Baby Waking at 4am Every Morning and Wont Go Back to Sleep

Baby waking at 4am every morning and won't go back to sleep

4/17/2017

This is a question form Claire “My 12-month-old is waking up at 4:00 AM, and won’t go back to sleep even after I nurse him. He then, struggles to make it to his first nap of the day. He goes to bed at 7:30, and has two good naps during the day. How can I fix this?”

First of all, Claire, you are not alone in this. This is the number one question that I get from parents every day, their baby’s waking up too early. I got three tips around that for you, Claire

The first would be to have a look at darkness. That’s always the first place I look, especially, as the summer months are upon us, we really need to keep light out. People often think that they’ve got it dark enough, but it can always be darker, because even the slightest change in light variation can stimulate a wake up in anybody. As an adult, you can look at the clock and notice that it’s not time to get up, yet. A baby can’t do that. I want it dark in there. I want it to be as dark as it would be if you walked in, in the very middle of the night. That’s tip number one.

Tip number two, the nursing at 4:00 AM could be part of the issue, My experience with this at this age is that, the 4:00 AM feed might actually get earlier and earlier and earlier, instead of buying you more time, because to the baby, there’s no difference between a 2:00 AM feed and a 4:00 AM feed. I want you to consider dropping that feed or offering a dream feed earlier for example 2 a.m. And to consider that, you will want to look at the daytime feeds and how much opportunity for full feeds there are in the daytime. At this age 2-4 full milk feeds in the daytime along with 3 solid meals is about right.

Tip number three is the morning nap. You’ve mentioned in your question that he’s having a really hard time making it till his first nap of the day. I find that what can happen is, if a baby wakes up too early in the morning, gets up, starts his day, he’s going to be fatigued fairly quickly. It’s tempting to start putting him down earlier and earlier and earlier for that morning nap. You don’t want to do that. If you do that, you will get stuck in this viscous cycle of him waking up too early, going down for a nap at 7:00 AM, and throwing off your whole day. That will just absolutely mess up with his body clock. You’ll have to have a third nap, which will be completely foreign to him, and it’ll just cause a whole bunch of problems.

Even though it’s really tough, and I totally understand that, you’ve got to hang on to his normal nap time. If it’s 09:30 AM, even if he’s been up since 04:30, you’ve got to hang in there until 09:30. My advice would be to give him a bit of fresh air around eight o’clock, make sure that you give him enough snacks and food to keep his energy levels up, to really encourage him to hang in there. It’s similar to if you got up at 04:00 AM, wandered around, maybe had a snack, and then eventually went back to bed and finished your night. That’s what’s happening here, most likely. Hang in there until the first nap of the day.

I always suggest that people do not change bedtime too much. That is super tempting when you’ve got an early riser. You think, “Oh, if we just keep him up late, he’ll sleep later in the morning.” That hardly ever works. In fact, all you end up doing, then, is creating a huge amount of over-tiredness in your child, which leads to more fragmented sleep and even earlier morning wake ups. Whatever you do, don’t do that.

Bonus Tip: you usually need to address the balance of daytime sleep in comparison to nighttime sleep, with older babies 12 months and above too much daytime sleep even by 30 minutes can result in early rising, so check out the FREE comprehensive nap guide below.

Do you have a question you need answered around early o'clock? leave a comment and I will get back to.

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Tamsin

12/30/2018 19:51:12

Hello 😀.

I have a 14 month old son who has always been a regular night waker.

He has started sleeping through now! Yahoo! He has a very structured and relaxed bedtime routine and goes to sleep on his own at 6.30 pm. He then sleeps through but always wakes around 4am!!

I have tried everything!!! Moved his tea time, altered nap times, put in a dull night light, put a beaker with water in crib, put extra dummies in crib, left him to cry/self soothe (but this stresses him too much).

The only way he may go back to sleep is if I sit/lie with him, however usually he is ready for his day to start at 5am and then is wanting his first nap by 8am. I have tried to keep him awake and busy which works from time to time, however mostly he is so tired he will sleep wherever I am, in pram/car seat/ trolley in Asda!!

I would love another opinion? Is this just a phase? He is so close to walking, so I’m now putting it down to a milestone phase which I hope will sort itself out!

Help appreciated

Many thanks

Tam x

Nadia

12/30/2018 21:44:43

Hi Tam

So it appears he has a 5am to 6:30pm clock going on which in hours is fine but that his day/night clock needs adjusting, for example if he was 6am to 7:30pm this would be better right?

The best way to make this shift is to move that morning nap – 8am is an extension to his nighttime sleep and keeps his body clock on this current early-to-bed early-to-wake pattern, move it by 20 mins every 3 days until you can get to 10am, so to start if he is up super early this will be a struggle but as soon as he is sleeping longer in the mornings you will easily get to 10am – at 14 month he is on the cusp of a transition from 2 naps a day to 1 nap a day, so this is something to bear in mind, but initially keep two naps say 10am and 2:30pm for no more than a total of 2 hours daytime sleep, he needs a later bedtime also. 7/7:30 which having two naps will help with. It will take time and won’t be a quick fix.

Happy New Year!

Helen A S Pearce

4/26/2019 08:40:31

Hi

We have this same problem but when we keep he nap times as normal then she is so over-tired that she only sleeps for 30min and has way too long between naps and before bedtime which results in more over-tiredness which is no doubt not helping the early rising. I feel like we're in a lose-lose situation.

Please help!

Thanks

Cora Rebbeca Kazmierczak

6/15/2023 22:21:30

Hi, my daughter is 11 months on the 20th July she has never slept through the night apart from the other week as we went on holiday and she couldn’t sleep as she sleeps in her pram she doesn’t like being held or rocked and won’t lie in her own bed and go to sleep she just screams the house down even if I keep going in and lying her back down just makes her 10x harder to settle her but she wakes up at around 4/5.30am she wakes up around 5ish usually as my partners alarm disturbs her I think even though she’s in her own room but she’s been getting up around 4am recently she had 2 naps in the day so if she wakes up at 4am she might go back sleep at 5.30 for an hour maybe hour and half depending but if she wakes up around 5.30 she wants go back sleep around 7/8ish then she will have another nap between 1-2pm for around an 1-2 hours sometimes she might only have 30-45 min nap in morning but she is a very cranky baby she will be happy after naps for about an hour then she starts getting very clingy and just winges till she has another nap she use to go around 5:30/6pm but now she stays up till around 7/8pm but still gets up early but I can’t see my partners alarm waking her up as she’s usually up just before it goes off she sleeps in complete darkness aswell she is a very light sleeper have be really quiet otherwise she wakes up and she’s very nosey have a very active mind it’s as if she’s thinks she missing out if she’s asleep and someone comes round without a doubt she wakes up she has around 3 6oz bottles a day plus breakfast dinner and tea and will give her a bottle around 9pm so she doesn’t wake up in the night but she still does and even if I give her a bottle at 4am she will still want to get up she won’t go. Back sleep and I feed her in her bed I don’t fuss over her and get her out I try keeping it quiet and not move/talk to her just wondering if anyone has advice on what I need to improve on Thankyou

Teilah

3/18/2024 17:52:51

Hi, this sounds a lot like my 10 month old! Did you ever get any help with this? If she has two naps she’s always up about 3-4am! If we do three naps she sleeps better 11pm-8:30am but obviously that’s a super late bedtime 😞

Cecelia

6/3/2019 06:35:10

Hi,

My 3.5 month old goes to bed around 6.30/7 each night and he’s normally very tired at this time. He wakes up once or twice in the night but at 4am he wakes up as if he’s ready to start the day. I nurse him and put him back in his cot where he talks loudly for an hour and a half and then has to go back to sleep around 6/6.30. Often he will only go back for this nap if he is lying on me or my husband. (We don’t ever leave the bedroom during this). Has he just had enough sleep by 4am? Should his bedtime be later? Is it to do with naps in the day not being long enough? They are normally 30-45 mins long.

