7 Months and Waking between 4:00 and 6:00 am

[cheinzel]

Hi everyone. This is my first post.  I've just finished Tracy's first book, and I'm working on "The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems."  Ethan is 7 months and is now more of a Textbook baby, but started out Touchy.

I'm trying to get him into a good routine, but not sure what to do when he wakes up between 4 and 6 am.  He is of course very wet and poopy, but he isn't fussy (at first).  I feel like I've tried everything. 

We've let him be because he wasn't fussy, but he will escalate into fussing after 40-50 minutes of talking.  And even if he does go back to sleep, it seems much more fitful and it will be very close to 7:00 (which we'd like to be his wake up time).

I've tried changing him and putting him back down with no bottle.  That only worked once, and it took him so long to go back to sleep it was almost 7:00.  I went ahead and let him sleep, though.

I have also changed him and given him only a very small bottle (4 oz).  Again, it takes him so long to go back to sleep after that, it ends up being very close to 7:00 if not at 7:00.

It seems like if we can push his bedtime closer to 7:30 instead of 6:30, he will wake closer to 6:00 am.  This would be fine, except I don't think he's really ready to start his day then. 

If we do decide to start his day with a 6:00 waking, he will take a bottle and play for a while, but he will want to go back to bed at 8:00.  This gets us into a day with maybe 4 naps and a lot of crankiness.

So, what do I do with a baby that wakes early but not fussy at first?  It seems like he'd be fussy if he were hungry.  Is it the pooping that's waking him up?  If so, I'm afraid there's absolutely nothing we can do about it. 

We've become slaves to his lack of consistancy and early am poop.  We would love to get his naps into a usual time slot so we can plan outings to see friends.  At this point, we have no clue when he'll be napping because it all depends on when he wakes in the morning and what we do with his early morning waking.

thanks,
courtney and ethan (4/4/05)

[Katet]

From my understanding (& my own experience with ds#1) some babies just don't ever do the magic 12 hours... sounds like your lo is one. you may have to be satisfied with 7-6am, at least for now (I know I have learnt to live with 7.30 - 6am)

How long are his day naps... for a 7mo you would be looking at 14-14.25 hours total sleep in 24 hours... so for him to sleep 6.30pm - 7am he would only be expected to sleep less than 2 hours in the day. If he is sleeping say 3 then he is not really going to be tired enough to need to sleep the "whole" night.

a few things I would suggest is 'trimming' back the day time naps, esp the the first one. I would keep that at no more than 45mins & the second one let be as long as he likes but no more than 2 hours... if you have a third one, that would probably be a big part in it.

Re the poopy nappy, I assume he is on solids... I know somepeople have had success in changing the order they give solids to change the time of pooping, so try that too.

[sa]

yes, my DS is one of them who is happy with 10 hours night sleep. and he does 2 naps of 1.5 or 2 hours which suit us so we are not changing that for the time being.

i put him to bed at 8pm and he wakes up 6am sharp ! he is like an alarm clock ...haahaa.

[Gigismom]

hi
we had the EXACT same problem starting when dd was about 6 months...i have to go right now, but i will respond to you later today or tomorrow.  hang in there.

[cheinzel]

Hey all.  Thanks for your replies.  Yes, he's on solids three times a day, and he's formula fed (about 30 ounces a day).

Katet: I'm not clear on what you mean by changing the order that I give the solids in.  Do you mean when what times I give them during the day or are you talking more about the specific foods I'm feeding him?

I will definitely think about limiting his nap times to make sure he's not sleeping too much during the day. 

You're all wonderful.  Thanks so much for the replies.

courtney & ethan 4/4/05

[Katet]

Yes changing the order you give specific foods in, like say not giving veg in the evening or not giving fruit at breakfast...some babies seem to metabolise things at different rates & I did see a post where not offering one type of food after noon did seem to do the trick... I think that person actually worked out they needed to give veg for breakfast & cereal for dinner.

