My baby wakes at 4am and won't go back to sleep

[Veck]

My baby wakes up at 4 am and won't go back to sleep since 3 weeks ago. She has three naps during the day and sleeps around 14 hours a day. Around 4 during the day and 10 at night, (from 9 to 7) but lately less as she wakes up so early.

She wakes up really happy and wants to play. I tried several things like offering the breast, but she's not particularly hungry,rocking her in the darkness, but she just fusses and whines, Or just pretend i'm asleep so that i'm boring but doesn't work either. After an hour or so i usually give up and watch baby einstein together or play a bit until she's tired and sleeps again, usually two hours later.

I also tried to change her bedtime earlier but didn't really make a difference.
What can I do? I'm shattered!
Please help!
__________________

 

[yumyum1979]

sorry cant really help but we went through this about 2 months ago and she still stires sometimes at 4 but i just go in and put dummy in if needed i just wouldnt look at her or talk . i could tell she was happy to see me she would thrash around being excited but i would ignore it . shes never wanted to get up tho so i wouldnt know what advise to give sorry hope you sort it soon . They say thats when baby is coming out of a deep sleep and needs to learn to get them self back to sleep.

 

[yumyum1979]

just noticed 3 days apart ))

 

[k4th]

This may not be for you but we follow a schedule for naps & the two rules we follow which *may* be worth thinking about are:

1. We limit the amount of day sleep - at 5 mths lo had up to 3 hours max.
2. The earlier you let lo nap in the morning, the earlier they will wake up for the day

Obviously all babies are different, but later morning naps & limiting day sleep has really worked for us in the past. Maybe your lo is telling you she needs a little less daytime sleep? What time do you have morning nap?

 

[todteach]

I'm getting sleepy reading your post. Poor you. Have you tried keeping LO awake or cutting back on the daytime naps. We found that our LO was waking too early in the morning so we cut back (slowly) on his afternoon nap & made sure that his last nap was over by 5 pm so he will sleep the night. Seems to have worked because he's giving us 12 hours at night now. Might be worth a try?

 

[Veck]

just noticed 3 days apart ))

I know!they are the same age!

 

[Veck]

This may not be for you but we follow a schedule for naps & the two rules we follow which *may* be worth thinking about are:

1. We limit the amount of day sleep - at 5 mths lo had up to 3 hours max.
2. The earlier you let lo nap in the morning, the earlier they will wake up for the day

Obviously all babies are different, but later morning naps & limiting day sleep has really worked for us in the past. Maybe your lo is telling you she needs a little less daytime sleep? What time do you have morning nap?

Thanks for taking the time to reply hun.TBH 4 hours during the day is the maximum she sleeps. There are days that she sleeps only one hour and a half and still wakes up at 4 ish. She is not regular at all at naps, even if we put her down at similar times but usually sleeps one hour and half at around 11 or 12. Now because she gets up so early she sleeps again at 7 to 9 ish so that would be her first nap now. She then has her last nap from 4 or 4.30 to 6. She's down around 9.30.

 

[k4th]

This may not be for you but we follow a schedule for naps & the two rules we follow which *may* be worth thinking about are:

1. We limit the amount of day sleep - at 5 mths lo had up to 3 hours max.
2. The earlier you let lo nap in the morning, the earlier they will wake up for the day

Obviously all babies are different, but later morning naps & limiting day sleep has really worked for us in the past. Maybe your lo is telling you she needs a little less daytime sleep? What time do you have morning nap?

Thanks for taking the time to reply hun.TBH 4 hours during the day is the maximum she sleeps. There are days that she sleeps only one hour and a half and still wakes up at 4 ish. She is not regular at all at naps, even if we put her down at similar times but usually sleeps one hour and half at around 11 or 12. Now because she gets up so early she sleeps again at 7 to 9 ish so that would be her first nap now. She then has her last nap from 4 or 4.30 to 6. She's down around 9.30.

I sympathise!!! My lo isn't a great napper either (hence the schedule!). It's hard when you don't get a real break in the day AND you haven't slept well at night. Obviously 7am is a very early nap - but that's difficult to stop if she's up at 4. We got stuck in a similar cycle when lo was about 6 mths ish (if I remember rightly??!). In the end I decided that lo would simply have to come into bed with me when she woke & even if she didn't sleep, we would rest together until a decent hour. I think 6.30 was the earliest I got up properly with her. Then I'd start the day - regardless of how she slept & push that morning nap as far back as possible until it was around 9am.

It was hard work!! I think it only took about a week to get there once I was determined to change her sleep habit but she was overtired for a couple of days. We got there in the end though and she was SO much happier for it so I knew it was right for us. Of course - good things don't always last & now we're in the 9 mth sleep regression & she's just so grumpy coz she's used to a full nights sleep & she's not getting it!!

I really hope you find something that works for you

 

[Veck]

I'm getting sleepy reading your post. Poor you. Have you tried keeping LO awake or cutting back on the daytime naps. We found that our LO was waking too early in the morning so we cut back (slowly) on his afternoon nap & made sure that his last nap was over by 5 pm so he will sleep the night. Seems to have worked because he's giving us 12 hours at night now. Might be worth a try?

Might try that, thanks hun.

 

[todteach]

Wishing you luck. Let us know how you get along.

 

[Veck]

Thanks hun. Will do.

 

[Veck]

Hi ladies,

I thought I should update on my early bird . I tried limiting the daytime sleep, pushing the first nap later etc. But these were really hard as when my LO is tired she becomes so grumpy I usually let her sleep. I'm always scared she becomes overtired and she then can't sleep at all.

So I noticed that about the second half of December she started sleeping better and the nights that she wouldn't wake up were majority. I didnt do anything at all, she just changed. In Christmas holidays she kept on with this nice routine of letting mummy sleep and frankly it felt so good to sleep through again. She had the odd night where she woke a bit earlier but never before 6am and she went back to sleep very easily. Don't get me wrong, we cosleep and she moves and tosses around so it's not like completely peaceful lol, but it's good enough for me.

It's also funny because she has started to regulate herself and she now naps at roughly the same time every day and has the same bedtime as well. Finally. I really thought she was always going to be an irregular baby.

So everything was great until a couple of days ago when she hit what I think is the 8 month sleep regression . She wakes up a couple of times or three and she's very fussy in her sleep.

Oh well, patience.

 

[nugget80]

i had a. early riser who was up by 6 each day then over Christmas he started to go back to sleep after his 6am bottle getting up for the day now just after 7am. sometimes he Will sleep through til then sometimes wake for bottle between 5 & 6. and go back to sleep. i didn't do anything different he just started doing this!

 

[JacquiKeren]

maybe try just letting her sleep for 30min/45min max for her afternoon nap before putting her down. Alex has now dropped his afternoon nap and his almost 5months. he just decided one day he wasnt having a nap so he stayed up from 2.30pm-7pm. i was amazed! and it did wonders for his sleep.

also do u give a dream feed at 11pm ish? i now wake lo at 10pm and feed him 3/4 of his feed, play for an hour and then rest of feed before bed and that usually stops the early waking. maybe worth a try? good luck! xx

 

[Veck]

I tried playing around with the third nap but it didn't make a difference. She would wake up early regardless she had it or not. Of course she went to bed earlier if she didn't have it. She has dropped the third nap though since she was 6 months. I also give my LO a dream feed around 10pm.