Thanks in advance!
Cecelia

6/3/2019 11:10:56

Hi Cecelia

Congratulations, this sounds like a very classic situation for this young age, I would simply stick to what you are doing knowing what you have described is normal at this age, the naps will lengthen out as she grows, see my blogs on extending naps, being up a couple of times for a feed is super actually. If it continues get a quick chat with me in my diary and we can do a fuller assessment x

Christie

7/17/2019 05:27:35

Hi,

My 8 month old has been sleeping from 7pm-7am until now, he’s waking up between 4-5am for a feed. He will go straight back to sleep but I’m due back at work and I can’t keep doing it. He usually then sleeps until 7:30am then has a nap again at 11 and a further nap between 3-4pm. Please help me on what I’m doing wrong. Thanks x

Nikki

10/11/2021 07:36:08

Hi

I’m having exact same problem. Slept through until last month, around 8 months old. He’s now almost 10 months. Sleeps well, until 1ish and his up chatting briefly and then again at 4. He has an 1.5 hours 9-1030 and another nap at 2-330. Down for bed at 630-7. Am I doing something wrong here?

Kayla

11/5/2019 02:38:21

Hello, I have a 17 month old boy who has always been a horrible sleeper. It seems like we are in a cycle for the past month of him waking up in between 4-5am and he will not go back to sleep. When he wakes this early he is so tired come 8-9am. Its very tempting to lay him down for a nap earlier in the morning which I have done a couple of times and he will sleep almost 2 hrs. Then we run into a long afternoon because I cannot get him to take a afternoon nap. I have also tried shortening the morning nap and he still will not take 2 naps. If I keep him up by 11am he is so tired and miserable will sleep a good 2-2 1/2 hrs for nap but by 6-630pm he is ready for bed. And the early rising cycle repeats. I have figured out he usually will clock about 10hrs at night consistently and is tired after 4-5hrs of being awake I feel like he might need a little bit of a later bedtime maybe 8pm to sleep later but I am not sure..Any advice on our situation would be greatly appreciated. I am not asking him to sleep till 7-8am I am just praying for 6am wake-ups!!! Thanks so much for your help

Nadia Edwards link

11/5/2019 11:04:30

Hello Kayla - thanks for reaching out. It sounds like you are stuck in a cycle of poor nighttime sleep which is then resulting in an early nap and then your child's body clock being stuck on this pattern.

Falling asleep closer to 7/7:30 and waking at 6 is a realistic want for sure.

When I work with harder cases like this I look at the whole situation, how he is falling asleep at bedtime, if there are any sleep props remove them (see my blogs on sleep props) so he is falling asleep interdependently of dummies/milk or such

Then step 2 is what happens in the early morning? do you get up/offer milk or food?, keeping him in his dark room until 6am is key, sure you might not be able to get straight to this time but build it up every 3 days so that his body clock adusts to 4am is nighttime.

Then adjust the nap so that it is at 11am for 3-5 days then 11:15 then 11:30 and so on until you get to 12/12:30. I know easier said than done.

There are a tonnes of other things that might be helpful and I can hold your hand through making these changes above if you like. My support is usually what makes the biggest difference with families.

My plans start from £149 - so do get in touch if you want support xx

Stacey

1/22/2020 20:36:23

Hiya
Really need some advice. 1st baby.... 7 and half month girl. I have did a bed time routine since 6 weeks took her up into bedside crib 7.30 then she used to sleep until 2.30am once she got to 3-5 month. Then at 5 month it’s gone down hill. My baby girl would start waking up different times. I thought it was down to her getting the to big for the crib...
Moved her to cot. My baby girl gets excited 6.30 for bed no problem at all. Feed her and pop her in cot in her own room then from 12am it can be each hour she wakes ... to 2am then 3am and 4am wake up. I am getting exhausted I end up bringing her in my bed but we don’t want this and she isn’t going back to sleep anyway so we r up by 5am! I have stopped the night feeds and she is still waking for water. Well she is hardly drinking it. So I don’t no why she is waking or what to do!!!

1/23/2020 17:20:35

Hello Stacey, thanks for reaching out.

The first step is to make sure you have structured your day well and have around 2 naps spread equally over the daytime, nap 1 at 9:30/10 and nap 2 and 2/2:30 as an example, but do read over my other blog in the naps section for fuller information on that.

Then - how your baby falls asleep at bedtime will likely be having an impact, she would benefit from going down prop free, see my blog about props - basically these are any activity or device she thinks she needs in order to fall asleep, feeding is the primary one and the best way to help is have the bedtime feed as step one of her bedtime routine (which should be around 30 mins) but you will have to assess all of her sleep props and remove them so she is falling asleep from awake in her crib and taking around 10-15 mins to drift off.

She may need a slightly earlier bedtime say 6:30/7 for a period of time, 7 month olds can't cope with much more than 3 hours of being awake from last nap to bedtime - this early bedtime will help with the early mornings, as overtiredness is the number one reason I see babies of this age waking super early.

I hope that helps - book a call with me if you'd like to talk about working with me to implement any of these changes. Nadia

Kristin Mörth

3/2/2023 06:51:51

Hi Nadia,

My son is now 9 month old! He has for over a month now started to wake up at 4 am every morning. This started when he stop waking up during the night, so his only wale up is at 4 am but that’s to early and he is still super tired. When I’m putting him to bed around 6.30-7 I give him a bottle first in a dark room and after that I’m putting him in his crib and he falls asleep by himself! Feels like I have tried everything, like let him cry out, going in and saying the same words I do when I’m putting him down for the night, giving him a bottle, I’m out of ideas and really want him to sleep longer. Do you have any tips for me?

Victoria Cowell

2/6/2020 06:12:36

My 6.5 month old is waking at 3 or 4am every morning and it is taking a feed to get him back down.

I tend to make sure that he is awake from his last nap at 3.30pm ready for a 6pm bedtime but he’s barely making it to then. I’ve tried napping him later but it made for a very unhappy baby.

Our bedtime routine is solids at 4.30-5pm ish (he barely eats anything), then bathtime, milk time (tends to fall asleep despite best efforts) and story time after milk to try and distance the feed from bedtime.

I then find he needs his first night feed between 9-10pm and then again between 1-2am but this 3-4am wake up is demanding another feed!? We have done some sleep training and he can self settle but when our little boy wakes, food is the only answer regardless of time / last feed it seems and we don’t know what to do / try next to stop it.

