early waking problem

[A_Z]

My 3.5 month old has just recently started sleeping 9 hours in a single stretch. Great, right? Yes, except for the fact that she refuses to go back to sleep after this! She had been sleeping 7-8 hours and then another 3 hour stretch after that, so she should really be getting 1-2 hours more than she's getting now. She is a bad napper, so she absolutely needs her nighttime sleep. She's been very grumpy the last few days as she's been getting less sleep.

The other problem, from a more selfish point of view, is that I'm stuck getting up with her early and I'm absolutely exhausted.

I'm not sure if the issue is that after 9 hours she decides she's had enough sleep, or that she's sleeping just late enough in the morning (around 5:30 or 6:00am) that if feels like daytime to her. I've tried keeping all the curtains closed to keep the room dark, but it doesn't help.

Any ideas on how to fix this? I want to try moving her bedtime earlier (she's been fighting it recently), and hope that if her first wake-up is more like 4:30 or 5:00 that she'll go back to sleep, but if that doesn't help then I'm really in trouble...

 

[Noelle610]

Honestly, there's not much you can do. Some kids are just early risers. 5:30am-6am is actually a pretty normal wake up time for a young baby, biologically speaking. Just enjoy the STTN Her patterns will continually change.

 

[MumToEva]

6.00 is morning time with Eva too. I've just gotten used to it - at the start I would try to stay in bed with her and get annoyed because she was wanting to be up and playing. Now I just get up and go down stairs and start the day, and to be honest it's a lot easier now that I have just accepted it for what it is.

And when Eva was your LOs age she was still up multiple times a night as well, so it doesn't seem bad to me given that she's still so young.

 

[chickenlegs]

I quite often reply on the early get up threads, cos my baby wakes up between 4:30 and 5:30! This morning he slept until ten to six (he isnt very well and had been up most of the night) so I panicked and didn't appreciate it one bit! So sorry, I have no advice but I do get where you are coming from. Billy won't go back to sleep either and we have tried everything I can think of - curtains, heating, blankets, bottle, mummy's bed - nothing seems to work so we just get up! The REALLY annoying this is that cbeebies isnt even on that early!

 

[A_Z]

Thanks for the responses everyone!

The real problem, though, isn't so much the hour she's getting up, so much as the fact that she's suddenly getting like two hours less of sleep each night than she used to. As a result, she's overtired and miserable all day.

 

[chickenlegs]

This is probably no help but Billy wakes up and is immediately grumpy. We come downstairs, he plays for a bit, has his breakfast, plays a bit more and then goes back to bed (about 2 hours after he wakes up). So he kind of isn't up for the day, it's just for a couple of hours before he goes back down again. This is the ONLY way that we can make sure that he is not unbearable then for the rest of the day! If he refused to go back to sleep I think we would be really struggling because he really doesn't get enough sleep otherwise.

 

[A_Z]

This is probably no help but Billy wakes up and is immediately grumpy. We come downstairs, he plays for a bit, has his breakfast, plays a bit more and then goes back to bed (about 2 hours after he wakes up). So he kind of isn't up for the day, it's just for a couple of hours before he goes back down again. This is the ONLY way that we can make sure that he is not unbearable then for the rest of the day! If he refused to go back to sleep I think we would be really struggling because he really doesn't get enough sleep otherwise.

Interesting. Now that I think about it, my LO went through a phase where she'd wake up, eat, play a little, and then take a solid two hour nap almost immediately. Maybe it's time to reintroduce that. It's just tricky because she's doing lots of mini-naps these days. I actually got her back down within about thirty minutes of her first wake-up this morning, but she was back up within 10 minutes. Maybe I should stick around longer, though, to help her transition to deeper sleep.

