5am wake ups - is this just the norm for some babies?

eldersmith

New member
UPDATE: for anyone coming back to this post, here's a little update. Tuesday night after making this post we put her to bed at 6:30 and she woke up at 4:58. Then Wednesday night she slept from 7 until 6:30! Thursday morning I covered a tiny light on her baby monitor and we put her in a higher TOG sleep sack for bed and she slept from 8-7. Both mornings she woke up at 5 and cried for a few minutes but fell back asleep. So idk if any of the things we tried made a difference or if she just finally figured out how to go back to sleep but hopefully this trend continues!

ORIGINAL: It’s been over a month of 5am wake ups. Trying to figure out if there’s anything else we can do or if we just need to accept that this is going to be her wake up time for awhile.

My baby is 11 months old and has had roughly the same schedule, including the 5 am wake ups, for over a month.

Schedule:

5/5:15 awake

9:00 first nap. Either 45 minutes or 1.5 hrs depending.

2ish (depending on how long she slept, usually 3.5/4 hrs after she wakes up). Also either 45 min or 1.5hrs.

7/8ish bedtime 4 hrs after she wakes up from her second nap.

Nothing we’ve tried has changed her wake up times, she consistently only sleeps 9-10 hours at night. It doesn’t matter if her bedtime is closer to 7 or 8, if she’s had a longer or shorter wake window before bed, if she’s napped only 1.5hrs that day or 3hrs, if she’s had dinner closer to bedtime or further away, etc. We did the sleep wave method for sleep training (she goes to sleep independently) and we’ve also tried doing the sleep wave for the early morning wake ups but she won’t go back to sleep and ends up crying hysterically the whole time, so I don’t think she has the sleep pressure to fall back asleep.

Do any of y’all have experience with this? Are some babies just like this and we need to accept it? I worry because most nights she only gets 9.5 hrs of night time sleep, but maybe she’s just low sleep needs? Wondering if we’re missing something or if we just need to wait for her to grow out of it. Thank you!
 
@eldersmith My baby has been doing the same lately. 🙏🏼 But anytime he wakes up before 6 I consider it still “night time” and I’ll change him, give him a bottle, and put him right back to sleep. That will usually buy me another 1-2 hours and I don’t consider it a nap. 🤣
 
@eldersmith Oh I for sure feel that. When I first read putting to be earlier can help push wake up time, I was like- but? That doesn't make logical sense? But it seemed to work for us. I think it depends on the baby. But best of luck.

If you feed baby during the night it might help to feed around 4. If our girl feeds at 4 she goes back to sleep until 6:30, earliest 6. If she feeds later she's just awake and if earlier, usually won't sleep as late.
 
@jimelchandler She night weaned herself a little over a month ago (hmm right before the 5am wake ups started...just realized that).

Also she did a super short afternoon nap today and woke up at 2:30, so we're going to try a 6:30 bedtime tonight 🤞🏻
 
@eldersmith Given this, I'd recommend more food during the day. Sometimes making sure they eat more allows them to skip middle of the night feeds or, in your case, early wake ups.
 
@eliz It's so crazy how it really depends on the baby. I've read so many possible solutions to the early wake up. I think if we try all the proposed solutions maybe we'll stumble on one that works 😂
 
@eldersmith My 6 month old has pretty much always been ready to start her day between 5 and 5:30. I don’t love it but it does mean my husband gets time to play with her before leaving for work at 7:15 so we make the most of it and I just figure that’s how she is. Doesn’t matter if she goes to bed at 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, or even 9:30. She’s ready to go by 5:45 at the latest.
 
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