Would love your thoughts on our little monkey :)

4/11/2020 09:14:43

Hello Victoria - I'm sorry I never seen you comment originally, please get in contact with me on Monday, I am able to point you in the right direction of specific things to try for this age so you can prevent the unnecessary trial and error. xx book a discover call as I can give you at lest one great actionable tip plus you can sign up for my free 5 steps on my website in the FAQ section which are the foundation to all my plans and have helped many parents out.

Sarah

4/11/2020 05:14:38

Victoria cowell, I’m in the exact same situation with my 6.5 month as you ! Did you find a resolution? I didn’t think he would still need so many feeds at this age. Thanks

Victoria

4/11/2020 08:48:39

Hi Sarah,
I did 🥳 ish... he now wakes at 6am but that’s fine with us! Anything is better than 4 haha

We moved our nighttime feed later (to 7pm IF we can - sometimes he just can’t stay awake and we flex the timings), we feed 4 hourly during the day if he can go that long, snacks are key to our daily schedule and we give him 2-3 snacks a day and we tweaked our nighttime routine slightly to relax him as much as poss;

Awake from afternoon nap at 5pm at the latest if he has one (he seems to have dropped this at 8.5 months)
Supper at 5pm (can take 15 minutes, can take 30!)
Relax time in nappy / FaceTime grandparents / friends
Bath at 6pm - 6.20pm
Massage before getting in to bed clothes
Snack and a story
Milk feed at 7pm (or before if he’s fussing / tired)
Bed at 7.15 (at the latest at the mo)
1st wake up is between 10-11pm
2nd wake up is between 2-3am
Morning starts at 6am

It’s just something that works for us and has taken sooooo much tweaking and trying things to be honest. It’s still 2 feeds but the more I read, the more it seems ‘normal’ and to just go with it but I feel your pain and hope this can go some way helping you and your little one x

4/11/2020 09:13:35

Hello Sarah - Please get in contact with me on Monday, I am able to point you in the right direction of specific things to try for this age so you can prevent the unnecessary trial and error. xx book a discover call as I can give you at lest one great actionable tip plus you can sign up for my free 5 steps on my website in the FAQ section which are the foundation to all my plans and have helped many parents out.

4/11/2020 09:36:46

Hello everyone who finds this post, please sign up to get my FREE tips, if you can spend the time watching the video and reading the information on the 5 steps and then from the nap guide and pitting them into practice you will get great results - get in contact if needed via the discovery cal button if have more specific questions or need to work on more complete sleep package xx

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/_naps

Stephanie Tipton

5/12/2020 10:43:12

Hi Nadia,

I could really use some help.

My 9 month old is waking up everyday between 4-5 and will not go back to sleep. He goes to bed at 7pm every night with no problems (really, we put him down and he goes right to sleep) after our everyday nighttime routine.

I suspect he is getting too much sleep during the day, as he takes a nap two hours after he wakes up (for 1-2 hours) and then again two and half to three hours after that wake up time, usually for another 1-2 hours. Due to the early wake up time, this often means he is still taking three naps (he will often nap again for 45 minutes later in the afternoon).

This is what his day looks like
430: wake up
6:30/7: nap
10:30: nap
3:nap
7: bedtime

I have tried pushing his first nap time, but when I do, he is usually very overtired and then won’t go down or won’t sleep longer than 45 minutes. On the days where I have gotten him to nap only twice, he still wakes up the next day at 430ish. I’m starting to feel like there is nothing I can do.

Thank you!

Anmol Paul

5/27/2020 05:06:55

Hi Stephanie,

I have the same issue with one of my twin boys (whilst the other one sleeps until 6am regularly which is strange.

Have you resolved this? Nadia any thoughts?

KRs,

Anmol

Nadia link

5/30/2020 10:54:19

Hi Stephanie

Did you manage to look at the nap guide and 5 step?s. You are spot on with your thoughts, we need to balance the amount of sleep in the day, usually 2 naps of no more than 3 hour at this age or the need for sleep at night will be reduced resulting in this situation, I can certainly chat with you on some creative ways to overcome the problem, only sleeping for 45 min at this first nap is not a problem to be honest one way is to allow a very sort cat nap in the morning,15 min for example, to then get the day on track, so 15 min at first nap then 3 hours of awake time to next nap, allow 60-90 mins of nap, then 3 hours of awake time to next nap and allow 60-90 mins of nap then 3-4 hours to bedtime. until the morning is more sensible, this is not the only thing to look at though, I would be looking at how your baby is falling asleep as this might be a contributing factor as to why he is waking in the first place.

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/_naps

Leah

5/25/2020 05:17:59

Hi my little one (11 1/2 months) has started waking at 4:30am although will happily talk to himself until I get him up at 5:45. Morning bottle isn’t given until 6:30.
We have a black out window covering, blind and curtains in place so the room is in complete darkness.
His first nap is 9:30am and will sleep a minimum of 1 hour but he will normally nap between 1.5-3 hours - if it’s the longer amount we don’t normally nap in afternoon.
Dinner is at 5pm and bedtime routine starts at 6pm with last bottle at 6:45 and bed at 7pm
I’m currently pregnant with second and would really like to get this sorted before baby 2. What am I doing wrong?

5/30/2020 10:39:31

Hi Leah, thanks for reaching out to me, congratualtion on baby number 2 coming soon.

At this age the total daytime sleep seems a little out of balance, I would be thinking about having your first nap of the day at 10am and have 2 naps of no more than 2.5 hours in total. It might even be time to think about the transition from 2 to 1 nap soon.

See my nap guide for further information

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/_naps

Jenna

5/25/2020 08:26:24

Hello,

My little boy is 19 weeks old and he will consistently wake between 3:30am - 4:30am each day and is wide awake. He has slept through previously but this has started in the past couple of weeks. He doesn’t wake upset, he is babbling to himself. We often pop his dummy in and he may take himself back to sleep for 10 mins or so but then is babbling and shrieking again. Sometimes he will take a bottle, sometimes he won’t but he is definitely having enough throughout the day.

He goes to bed after a bath each day by 6:30pm and his naps are ok - usually 45-60 mins in length but his first nap of the day is being 7am ish because of waking up so early!

He is amazing at self settling and does this for all naps and bedtime but when he wakes at this time he doesn’t take himself back to sleep. Very exhausted mummy so any help or advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

5/30/2020 10:45:44

Hi Jenna

This is tricky at this age and this time of the day, it sounds like you are doing well.

At this age there are a few things that can be done, but all very specific and take a bit of time to chat over, I'm happy to chat these through with you on a discovery call.

In essence I would think about increasing your babies awake time between naps in the day and making sure of tummy time, sensor play and outdoor play, sounds simple but even an extra 10 mins of awake time between naps can help with this, and even a little more 'active' time can be the game changer you need. see my free resources below.

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/_naps

Sami

5/30/2020 06:28:48

Hi,

I’m in the same boat as yous too. My Baby is 6months and goes to bed at half 7.. routine is good at night time but will not sleep past 5am. So any time between 4-5am is her wake up time. We give her a bottle and lay her back down in her cot with her dummie but just lays there babbling to herself and doesn’t go back to sleep.

So this is making nap time a lot eariler 7-8am only 30-60mins, then has another nap about 12 For 30-60mins, and then wants to have another between 3-4pm only sometimes though not every day.
But most days I’m taking her for a walk because she is fighting going to sleep on her second nap.

