Day Sleeps and Early Morning Waking

[nsmum]

My daughter is 9 months old next week. She has started to wake earlier since the days got lighter earlier (althought her room is fairly dark), she was waking around 6.15am but now it can be from 5.30 and she is wide awake. She has been crawling for a few months now so when i go into her room she is standing up in her cot (in her sleeping bag) - am I best to leave her until after 6am? Lately I have brought her into my bed, sometimes she sleeps and others she will just lie there - am I best to leave her be and ignore her even though she cries/screams? The other problem I am having is that her day sleeps are often inconsistant. Sometimes she will wake after the 45 minutes and be standing up in her cot (and there is NO chance of getting her back to sleep) - so If she has woken at 5.30am and is back down at 9am - she will wake around 9.45 am so I'm not sure what to do then re an afternoon sleep and bedtime. Can anyone offer some advice?

Thanks

[KellyC]

I just wrote this reply which should help with the early waking issue:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=73367.0

If your LO is only sleeping 45 minutes at 9am I'd give her lunch no later than 12 and have her down for a (hopefully!) long nap at 12.30pm.  This worked for us for quite some time. 

It may just be that your LO doesn't need 2 long naps each day now she's a little older and if she reduces the morning nap, rather than the afternoon nap, this should be beneficial to her night time sleep and help when it comes to dropping to just one nap each day. 

You may have to do an earlier bedtime if her last nap finishes earlier than usual - Zander still goes down at 6.45pm and is asleep by 7pm.

Kelly x

[nsmum]

Hi Guys,

Even the afternoon sleep after a short morning sleep is often 45 minutes. Is it worth me trying the wake to sleep method seeing as after her 45 min sleep cycle she rolls over and stands in her cot (wide awake)...

[KellyC]

Hi

What time are you putting her down in the afternoon after the short morning nap?  Tweaking that might help with the 45 minute nap but failing that I'd definitely recommend w2s. 

The combination of a short morning nap which tired Zander out and w2s got us over the 45 minute wake-ups (at 8 months!).  I'd make sure her room is really dark so if she opens her eyes whilst you're doing it she doesn't see you - at this age she'd probably want to wake up and see mummy!  Go in after 30 minutes and do something to make her stir a little - some mums stroke their LOs face or rub their tummy, I know a few had more success with picking up a hand or leg and moving it around a little and the only thing that worked for me was actually turning Zander's whole body over!  You'll know if you've gone in at the right time because she'll be in a really deep sleep and what you're aiming to do is bring her out of that deep sleep phase and start a new cycle.  As soon as she stirs stop and leave but it might take some experimenting to make sure she stirs enough so I'd start gently and take it from there!

It will also help to sleep longer if she has a full tummy so try and make sure she's not eating lunch once she's started to get tired and it could help to give her a top-up of milk before her nap for a couple of weeks until she's used to a longer nap.

HTH
Kelly x

[nsmum]

well as her awake time is now from 5.30am (it's getting really light then so I'm hoping in a month with daylight savings it will change), so if she is up at 5.30am I'll put her down around 8.30am and she'll sleep until 9.15am. What I was doing was giving her a catnap around 11.45 for 20 mins only then putting her down at 2.30 for a sleep until 4pm but really want to change this to just 2 sleeps. If she gets up around 6pm I'll put her down around 9 until 9.45 then try and stretch her out until around 1.15pm until 2.45 then bed around 6.15pm. I'm going to try wake to sleep for that morning sleep - how long do you do this for or is it permanent that you go in? If you only have to do it temporarily how does this teach them to go through to the 2nd sleep cycle themselves. Because she has always been a great day sleeper - 1.5/2 hour morning sleep without fail I'm a bit lost as to why I'm only getting 45 mins.

[KellyC]

Hi

I think 9-9.45 is a good nap time to aim for but 1.15 is way too late for the second nap if she's only having 45 minutes in the morning which makes A times shorter.  Definitely aim to put her down no later than 12.30 which is also when her tummy is full and you may find you don't have to do w2s because she won't be too tired and will feel very satisfied after her meal, especially if you also give her a little milk top-up before the sleep.

When she wakes early it's difficult to get the balance right between keeping her up long enough that you're not reinforcing the early waking by giving her an early nap and letting her get overtired.  I would get her as close to 9 as you can but do put her down as soon as you think she's heading towards overtired - how about a nice relaxing bath and taking her for a stroll around the garden to see if that helps?  If you end up putting her down early bring lunch and the after lunch nap forward too and then squeeze in a 15 minute catnap between 4 and 5 to see her through until bedtime.

w2s is only temporary, I did it for a couple of weeks and then it stopped working but Zander stopped waking fully after 45 minutes anyway.  I definitely think you need to change the nap times before you think about w2s though.

Good luck!
Kelly x

[nsmum]

Hi Kelly,

Just wanted to give you an update...so far so good (but now i've said that it will probably change  )

I have been doing wake to sleep for her morning naps...and she is sleeping for around 1 hour 15 mins...and I also got my husband to make her room extra dark on the weekends to block out the early morning light and she has been sleeping through until around 5.45/6am (which I will take considering she goes to bed at 6.30pm) - so my day is looking like

5.45/6am wake
9am sleep until 10.15 am
1.30 - 3pm sleep
6.30 bed

Does this sound Ok for 9M?

[KellyC]

Sounds fab - the important thing is that it's working for you and your LO and it sounds like it is.  Well done to you and DH