[Gigismom]

i'm back.  my dd did the super early waking starting at 6-7 months.  she wasn't crying either.  she would usually play in her crib for like an hour before she would cry.  then she was ready to get up.  i tried everything, keeping her up later before bedtime, putting her down earlier for bed, leaving her in her crib in the am, etc.  nothing worked. 

so we just decided to leave her in her crib as long as we could and we'd just get her up when she started crying.  also, i read somewhere (not in tracy's book, but a different one) that when you have an early riser, you should not let them take the early nap.  like if he gets up at 5:00 and wants to nap at 7:00, try to keep him up until a reasonable first naptime.  i realize he may be a bit young for this.  you don't want to keep him up so long that he is overtired.  but as he gets a little older, you will be able to keep him up closer to a reasonable naptime.  like with our dd, no matter what time she wakes up, her first nap starts between 9-9:30 am.  if she wakes up at 5:30, she is wiped out by 9, but the set nap times have really helped set her internal clock.  she rarely wakes before 6 am.  also, you may want to try giving him a later bedtime.  this helped us a little although it hasn't cured the early wakings altogether.

just so you know, it seems like a lot of babies at 6-7 months have this issue.  so i don't think you are necessarily doing anything wrong.  i really think it is developmental; otherwise, there wouldn't be so many people complaining about this! 

a couple of questions:  how long does he nap?  how long are his awake times?  is it possible to extend the awake times a little to get him down to 3 naps a day?

[cheinzel]

Ethan's nap length is all over the place.  I've only been writing down sleep times for about a week, but we've been keeping track of his eating since birth.  Yesterday, for example, was a good day, and it went like this

6:30-wake and play in crib
7:00-8 oz
8:10-cereal and apples/blueberries
8:30-nap (this was pushing it too, he was so tired)
10:40-wake (wow!)
10:55-7 oz
12:45-sweet potatoes and bananas
1:30-nap
2:30-wake
3:00-8 oz
5:15-sleep (fell asleep in the car)
6:00-we woke him, and he was grumpy, I am sure he thought he was down for the night!
6:05-8 oz (normally we would have given him cereal and fruit around 5:30, but I didn't think he'd tolerate solids being so grumpy)
7:00-2 oz to top off
7:30-sleep
and he woke at 6:30 this morning.  This was very good, actually and I think we might just be getting back on track.

I worry about leaving him too long in the morning even though he's happy because I know there's poop in his diaper.  I suspect he might actually be pooping much before he wakes up because this morning his bottom was very irritated even though I went to him soon after he woke.  I am thinking about having my "late to bed" husband check and change him if poopy late at night.

So, I will definitely start changing when I give him certain foods during the day and see if that makes a difference.  I'm also thinking about giving a bath earlier in the day in case maybe the warm water is getting his bowels moving in his sleep.

You are all so helpful.  Thank you.  I have definitely gotten some good advice, and I am feeling a little better knowing that other babies are doing the same thing. 

courtney and ethan 4/4/05

[Gigismom]

gianna always had short erratic naps too until about 6-7 months.  then they started lengthening all on their own.  one thing i think that helped them get longer is we increased her awake times.  even though she was REALLY tired at first, her body got used to staying up longer and she then started napping longer cause she was more tired.  it sounds like maybe your son is in the midst of this too. 
at around 6-9 months, a baby's sleep becomes more adult like in that the cycles are 1.5-2 hours long, not 30-45 mins like they are when the baby is first born.  also, at this age, the babies become more physically active and this helps tire them out as well.  so you can expect your son to start taking longer naps at this age.  but you can perhaps help this along by keeping him up a little longer until you have found the right amount of awake time that produces a long nap.  then as he gets older, his naps may shorten again...this is just a sign that he needs to have his awake times increased again.
of course, not every baby follows this course and some are always short nappers, so in that case just work out a routine that you both can live with even if it's not exactly "by the book".  good luck.