Where and what am I doing wrong?

Any help or advice please?

Thank you

5/30/2020 10:35:54

Hi Sami - congratulation, this sounds like you're doing really well at managing the daytime, If your little one is having a tricky time falling asleep for second nap I would increase her awake window by say 10-15 minutes. You can have a look at my free nap guide. But also if she is in her bedroom and happyish until it's time to get up 6am or later then I would start your first nap of that day 2.5 hours from 6am. Next you might want to think about how she is falling asleep at bedtime and move her bottle as step one of her bedtime routine. Some babies are super sensitive to sleep props and how she is falling asleep at bedtime might be contributing to why she is waking in the morning, again check out my other blogs on that or the free 5 steps. If you still need tailored support book in a consult with me xx

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/_naps

Claire Williams

6/1/2020 07:08:59

Hi nadia. Do you have any advice for split nights please?

My boy is 13 months and 1 week ago we began the 2-1 nap transition as he had been fighting both naps. He Generally sleeps well now for his 1 big nap which happens around midday for 1.5-2hours (Although yesterday his nap was only 1 hour 15 mins)

Generally he is awake for 5 hours in the morning then 5 1/4 or 5 1/2 hours before bed.

He is then waking overnight for a block of 1.5-2 hours (different times between 1.30 and 4am) just not wanting to sleep! He has been up since 4am this morning.

Do you have any advice please xx
He starts nursery next week and will be on one nap a day there xx

Kimberley Green

6/23/2020 05:51:00

Hi Nadia,

I have a 9 months old and I’ve literally been though everything to get him to sleep later yet every morning here we are around 4.45/5am. I can see he is still tired but just won’t sleep.

Our day time routine is as follows;
5am Wake up
Nap 3 hours later
Wake usually and hour and 15 mins later 9.45am
10.30am small bottle
11.15 Lunch with dessert
Nap 2 12.30/1pm
This can be anything from 45mins to an hour and half.
3pm bottle feed
5pm dinner and dessert
5.45pm bath
6.15pm bottle and book
6.39 in bed wake to settle himself to sleep. (Which usually consists of him crying and moaning for about 10 mins then he falls asleep)
He is still wake 1-2 in the night but I do not feed him just offer water and resettle.

The bedroom is blacked out and he sleeps with white noise. We are in a one bedroom flat so I fear maybe we are the issue. But even if we are not making any noise at all.. still wakes at 5am.

I’ve tired moving his bedtime back still wakes at 5, ive tried moving it earlier .. that didn’t woke. He doesn’t have a dummy and just takes a Muslim to bed with him. I’m losing my mind with it especially as we are both working full time.

We have tired following baby expect books but everyone has so many ideas .. but I’m not out of ideas.

Is it that morning nap. Do I just let him have a short nap and wake him?

Any advice will be helpful I’m sure.

Amanda

7/20/2020 05:07:23

Hi Nadia,
Hoping you could help as I’m soooo tired and pretty over my 11mo waking at 4am!
I push her through til 9am for her 1st nap and she’s usually asleep in the pram (for school drop off for her sister) anywhere between 9-9:30 for a max 40min sleep.
Lunch at 11:30.
Bed at usually 12:45. Max 2hr sleep.
Dinner at 5pm.
Bed around 6:30pm.
We had a sleep consultant who advised 6pm as she thought she was over tired and missing about 2hrs sleep in the day. We’ve tried it and it sometimes works, but ‘work’ means a 5:40 wake up which tbh I take as a win.
Any tips?!?!

Nadia Edwards

8/24/2020 10:37:53

I sorry for delay, sounds like your day needs adjusted , use the nap guide to assess your awake windows, at this age 2-2.5 daytime sleep is about right with 10-12 at night, so a later bedtime of 7pm would work better longer term. Nap Guide below.

http://sleep.nadiaedwards.co.uk/_naps

Lauren Amos

8/24/2020 00:12:23

I have a 1 month old and no matter how much I try to put her on a schedual or get a schedual going she does not want to fall asleep for bed until 4am and take long naps during the day I try to keep her awake or wake her up but she never wants to wake up I try to wake her up every 3 hours to feed but she never wants to she has gotten to where she will only take 4 full feeds a day and the rest of the time she only gets an ounce in before she falls back to sleep and she is sleeping for 3 to four hours at a time on every nap but still wont go to bed for the night until 4 am how can I fix it to where she goes to bed at 9:30 PM every night and take for feedings

8/24/2020 10:35:21

Firstly Lauren, congratulations, next please ignore everything you have read in the blog post as it is not appropriate for the age of your baby (newborn) the best tips for this age are to get out and about in the daytime, with the pram/sling and keep the house busy and bright with lots and lots of natural daylight. Don't have a dark room for napping, yes wake regularly in the daytime for feeds. below is some details from another blog more appropriate to your age.

Plan to spend a lot of time outdoors:

Ok, I don’t mean the first few days after birth! But seriously, as soon as you can, plan to get outside in natural daylight in the morning and again in the afternoon. This goes for expectant parents too – get into the habit early and it will be easier. It won’t have dramatic results, but will slowly get your baby exposed to broad spectrum daylight, which is incredibly important to regulate their circadian rhythm (body clock).

Regulate your baby’s body clock:

This is nowhere near as hard as it sounds! All of us have a body clock that runs on about a 24 hour rhythm. It’s helpful to be exposed to light for 12 hours of the day, and darkness for the other 12 hours. This will help your baby to organise their days and nights. I’m not saying you have to wake your newborn from their sleep at 7am on the dot, but certainly, don’t minimise household noise, or keep the house dark after 7am (or whenever you decide you want your 12 hours of light to start). Allow your baby to wake up naturally and then keep the environment light for the rest of the 12 hour ‘day’ period. Then keep it quiet, dark and lower the stimulation. This can be logistically difficult when you’re trying to wait for your partner to return home from work, eat supper and have some down time. Many parents opt to just have their baby up on their shoulder while all this is going on. But in my experience, this is when you run into problem with overstimulation and a fractious, hard-to-settle baby. Try if you can to plan ahead and eat earlier, then keep your baby in a quiet, less stimulating environment, so they can calm down. This is just a season! Maybe rather than eating pizza on the sofa whilst catching up on Game of Thrones with your other half, passing the baby between each other in between mouthfuls of food, try a quieter evening! Maybe a meal earlier, by candlelight, so the baby isn’t exposed to bright light, and rediscover your love of scrabble, or cards. The time to binge-watch Netflix will come again once your baby begins to settle a bit earlier in the evening, but for now, just try to prioritise setting their body clock. You’ll thank me later!

Learn about over-tiredness and sleep cues:

For anyone who has ever hired me, they’ll probably tell you that the thing they learned most about was how toxic over-tiredness is to sleep, and how it can screw up the entire sleep cycle. It actually has an effect on how deeply you sleep, as well as how you transition into sleep. Learn to watch out for early tired cues, such as losing interest in faces and toys, gaze aversion, and quietening down, rather than reacting to late tired cues such as yawning, fussing, back arching and eye rubbing. Newborns can really only tolerate being awake for up to about an hour. If your baby has been awake for 45 minutes, then just try an experiment for me – take them somewhere quiet and start to shush and gently rock your baby. If they start to look sleepy, attempt to put them down for a nap. This will be high-maintenance at first! Books often paint the picture that you put your baby down awake and they simply drift off. Nope, not always! You’ll probably need to be there, shushing, and patting them, whispering in their ear, or stroking their face, but it’s worth a try. Don’t persist if your baby is going nuts – pick them up and comfort them, and try again when they’re almost asleep. Keep trying. It will eventually work if you’re consistent and persistent.

So, expectant parents – you have some homework! If your baby is already here, all is not lost! Try the above tips and I wish you luck!

Hannah

9/27/2020 05:40:24

Hi

My 9 month old goes to bed like a dream no problem at all. Around 6:30 pm. She goes down on her own and sleeps through until any where between 4am and 6 am but usually on the early side.
I ignore her for the first 10-15 minutes but she tends to go mental so I get up with her. She has always had a bottle around 6:30/7am since being a very small baby. But when she gets up this early I struggle to stretch her until then. This the. Affects when she goes back for her nap in the morning which can last anywhere between 30 mins and 2 hours! Help!

Lacy Latham

11/21/2020 11:09:52

Hello,
I have a 5 month old son he gets up around 3-4 am everyday. We put him down for his first nap around 7-8. During the day he sleeps for 30 minutes most days and then around 4-5 pm he wants to sleep the longest. How do I have him wake up later in the morning? And also how do I get him to take longer naps?

Gema

1/15/2021 05:23:16

My nearly 8month old is totally mind boggling so any advice is greatly received. We have tried everything. Even with a consistent routine, the nighttimes and wale times vary.

She usually naps at 8.30am for the school run and a walk out for about 45-1hour. Then snack at 10am and bottle at 11am. She fusses with 6oz. Then lunch at about 12.15 and back down for a nap at 1pm. This is usually on her cot which only lasts 25-45mins. Then bottle at 3/4pm and often needs a nap in the pushchair to push her to teatime. Teatime at 5/5.30.

Bath and bedtime routine starts at about 6.30 and she is usually in bed for 7pm after a final bottle. We removed the dummy as it was becoming a huge problem and she woke every hour for it. She is in a dark room, white noise. She moves up the cot alot and thrashes about which often wakes her. She is put to bed awake too, not asleep.

She then has a feed at anywhere inbetween 12-3am it’s different every night. Then wakes between 4.30-5.30am very rarely 6am. This is soul destroying as it just emphasises the already long lonely days during lockdown. She is tired as she is grumpy on waking. It’s having an effect on all of us now including my 5yr old who usually slept until 6-6.30am he is now up 5-5.30am.

Please can you help. It’s all very intense at the moment in our house and these early wake ups are the root cause.

2/4/2021 15:33:09

I would move nap one later. 9:30 this will help shift the whole day. It is not easy at the moment but doing this is small 10-15 min increments can get you there. I can't see what time she goes to bed at but ideally you need 10-11 hours opportunity for nighttime sleep and no more than 3 hours of nap time. equally split over the day, download the free nap guide.

Loreane D'otolo

2/3/2021 19:07:46

Hi
my baby will be 8 months in 4 days and he has had early morning wakings for months and months. we can't seem to fix it. he usually wakes around 5am (no other night wakings, sleeps through the night but up at 5am). we don't go in until 6am. until recently I have been doing: nap 1: 8-9:30, nap 2: 12:00-1:30, nap 3: 4:00-4:30. bedtime 7
recently I have tried switching him to 2 naps but not sure how successful its been. I've tried nap 1 8:30 and nap 2 at 1pm then bedtime 3 hours after waking up from nap 2.
the problem with this is that if either naps are short then his wake time is too long in between. he is still waking at 5am with this change.
wondering if anything can help?!
thank you!

2/4/2021 15:29:44

Hello - It is definable time to move to 2 naps. download the free nap guide to help you see how this might work for you. It will take a good week or two of 2 naps for your baby's body clock to adjust.

Andrea

2/9/2021 12:30:48

Hi,
My daughter is 5 months. She started sleeping through at 3 months and then the 4 month sleep regression hit at 3.5 months.

She now goes to bed between 7.30-8pm in her cot with her dummy. I give her a dream feed at 11pm and she then sleeps through until she starts to stirr/ wake on and off from 4.30am every morning-7.30am.

She’s not hungry as if I offer her milk she doesn’t drink it. I have to continuously put her dummy in every 10 mins for hours. Sometimes she will stir for an hour or so and go back to sleep but I always keep her in the dark in her cot for this period and don’t bring her downstairs until 7.30am.

She then naps for approx 45 mins at 9.30am.
Then has a second nap around 11.30am for 90mins,
third nap around 3pm for 45 mins and a
4th nap around 5.30 for 30 mins.
Her 4 naps are approx totalling 3hr 45 mins each day.

I’m not sure why but no matter how I switch up naps/bedtime she seems to stirr from 4.30am no matter what. She also continuously drops her dummy and gets frustrated i think.

Any help would be great- Thank you!

8/4/2021 17:26:16

Hi Andrea - how did this all resolve for you, so sorry I never picked this up, this blog post was so long ago I don't regularly manage it.

Fay

2/18/2021 12:04:18

Hi Nadia!

My 9 month old is waking up from 4:45am-5am for about a week and half now. He wakes up in a good mood, but becomes cranky throughout the day. His sleeping schedule:

4:45am wake
9:00am- nap time (sometimes he doesn’t make it. Will fall asleep at 8:30am) his nap is usually one hour long in the morning
Second nap: 1:15pm until 2:30/2:45
Bedtime 6:30pm

He falls asleep on his own and doesn’t wake up until 4:45am, but he does toss and turn ALOT through the night. He is currently teething. Does that have anything to do with it? Though, this early wakening has been happening for about a week and a half. Any advice will be helpful please!

8/4/2021 17:27:00

Hi Fay how did this resolve for you all, often this is a temporary phase.

Alice

5/9/2021 22:46:52

Please help. My 11 month old wakes 3-4 times a night for a feed. She is breast fed and loves her solids. On top of this she is waking at 4am which leaves me running on fumes all day. Her naps are all over the place lasting a total of up to 3 hours. She absolutely fights sleep and does not go to bed willingly - I usually feed her to sleep. It’s causing me a lot of anxiety and exhaustion.

8/4/2021 17:23:55

3 hours daytime sleep is most likely too much at this age, if she is fighting sleep the best thing to try is not to force it.I am sorry this is a late reply, this post was done so long ago that I don't actively manage it. It sounds like a full support package would have been the best thing either with me or another sleep coach. Please look over the nap guide, consider capping daytime sleep to 2-2.5 hours and think about other ways she can fall asleep at bedtime, this can often help with the frequent night wakings, in all honestly there are no quick fixes to offer here we likely need to full assessment and support.

Charlotte

6/10/2021 05:22:33

Hi Nadia,

My 10 month old is waking up at 4am daily at the moment. We went through a spell of frequent night wakings which has transitioned to sleeping through the night until 4am but will not go back to sleep after that.

She does have 3 naps in the day at the moment (8am, 11am & 2pm) which I am trying to cut down to 2 and has a regular bedtime routine starting at 6:30pm normally asleep by 7:30pm.

Any advice would be really appreciated! Thank you.

8/4/2021 17:19:42

It is the naps, we need 2 main naps at this age, see the free nap guide for information on that. xx

Fran

6/21/2021 08:14:01

Hi, my 12 month old has started waking at 4:30 pretty much every morning for the past couple of weeks.
His bedtime routine starts around 6pm and he goes to sleep by himself around 6:30.
He has recently started nursery and when there 3 days a week, he naps from around 12pm for 1-2hr.
When at home, he usually naps from 11am for 2hrs.
When he is waking at 4:30am, we tend to leave him for a while and he will sometimes lie back down and rest but he wakes crying every few mins. Once he is stood up crying, I tend to go in the room and he just wants to be held then he is ok. Some days he seems ok but others he is incredibly grumpy as though he is still tired and I have ended up putting him down to nap around 10am.
Any advice please?!
Thank you

8/4/2021 17:18:12

Hi - the nap needs adjusting to later than 11am so that bedtime can be later than 6:30, this sleep needs in a 24 hour period are ok, 10-11 hours at night is well in the range of normal and 11-14 in a total 24 hour period, so I guess there needs to be a later bedtime and to achieve that a later nap than 11am, if he is only on one nap and that ends early say 12 noon or 1pm and there are no other naps the gap between the nap ending and bedtime may be too long and be the reason for early rising.

Tracey Little

6/28/2021 23:25:39

My now 9 month old, in the early days slept 10-7 for about 2 months was great.
Then all of a sudden her sleep went to pot, I thought it was teeth but even paracetamol didn’t even encourage her to sleep longer. I tried giving another feed but managed to wean her off that once we started solids about 5.5 months.
She has milk around 7, a nap between 10-11 for anywhere between 20mins-1.5, lunch full fruit pouch wafers veggies straws and water, milk between 2-3 nap between 2-4 dinner Heinz powder pot, fruit, yoghurt and veggie straws (she loves them). Then has milk between 7-7.30, and goes to sleep I give her a dream feed at 10-10.30 and then put her in cot and she sleeps until 2.30am. That’s when she stirs, I’ve tried leaving her she wakes fully, then starts shouting and talking etc. But if I catch her close to her stirring and bring her in with us she will go back to sleep until 7.7.30am.
I have fallen into a bit of a rut holding her while she sleeps and I know many will say not to do that but if she’s my last I want to keep those cuddles for as long as I can.
My older daughter slept no problem, they also usually say you get one good sleeper and one bad sleeper.

Any ideas on what it could be or what we can try.
I’m back to work ina couple months and I don’t think I can manage like this longer.

8/4/2021 17:09:40

If you are enjoying the cosy cuddles - just continue with that method, no harm.

Emma

8/2/2021 05:25:58

My son is almost 1, he will be 1 on the 16th august.
He’s always been a shocking sleeper right from birth, nights were okayish but he was not your typical baby and did not hardly day nap.
I’ve sleep trained he now sleeps on his own for both naps and night time, his room is pitch black I have blackout window film, blinds and blackout curtains.
Nothing I do will send him back to sleep he goes to bed at 7pm and will constantly wake at 4am. I’ve tried feeding doesn’t work, I’ve tried leaving him till an appropriate time for it to be morning he just screams the house down and gets worked up.
His two day naps aren’t overly long he gets about 2.5hrs day naps total.
I’m at a loss and quite honestly losing the plot. I’m the only one who gets up with him every day and it’s starting to become too much.
Thankyou

8/4/2021 17:07:42

Hi Emma it might be time to shorten up the daytime sleep, 2.5 hours is not unreasonable, however the timing of the nap can impact the early rising. I would look at the whole day and tweak his nap timing, see the free nap guide and experiment.

For example if the morning nap is very early (before 8:30pm I would move that to between 9am and 10am and cap it to 60 mins and have the next nap 3-4 hours after he wakes from that nap and for 60 mins with bedtime 3-4 hours from when he wakes from last nap)

It might also be the time to make the transition to 1 nap in the middle of the day, so 12/12:30 for 2-2.5 hours.

There is a lot that I would address and support you through/question to answer if we were working together and usually the early rising is the last piece of the puzzle, but as a quick tip you can also try an approach called wake to sleep. This only works if your child is waking around the same time each morning. It has to be done 7 days in a row in order for it to work. You would wake/stir your child slightly 15 minutes before normal wake time and then let them fall back asleep. There are obvious risks but it works wonders lots for me.

James

8/4/2021 15:39:12

Hi Nadia,

We have an 8-month-old who has irregular sleep feeds at night. We have two solid naps during the day, but we really want to eliminate night feeds. We have read that complete extinction is an option but it did not work for us.

We do a sleep feed around 11/12 and then eliminate any feeding there after. The issue is that it worked for one night. He woke up at 4 am and fussed for 40 minutes and then fell back asleep until 7:30 am. The second night was terrible. He woke up at 4 am but fussed all the way until we turned on the lights at 6:30 am. We do not know if it is even necessary to eliminate feedings, or if we are doing harm by not feeding him at night. He has shown that he is able to fall asleep in many situations after 20 minutes of fussing.

Consultants suggest that this behavior will consist for 3 nights until he learns to sleep on his own, but it sounds cruel to hear him cry at night.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Nadia Edwards waking link

8/4/2021 16:52:06

Hello, in short, it is not necessary to stop nightfeeds, they are still very common and normal at this age. A recent study of over 50,000 infants found that night waking was still very prevalent amongst 6-18 month old babies, with nearly 70% of all children waking at least once in the night and 20% waking more than three times.

There is a range of things I explore first with families and it is a stepped process of:

1: Looking the the sleep fundamentals
-Parenting Values
-Sleep Biology and What is Normal
-Learn About Cues / Temperament / Emotional Needs
-Routines & Rituals

2: Sleep Hygiene
-Bedtime Routine
-Environment
-Sleep Onset Latency
-Positive Sleep Associations

3: Sleep Coaching for Bedtime
-Stepped approach
-Location
-Response
-Person

4: Sleep Coaching for Naps/Transitions in the future
-Timing
-Individual sleep needs v's wake windows
-Transitions
-Nap Emergency (when things don't goes as planned)

5: Nighttime Strategies and finally
-Co-Sleeping
-Feeding (often quick to get back to sleep)
-The Curious Approach
-Gentle Night Weaning

6: Early Rising.
-Troubleshoot
-Responding
-Wake to Sleep
-Dramatic Waking

(Not all nighttime strategies are about weaning completely or if we do want to wean fully certainly not about full on extinction at this age)

So in summary, there are many other ways to night wean if and when you want to but you certainly don't need to, I actually have 10 ways I employ for night weaning with families, however the other steps need to be address first prior to us working on nights as the success of nights depends on these other steps being in place. I have listed these below, but in all honest if this is causing you any stress just do nothing for a while or work one-on-one with me. xx

1. Feed child as soon as they wake up. Keep night feeds as they are while working on sleep habits/ other steps

2. Being curious. When your baby wakes in the night, wait a little and observe what he/she is doing, do they need a feed? Do they need a quick cuddle or soft shushing to sense your presence, especially as babies get older it can be helpful to observe and wonder what they
need or why they are waking.

