. We treat it as a night waking, but she is happy and full of energy. We go in and give her her soother, and she goes back to sleep after an hour or so for another hour. We are dropping the third nap at the moment, so do  you think it's over tiredness? Should we get her up at 5, or continue as we are? Yesterday's EASY looks like this:

5:10 A happy
6:15 Sleep
6:50 Awake again
7:05 Eat Bottle 8 oz
8:00 Breakfast 8 teaspoons fruit and baby rice
9:30 Sleep 2 hours

11:30 Eat Bottle 8 oz
12:30 Lunch Carrot 8 teaspoons
2:30 Sleep 1 hour 15 min
3:45 Bottle 8 0z


6:00 Dinner: Porridge 16 spoons
7:00 Bottle: 7 oz (was full)
7:30 Bed (Didn't go off until 8, playing though eyes very tired) On days we need the third nap it doesn't happen until 6, lasts 20 minutes and she is asleep at 8:30)

I don't think she is waking hungry as she refused the DF six weeks ago and is happy when she wakes. She has reflux also, though it seems under control. Her room is dark and the correct temp.

I'd really appreciate some advice, as now that I'm back at work I really need more sleep!

[jessmum46]

I think probably a bit of OT, very common (inevitable!) around nap transitions.  You are doing the right thing not getting her up at 5am, that's not a habit you want to begin!  My suggestion would be that bedtime needs to come earlier on two nap days, so that she is in bed asleep for about 3h after the second nap ends.  So nap until 3.45 = bed at 6.45pm.  I definitely wouldn't do a nap at 6pm either, that's really too late in the day and as you've experienced just eats away at your nights. 

I would suggest that you roughly plan to do two naps as long as the second nap ends at or after 3pm.  Then BT 3h later.  If second nap ends a long way before 3pm then throw in a catnap pre-5pm (ish) but keep it short and try for a bit earlier bedtime than 8.30pm.  Better that she has a shorter nap and longer night The tricky bit is when they wake from second nap at 2.30pm ish, ugh, I hated it when that happened!  Basically it's a judgement call - if you can get in a quick UT catnap (again pre-5pm ish) then go for it, but if it's refused or the catnap is going to come too late in the day, just get her into bed for 6pm which is kind of what you are doing with that late catnap, but instead let her sleep on and add the sleep to her nights x

[Gully]

Thank you so much for the advice, we'll keep going and make bedtime earlier on 2 nap days. She's never slept more than ten and a half hours at night so I guess we have been worried about her waking really early after an early bedtime. But that's happening anyway now so might as well try it and see!

Thanks again!

[jessmum46]

Hope it works out for you!  The 3-2 does come right in the end so keep going x

[Gully]

Hi Again,

Sorry to be back so soon but yesterday's EASY went like this:

A: 5:30 (Left in bed until 6:30 when she got upset)
6: 40 Eat bottle 8 0z (wolfed in down)
7:40 Solids 8 teaspoons
8:45 Sleep

10:05 Awake
10:50 bottle 8 oz
12:20 Youghurt (i small pot)
1:25 bed (fussed until 1:50)
1:50 asleep
3:10 Awake
3:15 Bottle 8 oz

5:00 Porridge 18 teaspoons
6:10 bottle 8 oz
6:35 bed
6:45 Asleep

Here's where it all started to go wrong. She was very unsettled, tossing and turning all evening night. We had to resettle her with the soother very hour or so until she woke fully at 1:50 am and was very awake and happy.

1:50 am awake
3: 00am fussy,
3:10 am Bottle 6 oz
3:20 am asleep.

6:50 am awake happy but not hungry for her morning bottle.

Do you think this was over tiredness again? Or is she hungry? She doesn't act like it when she wakes at night but she settled so well after it last night! She started refusing the dream feed 6 weeks ago, but should we try it again?

sorry to be back so soon, just shattered from this and need for it to pass!!

[jessmum46]

No I think that was over tiredness.  The milk probably just helped relax her enough to settle again.  You had some long A times during the day, and even though the nap lengths were good they may well have reflected some over tiredness rather than being properly restorative.  I'd try pulling your A times back to 3h if you can, especially the last one as I think she is probably just accumulating tiredness right now.  (((Hugs))), it is a rubbish transition but you will get through it.  Can anyone give you a break for an hour or two in ten day so you can catch a nap?

[Gully]

Thanks a million for the advice. I guess it is the over tiredness again. My husband is here too and helps out loads so I'm lucky, it's just that we both are back working full-time with 2 weeks now so sleep is now really important!

She woke at 3:50 pm this afternoon so I'll have her in bed by 6:45 and hopefully we'll avoid some of it tonight. We've kept her A time to 3 hours all day so fingers crossed!

[jessmum46]

Sounds good, hope it brings a better night for you x

[Gully]

Back again, sorry!!

The 5 :20 am wake ups have continued since, bar one night where she slept until 6:10 but not for any reason I could see. We are trying to get the naps right and reduce/prevent over tiredness and hoping this will all come good in the end.

I just wanted to check about what to do when she wakes up. Because she has just learned to roll and now chooses to sleep on her stomach, as soon as she wakes on her tummy she starts calling out and crying. So we go in at 5:20, turn her back and gently hold her steady and shush to try to get her to go back. Some mornings it works after about 20 mins, other mornings we end up feeding her at 6 and she goes back to sleep after (though again she needs the shush and hold). She then can sleep for about an hour.

Is it okay to do this? Or are we training her to expect this each time? Just don't want to start another bad habit. Also, I read on another post that if they are waking early the first nap should be after 9:30. Are we making a mistake by letting her go back to sleep at 6:30 for an hour?

Sorry of all the questions, would be so lost without this forum!

[jessmum46]

I think if you can get her back off before your normal morning WU time, then I would.  I don't think you're training her to expect your intervention at this stage, I would see it as her needing some extra help right now to settle back off and hopefully once she is through the transition it will resolve itself.  As long as you are making sure she has a decent A time after proper WU that shouldn't encourage the EW.