7 month old still waking all night

[lyssie28]

Hi,  my 7 month old has been waking all from 3.30 every morning for months.  Nothing I do seems to help.  I try to keep her in her cot until 6am but then she's wanting to go back to bed at about 7 for a nap!  Days are generally mixed for naps as we go out in the nice weather and she won't sleep for long in the pram but her day at the minute is:

Out of bed: 6am

Nap 7.15/7.30 - 9.30

Nap 12.30 -2.30

Bedtime 6.30

Is her A time too long or too short? At bedtime she is hard to settle at the minute as she constantly rolls and gets stuck (this isn't a new skill for her as she's been doing it since 4 months) so sometimes it takes over an hour of me going in to put her on her back and giving her her dummy.  She then wakes around 3.30 and every half an hour or so until I get her up or she starts shouting.  I am a single parent right now as her dad has passed away and have no break whatsoever. Please help!

[lolsyb1982]

Is she going back to sleep after the 3.30 NW or awake until 6 when you get her up?

[lyssie28]

Yes she goes back to sleep eventually after doing a few rolls and me putting her back on her back. 

[lolsyb1982]

I think the first nap is causing you a problem as its too early in the day.

The average A time is around 3 hours for her age but I would say you will need to increase in smaller increments of say 15mins and hold for a couple of days before jumping again.

Also she may be getting too much day sleep which is causing her to have UT NW. You might want to limit to 3hrs total day sleep.

[lyssie28]

We ate now having wu between 4.30-5am wanting to be up for the day 😔 Yesterday she napped at 7.45-9.45 but I had to go out and she only had half an hour in her pram at 1.  She fell asleep 4-5 in car and bed at half6.  Is it too much? She gets so grouchy and wants to sleep.  I'm exhausted 😔

[ginger428]

Hi there and hugs for how tired you must be. My condolences for the loss of DD's dad.

With that last nap at 4, she probably needed a little longer A time to bed... 7:00/7:30. She's probably needs 2 naps + cn, and will be ready to drop the cn soon if not already.

I agree with Lauren that your morning nap is too early and can be causing the early wake ups and also her day sleep maybe could be capped at 3hrs. Is she still waking at 3? when does she go back to sleep and wake for good? If your goal is a 6am wake up, i would push nap closer to 9:00 or 9:30 if she's closer to 8 months. With a 5am wake up, i would put her down at 8, working towards 9:00 either in 15 min-30 min increments based on how OT she is/isn't. Then 3hr A to second nap, and 3-3:30 to bed. If she averages 11 hr nights, aim for a 7pm bedtime.

Napping at the same time Every day for about a week or so could help set her clock. Any chance you can try that for a week and go out in between?


Here are average A times:
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

And sample routines for her age:
chronological EASY samples, 7-9 months

And going from 3 to 2 naps:
All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

[lyssie28]

Thank you for the advice.  She is waking between 3 and 4am now and not going back to sleep.  I'm going to try and put her nap at 8.00 in the morning and every few days add 10-15 minutes to it and see how she goes.  Because she is getting up so early she is also wanting to go to bed early now and I'm struggling I keep her up past 6pm. 

[FPT23]

Hi! EWs are super rough! Hugs!

They can be developmental too. Have we ruled out possible discomfort such as teething?

I agree with Ginger. You need to try to get the nap as close as possible to 9am. It will take time pushing her a bit and she will be OT.... But that's part of it. You probably won't avoid it. She will be tired and act tired; but you just have to adjust her as best you can or you'll stay in the same cycle.

Typically once you push her morning nap- her next one should land around 1:30/2 assuming good A times for her age (Ginger provided the link) which is normally between 3-4hrs give or take.

I believe what Ginger meant about pushing her BT was b/c she had a nap of 1 hour between 4-5. If not then I am a big advocate of early bedtimes! They sleep more and helps catch them up from any OT. I would def EBT when possible for now.

I know she's grouchy and tired. It happens unfortunately
But it is the only way to adjust her....

Many hugs, EWs are the toughest and common! Hang in there and get extra sleep when possible

Hugs hugs hugs!

[lyssie28]

Thanks.  She was awake at 3,30 again this morning and I couldn't keep her up past 6am so I've put her back to bed and going to get her up at 7 and take the day from there.  Will that work do you think? I'll do nap 10-11.30 and then 2.30 - 4 then bedtime 7. Is that too much day sleep?

[FPT23]

Hopefully that works for you! Just work on the schedule a bit

Here's a link for typical day sleep but it can depend on your LO. Try it and see what happens

Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep