Please Help - 6mo Old Waking Early

[Mom to M&M]

I need advice! My DD (25 weeks tomorrow) is waking quite early in the morning - between 5-5:40 am most days. I can usually leave her in there to talk and squeal and roll and not take her out until 6 am - but she will rarely fall back asleep, if it's after 5am anyway. However, I'm relatively sure she's not waking because schedule needs tweaking (have tried longer naps, shorter naps, earlier bedtime, later bedtime, etc), nor out of hunger or because hot/cold. Instead, it definitely seems like a noise issue. From what I can tell, she and many lo's are in a light sleep from 4am on. That, combined with loud noises often outside her window around 5am (we live in Manhattan and on a relatively busy corner and I often hear garbage trucks, etc outside her window around this time), wake her up. She cries lightly at first but then just starts to squeal and play - since I guess she hasn't had enough sleep but has had close.

But it throws off the rest of the day. And makes her overtired/unhappy in evenings. Yesterday, for example, she was up at 5:35 or so. I got her out of bed a little after 6. Normal wake up time used to be around 6 or 6:10. So first nap used to be around 8:15 or 8:30 and she'd sleep between 1-1.5 hours. I tried to keep her up to same time yesterday and got her into crib just a little early - at 8:05. She only took settled quickly but only took a 45 minute nap and woke at 8:55 and seemed tired and cranky but wouldn't resettle. So we got up and kept her as happy as possible and managed to keep her awake but seemingly not overtired until 11:40 - she then took a really good nap in crib from 11:45-1:15 but still seemed tired when she woke. And then she took a short catnap from 3:50-4:30.

Last night she slept great overnight but after a long sanitation truck just before 5am, she was awake at 5:10 and wouldn't resettle. We got out of bed at 5:50, ate at 6:20 and it's now 6:45. Instead of trying to figure out how long to keep her awake, I think I'm going to try taking her out in stroller around 7:15/7:30 and seeing when she naturally falls asleep and just letting her sleep as long as she can/will? Maybe that will work better than 45 minute crib nap yesterday and help her from being too tired later in day?

Please - besides the obvious of trying to move (which may be a possibility in a few months) or installing citi-quiet/soundproof windows (also a likelihood but would take 6-8 weeks to have custom made and installed), do you have any suggestions? I do have a white noise machine in there. I can also move her crib so it's not against the windows - but it's a small 8x10 room - not sure how much difference that will make. So separate of this, how should I organize the day? Do I get her up as soon as she gets upset and just start the day from there? If so, when do I put her in for first nap? At her age do I stretch her A times as much as possible and also let her sleep a little extra for naps if she can/will?

[Katet]

From my experience a baby that is tired enough will sleep through that 5am slot until 6am +, the key is a later first nap... if you want her to wake up around 6.30am at the earliest, then really you need to make sure she isn't down for a nap before 9am (2.5 hours being about the max a 6mo will comfortably have awake time) & during that time you need ot be calm & quiet with her so she isn't over stimulated... then you plan your rest of the day around that... it could take 2-3 weeks for a later sleep to kick in BUT to start off with make it that no naps before say 8.15, for at least a week, then 8.30 etc, but if you hold back & offer it too early , then you are back to square one. with my ds#1 it took about 3 weeks ( he was older), & about 10 days with ds#2 when we started having 5.30am wakeups.

What time is her bedtime, because if it is earlier than 7pm or later than 8pm, then that may also influence it & maybe you need to shift it into that frame

[Mom to M&M]

Hi Kate and thanks. Her bedtime is between 7:20-7:40 depending on cir!@!stances and wake up time from catnap. Last night it was 7:30 and she slept until 6:15 today (with a really brief stirring at 5) so that was much better. Some mornings she can get through that stirring and some she can't - but she did finally nap better yesterday too and catch up on some overtiredness so maybe that helped too?

So what you are saying is that if she wakes up at 5 or 5:30 and can't resettle to leave her in bed until at least 6 (if she's not too upset) and to start pushing first nap slowly out to 9? OK - will do. Since she woke at 6:15 today, try to make first nap at 8:45? Does that mean nap start time or when I get her in crib? It usually takes her 5-10 minutes to settle and fall asleep...

Also, Kate, can you share your routine with me at this age - especially re awake times, nap lengths, that sort of thing? DD is what I'd call textbook/spirited and generally gets between 3-3.5 hours day sleep - ideally two naps of 1.25-1.5 and one catnap about 30-45 minutes. Is that appropriate? Would ideally love bedtime between 7:30-8 and wake up time not before 6:15/6:30

Thx again.

[Katet]

Karen, for me routines are a bit "tricky" as they need to fit around a toddler & his activities, so they aren't really that good to share as they are a bit weird.
In the EASY forum, there are samples for different age groups.
at 6months you would expect an awake time of about 2.5 hours & 2 x1- 1.5 hours sleep + a cat nap & about 11 hours overnight... when you drop the catnap, you would tend to get about 12hours again, at least tha is my exerience... my ds#2 has just dropped the cat nap at 8months, but I find (just observing no proof) that girls seem to do it earlier for some reason.

If 6.30 is your favoured earliest awake time, then definitely try to get the first nap to start about 9am & by 8months you would want that closer to 9.30am
HTH

[Mom to M&M]

Thanks Kate. This morning she woke at 5:40 and I got her out of bed at 6 (which is when she started to get upset/protest laying there). I'll stretch her as far as possible (she would probably normally want to nap by 8 at the latest) but don't think I'll get her past 8:15-8:20 without being too overtired... But will just keep at it. She seems to only be getting between 10-10.5 hours overnight sleep - so she must also be starting out a bit overtired...

[Katet]

Karen, it is a slow process, but it does work in the end, start doing "quiet things" from 7.45 & get her as long as you can BUT yes don't push her to over tired.
For quiet things, sitting & cuddling, reading stories.

10.5 hours sleep at night is actually within normal range for a 6mo, it does tend increase when the cat nap is dropped

[Mom to M&M]

Wasn't too bad. Got her into crib at 8:10 just as she was getting overtired. She fell asleep at 8:15 and slept for one hour though.

Then instead of putting her back down at 11:30 (she generally goes about 2.25 in afternoon before going into crib) I managed to keep her up until 11:50 and she took a nice nap from 12-1:30 so we are only about 30 minutes off usual. Will do bedtime at 7:15 tonight instead of 7:30, assuming she takes catnap from approx 4-4:45...

10.5 would be fine - it's just the days that she gets 10 that are a bit rough for her and me!

So once she can stay awake closer to 3 hours and take two long naps we should drop catnap and maybe temporarily move bedtime up to 7? She's so active - can't see that happening for at least another month - possibly closer to 2.

Thx again for your help, Kate.