3. Habit Stacking – layer up other sleep associations at bedtime, naps and nights with falling asleep and feeding for several weeks iniatlly, the idea is that the main association i.e. feeding is diluted thus baby is not solely reliant on feeding to fall back asleep, this can allow others to take a turn at soothing back to sleep in the nights without needing to feed on every occasion.

4. Maintain night feeds but begin to shift them to the first part of the night. The Gentle Night Weaning method can help with this

5. Gentle Night Weaning method is a method which combines
Dreamfeeds with moving feeds earlier to gradually reduce and wean off feeds

6. Set Time Feeds – Decide what time of night you will feed your baby when they wake up

7. Gradually reduce the length of time - you are nursing for. This is not an exact science, as we don’t know when the milk gets transferred to the baby, however, as you reduce the length of your nursing sessions, your baby will gradually take in less milk

8. Gradually Dilute Bottle – This may help your baby rely on less calories gradually without reducing the amount in a bottle. If you start off slowly by replacing a half an ounce at a time, they may not notice that they are being weaned (I’m not a big fan of this one to be honest)

9. Reducing the Amount in a Bottle – If you gradually reduce the quantity of milk in your baby’s bottle it will also gradually reduce the night feeds. Some babies will get to the end of the bottle and want more, so it may not go smoothly for all babies
10. Cold turkey – Stop night feeds altogether. Usually involves about 3 hard nights. Can use water as an alternative to feeds during this time but be cautious that water doesn’t simply replace milk

11. Combine Gentle Night Weaning with Option 7, 8, or 9. If you want to move faster in your night weaning, you can combine techniques in some way. It may be helpful to target the last feed of the night or the feed you want to wean first, if you are going to combine options. For example, you can move your last feed earlier in the night, while at the same time reducing the calorie amount by gradually shortening the feed, or if you are doing bottle feeds, you can gradually dilute or reduce the quantity of milk

Olga

9/24/2021 13:05:44

Hi!

My 9,5 mo son started waking up every day around 4 am and can’t go back to sleep for two hours…He may sometimes fall asleep only in my arms which has been exhausting!
I know that he goes to bed overtired around 6:30 pm as he always has falls starts.
Then he wakes up around 12 -1 am for feed. Then again at ~4 am. I feed him, he seems to fall asleep for 5 mins and then wakes up again! And then we struggle putting him back to sleep.
He does had props (soother) but it wasn’t much if the issue before.
He started daycare so they only offer a short morning nap 9 am - 9:30 am and from 12:30-3pm.
Please heeeeelp!😅

Alexi

11/2/2021 14:02:42

Hi Nadia
I have a 13 m old baby who was waking at 5-5:30am, which is now 4-4:30am thanks to daylight savings.
Prior to daylight saving he was having his first nap 3.5 hours after waking, for 30min. Then 3.5-4 hours until 2nd nap, lasting 90min. Both naps I have to wake him up, if not he will sleep for hours! 4 hours awake time before bed. Bed time around 7pm. Sleeps with white noise in pitch dark room. This means he only gets 9-10 hours of sleep overnight.
Eats well and has at least 600 mls milk per day.
He doesn’t have sleep props but does get rocked to sleep.
I have seen your earlier comments about stretching him to the usual morning nap time but this could mean 5 hours of being awake. Does this not negatively impact his night sleep?
Not sure how else to move him to a more sensible awake time? I keep trying different things in a desperate attempt to get his sleep overnight right but think this is messing up his sleep patterns.
Just not sure what schedule to follow, there is so much conflicting advice in the web.
Would hugely appreciated some tips please.
Many many thanks

Isabelle Jimenez-Wilson

11/22/2021 09:31:40

Hi Nadia, I have a 6 month old son who likes to wake up at 4 and itll take about an hour just to put him back to sleep and sometimes he will only sleep for an extra hour and then just be up. We try to have him in bed between 7:30-8 pm and he has 2 naps during the day (one in the morning around 8:30-9 and one in the afternoon between 3 and 4) and his naps usually last about an hour, hour and a half. hes will sleep for 4 hours straight then be up every 2 hours which is when i feed him. We could use some advice on how to help him work his way into sleeping more at night or at least not waking up at 4 am and thinking its play time.

Kirsten

12/1/2021 06:04:29

Morning, I’ve been up since 4am…. Have been for a few weeks now. :-(
I bath at 5 and she is asleep by 6ish I feed give her a cuddle then put her into her cot and pat/rub. She went till 2 last night then was up at 4.30. I have school run which means I have to get 2 naps in before 2.45. She naps on the way home at 9am I put her into her bed where she can have anything between 1/1.30 sleep. So she is awake by 10.30 am latest. I then try and get her down at 1ish I rock to get her to sleep. Sometimes she doesn’t go down if she doesn’t have 2 sleeps in the day then I have a lot of night wakings. She won’t fall asleep in the car only for the 1st nap.. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I just want to enjoy her but feel like all I worry about is naps. Please help x

5/1/2022 20:26:51

My 11 month old wakes up any time around 4.00am onwards. He does not go back to sleep until we pick him up. Then he will sleep on us for another hour.
If we don't pick him up He just cries and cries.
He is not ready to get up at that early time but cannot seem to stay asleep in his own bed.

His naps are
9.15am for approx 1 and half hours
2.00pm for approx 45 mins
6.50pm asleep for the night

It's tiring us all out. We would be happy with 5.30am!!!!

Thank you

5/3/2022 12:32:54

Hi Hannah - these early wakes are so tricky, I would consider shortening the first nap to 60 mins so that the second nap was slightly longer, it might take a week or 2 for this change to be impactful. (it could also be that your baby has lower sleep needs overall as he can go a big gap between waking at 4/5am and the first nap) You might also want to consider what he is waking for at 4am is it a cuddle/feed/habit or related to how he falls asleep at bedtime, for example if he needs lots of support at bedtime to fall asleep -feeding to sleep/cuddling/dummy or rocking, I would focus on more independent sleep at that point. I would also make sure it is dark,very dark and he is not too cold or hot. Once you do get sleep working well..ish at night I would imagine that he will need to transition to 1 nap in the middle of his day (12/12:30) with an early lunch at 11/11:30 to keep things on track.

5/3/2022 12:43:18

Hi Hannah, my daughter was 12 months when I started sorting her sleep out. I capped the morning nap so she would have 30 min then I would put her back down for a 2nd nap after lunch. She is now 18 months old and I’ve stopped the morning nap. She has 1 1/2-2 hours a day about lunch time. Since only giving her one nap she sleeps till 6am and bed at 7pm, before she was waking at 4.30/5.30ish!! Hope this helps but since walking and being more busy I found she does sleep better x

5/3/2022 12:56:08

Thanks ladies. First thing I think I need to do is shorten that first nap then.
Fingers crossed x

Megan Owens

5/16/2022 05:32:52

Hi there! Just come across your page today as im desperate to find the solution to what feels like a year of 4-5am wake ups. My 13m old has been a terrible sleeper since day one and we’ve worked with two consultants now and he’s still awful. Typically he wakes between 5 and 6am.When he does wake at a normal time between 6:30-7 we usually aim for nap 1 to be at about 9.30 for 30-45 mins (1 hour on nursery days), and then again at about 1/1:30pm for 2 hours- this is usually offered at about 2pm at nursery and he doesn’t sleep overly well here. Bed time averages at about 7pm. His nursery sessions (wed-Fri) start at 1pm and I ask them to put him down with a bottle as soon as he gets there but this doesn’t always happen and I worry what I will do when he’s on the one nap!!

