5:30 am waking for a 9 month old..HELP!

[cam621]

So i guess I can't complain, since she at least sleeps through the night, but she wakes up sooo early!  Her schedule looks like this these days:
5:30 am wakes
5:45 bottle (7 oz)
7:00 yogurt/cereal
7:30 nap (SO early, but she is just so tired)
8:30-9:00 wakes
9:30-10am bottle
noon solids (fruit, veggie, cereal, toast, etc..)
1:00pm nap (MAYBE an hour, but lately 1/2 hour)--**which may be the problem**
2:00-2:30 bottle
5:00 solids (veggies, etc..)
6:00 start routine for bed (reading, bath, bottle)
6:30 in bed

I can't seem to get her to go to bed later at night because she is soooo tired by 6pm, especially when she doesn't have a long afternoon nap.  Lately, I can't even get her to catnap in the later afternoon.  Also, the most she will last before her first nap is 2 1/2 hours.  No longer than that (if that--mostly only 2 hours).  Also, on days when she is in daycare, she barely gets ANY naps at all during the day.  It is so hard for her to sleep there.  I just don't konw what to do.  She isn't really cranky at all during the day but starts at around 5:30-6pm.

HELP!!  Not sure if there is even anything I can do, but just wondering...This too shall pass???   

Thanks!

[~BeckyD~]

Oh I sooo feel your pain.

We had a similar thread started for our 8 month olds, and I am sorry to say we are still suffering! The early wake ups for my ds have been going on for about 6weeks I think
I am used to it now but its still too early for my liking!

i had some good advice which was to try and make sure they don't go back down from their first nap too early.  My ds was also only lasting 2.5 hours awake til he needed to nap, but I have worked with the crabbiness and tired cries and now manage to get him to last til 9am for his first nap.  This way he is not going back to sleep so early, which ensures his 2nd nap is not til between 1-2pm, so he is not too over tired by bedtime.
That said, I am still putting him to bed at 6.15pm as that way I know he gets a solid 11 hours at least(most nights!)

I really can't offer any advice as nothing has worked for us and am still waiting for this 'phase' to pass!

I hope somebody more experienced can offer some help to you.

Here's a link to our other post if thats any help!
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=54232.msg379196#msg379196

[chell]

Hi, I think Elllie-May&Jack had some good advice. For a 9month old their awake times are around 2.5-3 hours. Often an early nap can throw things out, leading to early waking. My lo was like this and we worked gradually to stretch his awake time in the morning.Even if you can do this by 5 mins at a time for a period of a few days, gradually increasing it, it should help. And yes, you are right, just having 30mins in the afternoon is going to be making things more difficult - increased tiredness leading again to an earlier bedtime. so I think it would be worth focusing on these two areas.   

His awake time before the late nap, is long, he may be overtired by the time you come to put him down at 1.00pm, so you could try making this a bit earlier. Really focus on his behaviours and cues, he may be showing less obvious signs of tiredness, which you could pick up on.

Hope this helps, good luck.

[Beata]

Don't forget...the time changes soon "Spring Forward"...maybe it will work out fo rthe best

[C-line]

I've been dealing with this for months now!  I wish I knew the answer!!  I've tried earlier and later bedtimes, shifting the entire schedule later (since he seems very consistent about 10hrs of sleep at night), moving naps... all to no avail.  Although he seems to tolerate this schedule pretty well, I still feel he's up too long (slightly) between naps and definitely, before bedtime.  This is our current schedule:

5-5:30am - wake up, but stays in bed chatting
6-6:30am - up for the day, bottle
7am - solid food
8:30am - Nap (1.5-2hrs)
10:30am - Bottle
11:30am solid food
1-1:30pm - Nap (1.5-2hrs)
3pm - bottle
5pm - solids
6:30-7pm - bed

The only thing I haven't tried is wake to sleep.  I'm considering trying it this week but I've been a little nervous about it and not sure if he's too old for it.  He seems to wake somewhat full anytime I enter his room too.  Have you or are you considering try it?  I'm hopeful the time change will help us too!