What do you do if baby wakes too early in the morning?

1

1sttimemom

Registered User
We just moved our LO into her own room 4 nights ago, and while her usual wake up time used to be 630am, she seems to be waking up earlier.

Good thing is, she's sleeping from dreamfeed (around 11-1130) to 530am. Bad thing is, it's still only 530am!

When she wakes, she doesn't cry. Just babbles and plays in her crib, for at least the first 20-30 mins. Should I go in once I find her awake, and try to get her to go back to sleep? Even if it's just for another half hour or 45 mins?

What do you do if baby wakes too early in the morning?

What possible reasons are there for this? ..
 
How old is your baby? It's quite normal for babies to wake up earlier just to play and if your baby knows how soothe herself back to sleep, sometimes she will after a little bit of playing. There's lots of reasons for waking up earlier - just being more aware and excited to be awake, developmental milestone, etc ... I've always left both of my kids alone until their normal wake up time unless they were up early crying for milk. I just don't want to encourage them to continue to wake up early. Plus there is nothing wrong with baby playing with themselves in their crib for a little bit as long as they are perfectly happy. I think it's good training for the future. My son who's 3.5 is an excellent sleeper and stays in bed until someone goes to get him in the morning. If he wakes up earlier he plays by himself. My daughter, who's 9 months old, is also in the process of becoming a great sleeper. Her normal wake up time is 7-7:30. There are some days that she'll wake up an hour earlier but we just let her play by herself. On most days she can last until 7. A couple of months ago she would wake up in the middle of the night to play but once again as long as she was not crying, we just let her be and she would normally go back to sleep in about 15-20 minutes.
 
I would just leave my son playing in his crib until it's time to start the day, in our case 7:30am. If my son cries on and off when he wakes up, it's most likely because he's got a poopy diaper, got stuck in the corner or he's hungry - that is when I attend to his needs. Otherwise, he'll just play with his fingers, the toys in his crib or just babbles. If they can self soothe, they may be able to fall back asleep when they are tired entertaining themselves.
 
Again I think it depends how old your baby is. With my son he wakes up from about 5.30am - 6.30am and I just leave him in his cot (he is in his own room) and he amuses himself until I go in at 7am. He used to cry when he who up for attention so I went in and told him that it was too early to get up and he should either go back to sleep or play (I know this sounds silly but even at 6 months old he understood this) and the crying stopped. I think it is good for them to be able to amuse themselves. I do not think that feeding them (again depends how young they are) will help as they will think that if they wake at 5.30am then it means they get food - if my son woke up in the night or early I would feed him but this stopped once he turned 6 months and we night weaned him - good luck
 
with my 6mth old, i give her a pacifier that will make her sleep again...rationale for that is so that she will slowly know that her feeding is at 6:30/7 and NOT at 4:30/5...have done that for a week...and she is going back to bed faster day each day at 4:30/5 as it appears her body knows there is no milk coming. having said that...she DOES have her midnight feeding (sleeping at 7:30pm, feeding at 12mn and then 6:30).

I wouldn't pick her up or let her know you're around though..my hubby did that once and she ended up wide awake and wanting to play for a whole hour before falling asleep again!
 
Thanks all for the replies. My LO doesn't seem to be asking for milk. Before we moved her into her own room, I had been slowly weaning her off the 430/5am feed with diluted formula. She hasn't woken up crying for milk since we moved her into her room. So, I don't want to start it again by feeding her so early and putting her back to sleep.

We have a strong bedtime routine and most nights, she'll fall asleep by herself very easily. I put her down awake after a bath, bottle, and story (story lasts about 5 mins - long enough?). Dreamfeed at about 11pm and she sleeps til this early morning waking.

It's def more difficult for her to soothe herself back to sleep cuz the urge to sleep is much less at this time of day.

To make things more complicated, she is a poor napper. 3-4 naps of 1/2 hr - 40 mins each only. UGH. what to do!?

BTW.. before, when I fed her at 430/5am, she would usually wake between 7-8am. With her naps so poor, I don't know if I should just give her the milk and send her back to bed.
 
as I write this, she is yelling in her room... she's been up since 5 with a bit of a nap between 515 and 530. So up since 530 and it's now nearly 630. Maybe i shouldn't have picked her up. I had been resisting for a few days.. and I caved in :(
 
I have not noticed you mentioned how old is your baby. When they are younger under 4, 5 month old, their naps are usually short, 30 to 40 minutes.

Mine is 18 month old and he is sleeping a lot better now. But he woke up at 5am every morning until he was about 14 month old. When he was cosleeping with one of us, we tried to put him back to sleep after getting him milk.

We slept trained him in his own room when he was about 7 month old. He still woke around 5am. We tried every thing: milk feed, leave him there to CIO, give him a toy to play by himself. Nothing really work. Like you, we caved in and let him get up and play with him then he will go down for a nap around 8am.

I hope things are different with your little one. If you are a SAHM, catch a nap while he is napping too. That was how I coped.

Good luck.
 
At 5 months...naps are around 30-45 mins. It does get better as they get older. As carey mentioned...nap when she naps.

Definitely do not start feeding her if she cut out that early morning feed and if it affects her morning bottle. BTW, I don't think you should use diluted formula http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/28030635/ns/today-today_health/

I'm not sure if it's because I started sleep training early (around 3 months), so I never really had the problem of my son waking up so early. If I had to deal with this, I probably won't not cave in. After a couple of days of this, maybe she'll get the idea that it's not time to wake up. Of course if she's crying in distress, I would go in and check on her every 10 mins or so. Try not to pick her up, instead, just stroke her head telling her it's ok, mommy's here and shushing her. If she still balling her eyes out, then pick her up, calm her, tell her the same thing and then put her back into the crib. You might have to continuously do this every 10 mins or so. Hopefully after a couple of days of this, she'll learn that waking up early doesn't mean playing and she'll give up.
 
