Early Wake Up Experts please ;) - UPDATED

[sammy3115]

Hello all...

I have been a dedicated e.a.s.y mommy from the birth of my first little girl 8 years ago, I am now on my third 6 month old.

I’m struggling with early wake ups, my girls slept right 8pm - 8am but my little boy wakes up at 6am. I work until 1am and I struggle to wake up. The odd days he does sleep until 7ish. Sometimes I put the white noise on the monitor and he falls asleep. He doesn’t generally cry just plays for about 30 mins before starting to cry.

His routine is as follows;
7:30 - 9oz bottle
9:45 - 1hour nap, sometimes 1.15
11:30 - 9oz bottle
1:30 -nap for 1 hour so times 1.15
3pm - wake ( as I need to leave the house to pick the girls from school)
3:30 - 9oz bottle
5pm - 30 mins catnap
6pm - started to introduce dinner
7pm - bathe and eat ready for bed
7:30-8pm - 9oz bottle and falls asleep about 8pm
11-11:30- Dream feed.

I’m sure it’s something I’m doing during the day that’s causing the early wake up, I know it’s not super early but him waking up early effects the older kids and his routine and he is a groggy baby in the day as he’s not getting enough sleep.

I know there are lots of posts of early waking babies, I’m hoping someone can help me

TIA Sam x

[sammy3115]

Bump

[becj86]

Hi

There are a couple of common reasons he might be waking at that hour:
- hunger - have you tried feeding him and putting him back down? There can be a growth spurt around this age...
- first nap too early - though if he's genuinely waking at 6am and not napping til 9:45, then doing an UT nap as the EAS you posted suggests, I'm really confused. I suspect he's sleeping or at least not doing an awful lot of activity for a while/ in that time between 6 and 9:45.

This is a common age to be dropping the catnap and moving to 2x 1.5-2hr naps.

Usually I would say to bring the WU later by shifting your first nap later. I think that's reasonable in this case also, though I would caution that a 12hr night is not always a reasonable expectation from this age onwards and your boy may do more like an 11hr night more consistently. To shift the nap later, I tend to recommend that you do the nap after 3hr A time or a set time (say 10am initially), whichever is later to help encourage him to sleep longer in the morning. You then shift the set time later by 15mins every 3-5 days until you've got the first nap a suitable A time away from your ideal WU time. Does that make sense?

I'm imagining something like this being the final product, then as he gets older, the A times will increase gradually and BT would likely move later.
8 - WU
11 - nap
12:30 - wake
3:30 - nap
5 - wake
8 - BT

[sammy3115]

God you have no idea how much sense this makes, I have been trying to work out this out and getting no where and you have made it look so simple : )

My LO doesnt wake due to hunger as he will not take his bottle right away. I think the two naps timed the way you have set it will work well for him. This may encourage him to sleep better during the day too.  I am going to give this a shot tomorrow and will update  - thank you!

[becj86]

Keep in mind if he is up a lot longer than he usually would be, he may wake at 30mins into his nap which suggests OT which is likely related to habitual nap times. Its worth being there at ~25mins into his nap to help him resettle if needs that assistance whilst he's getting used to the new A time and new nap times.

[sammy3115]

Hi,

I have tried the the change in his routine, so this is what I have been working on the last few weeks

8 - WU
11 - nap
12:30 - wake
3:30 - nap
5 - wake
8 - BT

Its worked well for his day naps and he sleeps the 1-1.5 hour, as before he would only nap for 45 mins .

BUT he is still waking up early, it was 5:30 today and I am struggling as its effecting my older girls. The first few days I think he did sleep until 7am ish which was good, he doesn't wake up hungry and hes not especially teething. I tend to leave him for about half a hour then he starts getting restless.

I am also weaning him, but I have not dropped any bottles so the food is in addition. I start getting him ready for bed about 7:30pm and he nods off by 8pm, I have tried putting him down later but that doesnt work, It must be something I am doing during the day which effects his night sleep.

Any ideas and help would be much appreciated xx

[becj86]

Its worked well for his day naps and he sleeps the 1-1.5 hour,

So when is he sleeping 1hr and when 1.5? 1hr is still UT, so maybe its worth increasing the A time a bit more.

Are you sure he's not hungry at 5:30am?

Anyhow, a 12hr night is not necessarily going to happen at this age.

When you say he's waking at 5:30am but you're working on 8am WU and 11nap, what's actually happening between 5:30 and 11? Is he up from 5:30 til 11? Is he going back to sleep from 6 til 8?

[sammy3115]

Thanks for reply becJ

Ok I was thinking about that I should have put in my last post. When he wakes up at say 5:30 I try to settle him back into bed as that’s super early, he’s not hungry as he does settle eventually. But other days when he wakes early say about 6ish, I leave him in his cot for about 30-40 mins until he starts getting restless, most cases he doesn’t fall back asleep, so we start the day but he tends to have his feed at about 7:30. So essentially he’s awake until I put him down at 10:45-11am so he’s awake a good 3-4 hours plus. I know that’s along time, but I don’t know what else to do as the early wake ups mess everything up, sometimes on the school run at 9am he will catch 5’mins in the car but not that often...  but he did wake up around the 7:30am mark but it’s been a few week these early starts have kicked in x

With activities for him. He plays in the Jumperoo, tummy time, playing sitting up and the bouncer, are here any other suggestions to tire him out at night?

Gosh I thought I would be a pro third time around but it’s proving to be difficult 😣😜

[becj86]

Really I think the issue is all that low-activity A time first up in the morning. Can you take him to a park to wriggle/crawl around or play at a playground or swimming or something after the school run and before his first nap? I don't know where you are or anything so hard to make appropriate suggestions, just some thoughts.

I think when you're getting 2x1.5hr naps in the day, you'll know you're getting to the right activity level. If he's 6.5-7mo now and sleeping an UT nap off 4hr A, he's doing an awful lot of lying around not doing much or he's possibly low sleep needs. I'd probably concentrate on his being on the floor having tummy time and sitting up rather than jumperoo and bouncer as he'll be working harder  physically with those activities.

[sammy3115]

My husband always tells me he needs more activity time. I get distracted with the other kids. But I’ll take all your suggestions on board and try all those things.

I have thought of a few ways to get more activity before bed here in the U.K.  I am willing to try anything lol.

I did think about doing sleep to wake and stiring him at 4am ( set my alarm, yikes!) so you think this could also work for a 7 month old?

[becj86]

Oh yes, wake to sleep can help if the waking is habitual.

Is he going down ok at BT?

[sammy3115]

Yes he’s such a good self soother, I can pop him into his cot with his little bear and off I go. I did try sleep to wake and it worked with his naps during the day. They say 3 days should be ok I’m at the point I’m
Happy to wake up at 4am to try it, is it about 1 hour before he normally wakes?

Or another point could be playing white noise continuously throughout the night from the dreamfees maybe?

As you can I’m determined to conquer this lol x

[becj86]

Yes, so its 1hr before he usually wakes - 4am WTS for a 5am habitual wake is good. Try 3 days then stop for a day to see if its helping.

Is he waking when the white noise stops? If not, I'd probably not worry about white noise all night unless you particularly want to.

[sammy3115]

Your right white noise didn’t work... worth a try!

I’m going to try the sleep to wake and extra activities, I will update in a few days, thank you for keeping me going x

[becj86]

Sounds like a good plan