Author Topic: Early WU help  (Read 3733 times)

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Offline Kerriam

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Early WU help
« on: June 16, 2018, 10:53:43 am »
My baby is almost 8 months and has been waking up super early the past two weeks. Prior to that he was sleeping until 7am but recently it’s been 5:45am. We moved him into the room with my 3 year old and at first it wasn’t as dark in there in the morning as in our room where he moved from but I’ve since gotten blackout shades and curtains and have towels so it’s as dark as I can possibly make it but I’m afriad now his early WU has become a habit. So I need some help trying to break it. He’s been waking my toddler up who has been really struggling as well now.
Here’s our EASY from yesterday:

WU: 5:45, I changed him, gave him a bottle and tried to put him back down but no luck
E: 6:30 tried bottle again as a proper WU routine but he didn’t drink much / 8:00 breakfast
A: 3 hours
S: 8:45 nap - 9:55 (1:05)
E: 10:30 bottle (didn’t drink much) / 12:00 lunch
A: 3 hours 35 min
S: 1:30 nap - 3:15 (1:45)
E: 3:45 bottle / 6:00 supper
A: 3 hours 5 min
S: 6:50 asleep

I put him to bed a little early as he usually goes down 7:15ish in hope that he’ll be more inclined to go back to sleep after his early WU but it didn’t work. He was up at 5:45 again and probably got enough sleep (11hours) at that point. I think he’s sleeping and napping okay but I need to adjust his schedule up an hour or so. How do I do that when he seems stuck at this 5:45 WU?

Thanks!

Offline creations

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Re: Early WU help
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2018, 12:41:31 pm »
Hi there Kerriam

Often when LOs start waking earlier we tend to put them down for the nap earlier to keep their A time the same each day.  Sometimes this can end up perpetuating the earlier wake up.  If your routine has been 3hr A for a while and it was working what you might need instead is maybe 3hr 15 on the first A to avoid the earlier waking.
To get back on track I would suggest moving the whole day on by 15 mins each day.  It's possible a little OT might build up but this is just the same as a clock change which loads of people do every year.  Day 1 no nap before 9am, Day 2 9.15am and so on until you have reached more like 10am or 10.15 for the first nap.  When you move the day on you need to move everything, milk, meals, nap, bath everything as LO uses all they cues to know where they are in the day.  BT will be shifting too.  WU might not improve for the first few days but after several days you should see it come later too.
Once you have things in place perhaps keep to the 3hr 15 first A time and see what happens. It could be LO needs a bit more but you won't know that yet.

The night length is actually not bad, it's just too early to bed and too early to WU.  11hr night are OK.  When one of the naps shortens you might get a longer night again if you used to get longer.  Some LOs are able to do 12hr night, some just can't, so it depends really on what a normal night length is for your LO.

Hope this helps. See how you get on and let us know if you need more help or if you have more questions.


Offline Kerriam

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Re: Early WU help
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2018, 19:18:30 pm »
Thank you so much. This sounds like great advice. I will try this and come back if I have any further questions. Thanks!