Early Morning Waking

[momhogie]

Hi everyone,

Our baby daughter is 10 months old and waking at roughly 4.30am every morning the last 3 or 4 weeks. Prior to this she was waking usually 3 times a night and wide awke around 5am.

My question is, when she wakes at 4.30am for example the advice I see online usually is that we should not take her up from the room until after 6am. So we go in and try soothe her etc but she usually will stay awake until 6am anyway. She is wide awake at 4.30-5am every morning. Very alert. not going to sleep. So what time should we put her down for her 1st nap. If she is awake since 4.30am, is it madness trying to stretch it out until 8-9am? Should we really put her down by 7.30am at the latest as she would be awake 3 hours? She is usually cranky within 2 hours most days?

Any advice would be really appreciated. Thank you.

[Katet]

That's a crazy early time & if she's staying awake until past 6am she's definitely got day sleep robbing from night sleep.

What is the rest of her day like in terms of day naps (time & length) & bedtime? Then can give better ideas

[momhogie]

the last few weeks her naps have improved. she used to be max 30 minute naps. now we still get a 30 or 40 minute morning nap but some long naps around lunch time for about hour and half or 2 hours. the thing is she never lasts long before getting cranky so we try get in the third nap now around 3.30 or 4pm for a short 20 minutes or half hour. she will still be getting cranky before 6pm.

we dont really know how best to schedule the naps for the day when she wakes so early. do we try stretch her to make first nap closer to 8.30 or 9am. but thats a long time when she is awake at 4.30?

[Katet]

Sorry but what time does she go to bed & when does she have her feeds. Trying to work out her day over 24 hours to see if she's not getting enough awake time overall or if other factors.

Could you write out a rough EASY eg
wake 4.30
milk
solids
Nap
etc
for a 24hour period.

Sleep never happens in isolation, so how she spends her day could be a factor & how mobile she is too.