 

[Kato2]

We had this issue too recently. We increased his awake time between naps by 10 mins at a time (he's now awake 3 he between naps) which encouraged him to nap longer. This meant he wasn't overtired at night or udertired. Under tired is what usually leads to early wakings. As soon as we had mastered this for around 1 week his wake up went from 4.30/5 to 6.30/7. We put him to bed at 6.30/7 also

 

[lhancock90]

This is probably no help but Billy wakes up and is immediately grumpy. We come downstairs, he plays for a bit, has his breakfast, plays a bit more and then goes back to bed (about 2 hours after he wakes up). So he kind of isn't up for the day, it's just for a couple of hours before he goes back down again. This is the ONLY way that we can make sure that he is not unbearable then for the rest of the day! If he refused to go back to sleep I think we would be really struggling because he really doesn't get enough sleep otherwise.

Interesting. Now that I think about it, my LO went through a phase where she'd wake up, eat, play a little, and then take a solid two hour nap almost immediately. Maybe it's time to reintroduce that. It's just tricky because she's doing lots of mini-naps these days. I actually got her back down within about thirty minutes of her first wake-up this morning, but she was back up within 10 minutes. Maybe I should stick around longer, though, to help her transition to deeper sleep.

This is brill advice hun. Definately try it
Hope it goes okay!

 

[Leesy]

My Lo has been sttn 12 hours anytime from 7pm - 9.30pm to 7am -9.30am. But for the past few days he has been going down at 7pm and waking at 5.45am. I think with him he is just changing his pattern? He spends 1 hr 45 min awake and goes back down for 1-2 hours though so I'm thinking I can handle that and still enjoy the sleep! xx

 

[April76]

When my son was about 4 months he woke up at 7.00am every morning bang on time for his bottle. Now he is nearly 11 months he wakes up between 8.00 - 8.30am so he is obviously a morning person, i know some peoples babies wake up much earlier than this but at 11 months he doesnt sleep very well at night time.

 

[A_Z]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone!

I think part of the problem is that every time her sleep length increases it takes a few days for the whole family to settle into a new routine. Also, the fact that her sleep varies between 9 hours and 10.5 hours makes this tricky. 10.5 hours seems to be enough, but 9 definitely isn't.

Last night we got her down at 7:30 (woohoo!), and she slept until 5:30. She probably would have gone a bit longer, but she was tossing and turning so much I woke up hearing her over the monitor, and there was no way I was getting back to sleep because my breasts felt like they were full of rocks at that point. I got her back down around 6:30 and she slept for another hour. So that was a good start! Of course, there was no way I was getting back to sleep at that point, but I guess I'll get used to that.

 

[josephine3]

Im having similar issues here too. My lo used to sleep from 9pm till 8am right through, then had a sudden trrible period of waking for no reason on and off all night, thankfully thats now stopped but she only goes now till 5.30 or 6am. By that time im so thankful shes slept all night i cant bear to try to make her go back into her own bed and normally bring her into our bed with me and feed her lying down while we both just sort of doze, sometimes she falls to sleep and we both nap till 8am together. Either way we dont get back out till 8ish, just play in bed and snuggle! I keep a few toys handy on the bedside cabinet.

If she does wake in the night tho earlier, say around 3am she will then go right till 8 after she goes back down.. Like u i wonder is it better to put her down early and have 1 night waking? Im not sure. I think id rather her think she slept thru too.
Shes also a terrible napper, only a few half hr naps per day. I also worry like u that shes not getting enough sleep. Does anyone know how much our lo's should be having?

Stalking for ideas xx

 

[A_Z]

Im having similar issues here too. My lo used to sleep from 9pm till 8am right through, then had a sudden trrible period of waking for no reason on and off all night, thankfully thats now stopped but she only goes now till 5.30 or 6am. By that time im so thankful shes slept all night i cant bear to try to make her go back into her own bed and normally bring her into our bed with me and feed her lying down while we both just sort of doze, sometimes she falls to sleep and we both nap till 8am together. Either way we dont get back out till 8ish, just play in bed and snuggle! I keep a few toys handy on the bedside cabinet.