@ Carey, oops. I didn't realize. My LO is actually 5 months old. I hope you are right, that the naps will improve as she gets older. I am not as concerned with her naps being 30-45 mins as I am about her waking up early and not getting a good night's rest. Plus as far as the naps are concerned, I am just looking for her to fall asleep on her own. If she can and her naps are STILL 30 - 40 mins, then so be it.

@ oi0io. I didn't cave in the first 4 days. Once she woke at 430 and I just picked her up for 30 seconds to calm her, and then she went back to sleep. Until this morning, I just went back in every 2-4 minutes (depending her crying volume/intensity) to tell her it's ok.. mommy loves her, and shushing. I don't think I even picked her up. I did notice improvement.

Thing is... CONSISTENCY. I wavered. When she didn't have her own room, I did bring her to our bed when she woke in the morning, so... it will take some time.

What happens at about 6 months that makes it easier for babies to sleep better?
 
my one is 6mths tomorrow...i would say her naps are definitely better! only 2-3 naps - a long one which is usually 2 hours, a short one normally 45-1hour and sometimes a 3rd nap which is only 30mins long. she did the 30-40mins naps before, but it does get better hang in there!

i find with my 2nd one, I am less "strict" in the sense that I am using the pacifier more to get my LO to fall asleep on her own "unassisted" meaning no parent / helper to soothe her. i do this because i tried all the ways mentioned above, but when I let her CIO she gets more awake and she ends up wanting to play rather than sleeping. also, i don't want to feed her at random times because i am working on reducing her number of meals but increasing the portion at each....anyhow, the pacifier has worked (touch wood) and it soothes her fast enough in the middle of the night. during the day i'm not one to set nap times - when she's tired I let her sleep for as long as she needs (or until her sister wakes her up) and it usually ends up being only 2-3 times as I mentioned above. for me, the advantages of using a pacifier outway the disadvantages...will eventually have to get her off the habit of using a pacifier, i'm hoping as she gets older she will have more activities and that will make her more exhausted and sleeping will come "naturally"

good luck!
 
It does get better as they get older. Yet as they get older, you may be dealing with other issues such as teething. When they are teething, they are cranky and in pain therefore naps and bedtime go down the drain. Plus sometimes they get diarrhea when they teeth so they may get a poopy diaper in the middle of the night. They will be more mobile too, as a result they would probably be stuck in some corner of the crib crying for help.
 
@ oi0io, the realities of it all! :)

Good to hear it does get better. Thing is, it keeps changing. Doesn't it? Last night, down to bed at 7...she took 30 mins to fall asleep last night. Maybe it was the late nap (she woke at 545). But then, other than getting her for her dreamfeed at 11pm, she slept til 710am!!!

Then she took an hour long nap mid morning! Who knows!

I wonder if she's so tired from the lack of sleep.. she makes up for it once in a while. I HAVE NO IDEA.

@oi0io - I do get nighttime poopy diapers even know. Her body can't decide when to poop :)
 
1sttimemom, i get the impression that you think too much.
even for adults, the sleeping requirements change: one day you feel tired and feel like a nap, the other day you stay up and can't fall asleep. all normal, imho

for our baby, we are pretty liberal and until now, it has changed quite frequently but he seldom cries and is a happy baby and getting better and better with his sleeping pattern
 
i think you should go with what your baby needs and you will find that the babies body will give you a pattern...it will change but i wouldn't worry too much - lack of sleep one day means the baby will sleep more the next day...I do that with sleep training as I do with eating. if he's hungry he'll eat, if not don't force it - if he's sleepy he'll sleep, if not don't worry. the body knows what it needs / doesn't need and we just read the signs and don't over analyze or else it can get very exhausting.
 
I agree with mums who said that baby's sleep pattern's changes all the time. The 6 month improvement in naps came, as a booking in sleeping tells us, because baby's brain matures and sleep in more consolidated periods. Mums who have babies who are great sleepers are truly very blessed. But I think most of us who respond here are not so lucky and experienced in dealing with poor sleepers.

I said in the last post that my son sleeps and nap better now. But he still refuses to nap or go to bed sometimes. Today, for example, was not a good day. He had several tantrums, as a result, nap time was tearful. It's so stressful. I guess, as some mums mentioned here, I should loosen up a bit and go more with his flow sometimes.

My son's nap was longer at around 6 months but his night sleep was a hit and miss. I was feeling quite helpless at times and really wanted to get professional help, like sleep fairy, to improve his sleep.


Teething was bad as he woke up often crying or refuse to go back to sleep after milk feed. The good thing was his teeth came quickly he only has about three molars left to come at 17 month. Then his night sleep was a lot better.

Good luck.
 
I know how you feel, 5am is my sons wake up time too! Sad thing is, I'm getting used to it! I'm not too worried as I have a 4yr old daughter and I know it will get better. As others have said, you think you have it all perfect and then a tooth, cough, cold or holiday comes along and throws everything out again. Don't be too hard on yourself. Do what works for you. At the moment I fetch him when he wakes up, put him in bed with me and if I'm lucky he will eventually fall back to sleep......normally just as my daughter wakes up!! Good Luck
 
Hi Carey and Sunrays,

Thanks for the kind words. Things have improved a little.. seems like I managed to get the message across that she should go back to sleep in the morning til about 630-730... Hope it sticks at least for a while. :) What am I saying!? Wonder Week 26 is coming soon... haha.. Plus, we live in Beijing now, and it's been cold, so I think that is affecting her sleeping too.
 
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