4 month old early waking

[rosikaos]

My 4month old has been waking around 5am for the last 10 days or so and I am struggling to get her to sleep for longer. She wakes up usually quite happy and talking away to herself. I try to get her to go back to sleep by laying a hand on her stomach /top of legs to stop them moving, which is what I do during the day if she wakes early from a nap. Occasionally this gets her back to sleep for a v short time c10-20mins but normally she stays awake. I try to leave her to amuse herself, which she is usually happy to do, albeit noisily!

In terms of sleep she has either 3x1.5h naps or 2x1h45-2h naps and 1 catnap during the day, with A time of 1h45-2h. Bedtime is around 7:30pm with a dream feed at 11pm. This has just started to see her through the night - sometimes when she wakes at 5 she does cry for food and takes a good feed, other times she seems ok to wait until nearer 7 which is when I would ideally like her to start the day (although at the moment I would take anything starting with a 6!)

I thought about trying wake to sleep but she usually stirs anyway around 4ish and settles herself back to sleep, sometimes with a white noise shh. If she wakes at 5ish I try to wait to feed her nearer 7 and then keep her up until at least 8:30am before her first nap in the hope this might start to delay her wake up time. Should I be trying for even later, ie nearer 9 which is when she would nap if she woke at 7? Any suggestions gratefully received, thanks.

[becj86]

Hi, sorry your post has been missed!

Occasionally this gets her back to sleep for a v short time c10-20mins but normally she stays awake. I try to leave her to amuse herself, which she is usually happy to do, albeit noisily!

This is pretty classic of needing more A time first up in the morning.

A times really ramp up through 4-6 months from 2hr to ~3hr, so 15min every 2 weeks is the average increase.

It could be that she's hungry - well worth trying a feed and resettle, its absolutely reasonable for a 4mo to have a DF and a NF if not 2 NFs. You can still feed at 7 when you start the day.

How does she go napping if she's been up from am til 8:30?

[rosikaos]

Thanks do much for your reply. I had actually started to try to keep my LO up longer before I read your post and that seems to have moved her wakening time to 6:20am approximately.

Again I try to get my daughter to lie in til nearer 7 and don't feed her until 7 unless she is crying for food. Her awake time lasts until about 9:15am which would be 2h15m from a 7am wake up, however this is resulting in my LO waking up after 45mins into the nap and being quite tricky to get back to sleep. Do you think I should try pushing her nap time start even further? I'm just worried that will be nearly 3 hours from when she actually awakes; however she doesn't seem to be getting tired until approaching 9:15.

Thanks

[becj86]

Depending upon how close she is to 5 months, she could reasonably have 2.5hr A time.

If she is lying quietly in bed until 7, its not really the same in terms of tiring her out as normal A time, so she will cope with a longer A time.

[rosikaos]

That's very helpful, thank you. I will try and let you know how I get on.