If she does wake in the night tho earlier, say around 3am she will then go right till 8 after she goes back down.. Like u i wonder is it better to put her down early and have 1 night waking? Im not sure. I think id rather her think she slept thru too.
Shes also a terrible napper, only a few half hr naps per day. I also worry like u that shes not getting enough sleep. Does anyone know how much our lo's should be having?

Stalking for ideas xx

The amount of sleep babies need really depends on the individual, but here's a general guideline by age: https://www.babycenter.com/0_how-much-sleep-does-your-child-need_7645.bc

My LO gets (or used to get) 11 hours at night, and does okay with 3 or 4 hours during the day, though she's definitely happier when it's 4 or more.

I will say that moving her bedtime earlier made a huge difference for us. It used to be 9-10. Moving it back to 7-8 was hugely helpful.

 

[RachA]

3 months is quite early to be sttn-as nice as it is. I have two children who generally sleep well and to a decent time. I think it's due to how I was with them and feeds etc. I would always put them back to bed after feeding them at 6am. Also, and I probably won't be popular for saying this but, I would wake them for feeds. Most if he time they were dream feeds so they didn't actually wake up during the feed at all but it just helped them sleep that little bit longer in the morning.
You say that your lo is grumpy so it seems that they really want the extra sleep but they can't get back to sleep as they are hungry.

What time do you give your lo their last feed at night? Is it possible to give them a quick dream feed at some point after this feed and before waking in the morning? You may only need to do it until your lo goes onto solids so it won't last forever. I know that I preferred having to wake up at 2am for 30min that waking up st 5.30/6am and having to be up fir the rest of the day.

 

[A_Z]

3 months is quite early to be sttn-as nice as it is.

Again, it's not that I want her to STTN (though technically, she already is, since she goes for over five hours). I just want her cumulative night sleep to be an hour or two longer so that she's better rested.

I have two children who generally sleep well and to a decent time. I think it's due to how I was with them and feeds etc. I would always put them back to bed after feeding them at 6am. Also, and I probably won't be popular for saying this but, I would wake them for feeds. Most if he time they were dream feeds so they didn't actually wake up during the feed at all but it just helped them sleep that little bit longer in the morning.
You say that your lo is grumpy so it seems that they really want the extra sleep but they can't get back to sleep as they are hungry.

I realize I didn't say this explicitly, but I feed her whenever she wakes up at night. So when she wakes at 5:30 or so after about nine hours, I feed her, and then she sometimes refuses to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, she fights sleep very hard, even when she's full, has a clean diaper, etc. I'm definitely not trying to get her back down again without feeding her.

What time do you give your lo their last feed at night? Is it possible to give them a quick dream feed at some point after this feed and before waking in the morning? You may only need to do it until your lo goes onto solids so it won't last forever. I know that I preferred having to wake up at 2am for 30min that waking up st 5.30/6am and having to be up fir the rest of the day.

I generally nurse her right until she goes to bed. So tonight she was asleep by around 8:20, and I nursed her from around 7:30 to 8:10. Sometimes she'll wake up a little bit after her first sleep cycle and I can nurse her then, but I don't think I could manage a dreamfeed without waking her up completely. I've tried and she refuses to open her mouth or latch. Maybe a bottle would be a possibility.

I do agree, though, that having one MOTN feed is better than being up for good at 5:30am. I'm hoping that shifting her bedtime earlier will encourage this.

Thanks!

 

[RachA]

Yeah I assumed that would would feed her whenever she wakes in the night. I guess it's hard if she won't dream feed easily. I think I went totally against general advice and I fed mine every 4 hours through the night regardless of if they woke up. I set my alarm for every 4 hours, fed and we went back to sleep. My eldest was harder as he'd start off asleep but wake up towards the end of the feed but her always went back into the crib with no complaints. My youngest was a star and dream fed from really early on.

I hope you can sort it out