Early morning wakes (6m) - what to do about nap schedule

[nhungthientai]

My 6 month old is independent for nights and naps but has recently started waking for the day at 0530. Bedtime is 7, DWT is 7. Until recently we would give him a small bottle (4oz, normal is 7) and he would go back to sleep until we all woke up at 7. Lately he’s been having the bottle but then staying awake - normally contented chatting but then turning to crying.

Naps are still mostly short (30-45 minutes) but I was assuming that was probably developmental and should improve soon. When he was waking at 7 we could do a 3 nap day but now it’s earlier he generally needs 4 unless he flukes a 1 hour+ nap. WWs are 2-3 hours. Total awake time normally about 10 hours.

My main Q is when do I start the first nap:
A) 2 hours after he first wakes (this would be about 0730 which seems early and feels like it’ll guarantee a 4 nap day, and fuel the cycle of early waking)
B) 2 hours after we get him out of bed (normally when the chatting turns to crying ~0615 so ~0815)
C) try and stretch it for as long as possible, aiming for previous nap 1 time of 9am

I guess also not sure if we just need to drop the snooze feed.

Thanks!

 

[damian78]

@nhungthientai This happened to us around 5 months (5am-530am wake ups), when he was normally waking up at 7am (went to sleep at 7pm).

Our situation was slightly different because we weren’t getting up, feeding, then putting back down to sleep. This is only because he had been sleeping through the night for over a month and we didn’t want to reintroduce night feedings. We also knew he could make it a couple more hours before he ate.

But we started just letting him fuss in his crib until it was “acceptable” to wake up. So if he woke up at 5:30, we would keep him in his crib until 6am, unless he was screaming crying. Just fussing or whining was fine. Then I’d be running in at 6am on the dot, trying to be super happy and telling him good job sleeping, etc. The first time we did this he didn’t go back to sleep and was on and off whining for 30 mins. The second time he fell asleep after 15mins and it gradually got shorter until about a week, he was back to waking up between 630am-7am without that early morning wake up.

Listening to your baby sad, even for just a short amount of time, is not easy, but the few days it was happening was very worth getting his sleep back on track.

 

[wolfwhohowlstoparadise]

@nhungthientai My recently turned 7mo old was sleeping great on 3 naps, and out of nowhere started waking first between 6am and 6.30 (usual wake time is 7). This gradually crept earlier until about 5.15am but otherwise naps and bedtime seemed normal. Then she started fighting those two and I realised she was undertired. We're now transitioning to two naps and she's already back to waking at 6.45 without assistance. My advice would be, do whatever you can to get her back to sleep one morning to closer to DWT, even if it means rocking, holding etc, and then stretch these wws on a 3 nap schedule. Also agree with other commenter, night sleep needs might just be dropping aswell. We only aim for an 11hr night.

 

[nhungthientai]

@wolfwhohowlstoparadise Thanks - with or without the snooze feed?

 

[wolfwhohowlstoparadise]

@nhungthientai I feed - without the food she'd be awake hungry, but she just doesn't fall asleep on the bottle, never has for some reason!

 

[rania]

@nhungthientai What time is he going to sleep? One solution is he might just genuinely be finished sleeping. But the more obvious solution is that those wake windows are a little short. I had a low sleep needs boy so I understand I’m not the norm, but he transitioned to 2 naps at 6.5 months. Those 2 naps became 1.5 and 1 hours each (no more dreaded cat naps). I’d certainly be dropping to 3 naps and hold your ground. It might be a few rough days and weirdly long WW’s but I think you’ll find the EMW disappear.

 

[nhungthientai]

@rania 7pm bedtime, normally 2.5-3.25 hour last WW depending on nap gymnastics. Touch wood doesn’t seem to impact his night sleep much.

Thanks, I’ll give it a try sticking to 3 and see how we go.