Not sure how to improve these early wakes. I try consistent settling but it seems to wake him even more!!

5/19/2022 09:48:10

Hi Megan,

Firstly I would go back to your consultants and ask for some advice, I know I would hate for one of my clients to not feel they could come back to me. I offer all my past clients top-up support for £50 for things down the line, yours might do that same.

Next: Set your wake time to 6am regardless of what the night has been like, so no more sleeping until 6:30/7am on the good days or if there has been a crap night in general, this will help to regulate the body clock and at least get to 6am going forward which is realistic for most babies (once things are resolved sure allow to slide to a later wake time as long as there is not a huge variation, the key is we don't want a huge variation in wake up time from day to day)

Then: I might even suggest to make the move to 1 nap in the middle of the day sooner rather than later, this would look like lunch at 11/11:30 nap at 12/12:30, to begin you might need a very short 10-15 cat nap at 9/9:30 to get you through to closer to 1pm for the mid day nap just until the early mornings resolve at your baby is waking at 6am - then go to one nap at 12/12:30.

In the early hours between 5am and 6am aim not to feed or stimulate and keep him/her in the dark room until as close to 6am as you can muster or he/she is able to do. If you are not able to keep him/her in the dark room until 6am then aim for as long as you can but when you do make it morning, make it DRAMATIC. so lights on, open blinds into the living area for feed/solids (Don't try to extend the night in the dark or with cosy sleeping-in)

Finally I am assuming (as you have worked with a couple of consultants) your baby falls asleep independently at bedtime,so not drowsy but awake, not on the boob or bottle or rocking etc, if this is not the case you need to address that also.

Feel free to make use of my top-up support if you feel you need just a bit more support.

https://www.nadiaedwards.co.uk/top_up.html

Laura Alford

6/14/2022 06:26:32

Hi,
I have a 6.5 month old whose goes to bed between 7 and 7.15. She has started waking at 4.10 and I then feed her but she wakes for the morning after this between 5.30 and 6am. (She was waking at 7am) so I am wondering should I stop this 4am feed ?
Because she is awake earlier in the mornings, I have being moving her morning nap from 9am to 8am so maybe this is wrong too?

She then has lunchtime nap at about 12.30 to 1pm and sleeps for 1.5 to 2 hours.

Sometimes a 20 minute sleep at 4pm then.

Any help would be so appreciated x

6/14/2022 11:36:53

Hi Laura

In this case I might coach through/keep in the dark room for that 30 mins at 5:30am (cuddling etc) and then do a dramatic waking at 6am, lights on, out of cot, nappy changed, into living area for feed/breakfast and basically start the day. 6am is a very normal time for babies to wake. So I would make peace with this, the opportunity for 10-11 hours at night is what I aim for/research tells us is more normal and not 12.

Next I would push the first nap to as close to 9am as you can but no earlier that 8:30am.

Then the next nap I would aim to have around 2.5-3 hours from when baby woke from first nap. Don't get caught up in this short, long, short nap (it works for some but mostly not past 7/8 months) Check out my FREE nap guide for info on this.

And the 3rd Nap will transition away very soon and this is necessary to keep nighttime sleep going well, too much sleep towards the evening will begin to sabotage bedtime (if you want it around 7/7:30pm as you have it now) so I would keep this super short - 10-15 min at the end of the day and be looking to move to 2 main naps fairly soon. The only way the 1st nap will lengthen out to achieve 2 main naps is with more sleep pressure and an 8am nap will likely only mean your baby has been awake long enough for a short 20-30 mins nap rather then 60-90 mins. I would wake at 1.5 hours to protect the next nap, feeds/solids/activities - max 3/3.5 hours of daytime sleep but equally 2 hours might be enough for some babies.

Finally - if it is only one feed in the night you might want to try moving the early morning feed earlier in the evening prior to you going to bed and do a dream feed, this is not my preferred option, I like babies to wake for a feed naturally but it might work out well for you.

Leanne Billington

6/21/2022 10:24:00

Hi,

I have a 6.5 month old, he goes down to bed in the evening between 7/7:30pm. He usually wakes up for a bottle around midnight, once he's had this he will sleep to around 4-5 and then will appear to be wide awake, I have tried letting him self soothe which doesn't seem to work and cuddling back to sleep, however once I lay him back down in his cot once he is asleep he will tend to wake straight back up.

He usually then has a nap around 8/8:15, then around 11 and will have an afternoon nap around 3pm. These naps generally are around 1 hour long with but will vary.

Do you have any advice on how I can get him to sleep past 4/5 in the morning? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kelly c

9/7/2022 07:02:54

My baby has just turned 10 months old and she has always, the past few months, woken up between 4:40am-5:10am. This means she is ready for her 1st nap of the day around 8-8:30am. I do not feed her straight away so she will have her morning bottle around 6:30.
She will normally sleep around 8-8:30 for around 60 mins and then again around dinner time for around 60 mins, then come 5pm she is showing her tired cues which we try to keep her awake till about 6:30pm when she has her night time bottle/bed. I am back to work now and really struggling with the early morning wake ups.

9/7/2022 10:06:07

Hi Kelly - how is she falling asleep at bedtime? What happens when she wakes at 4:40-5:10am? Whole the day timing is very important it feels like a bigger analysis and overhaul of how she falls asleep and how we respond to her when she wakes up will be helpful. Have a look at the free guides for naps and also other blogs with information on bedtime routines and sleep props.

9/7/2022 10:30:56

Sometimes she falls to sleep on me after her night time bottle (if she’s been kept awake longer to stretch to night time) and sometimes she will have her bottle and she will send herself off to sleep in her cot. When she wakes up early in the morning i go into her room,lay her down and then sit with her but she will just cry unless she is picked up but even then she will not go back to sleep.

9/7/2022 16:39:46

Ok thanks for that, form what you have told me, making changes to how she is falling asleep at bedtime would be a first step, have a look over the blogs on bedtime routines and sleep props, If you want to talk over this in brief detail book a call with me £50 or we could do a full 60 min consult with plan for £95. Let me know if you are interested in this xx

Pram

10/10/2022 00:15:15

Hi Nadia - I have a 11 month old who is of late waking up at around 3:30AM every night. He has a consistent daytime routine
7:00AM - wake and milk feed
8:45AM - breakfast
9:30AM - 10:00AM nap (this is mostly only around 20-25 mins)
11:15AM - lunch
12:30PM - 2:30PM - nap (he sleeps well)
3:00PM - milk feed
4:45PM - dinner
6:20PM - bedtime routine
6:45PM - milk feed
7:00PM - bedtime

He falls asleep on his own at all nap times and bed time. He has been on this routine since he was 5 months old and was sleeping very well but of late he wakes up in the wee hours, cries a lot and refuses to resettle. Sometimes if i hold him he will fall asleep on me for some more time.

No matter how he sleeps at night I keep his first nap at 9:30AM. What else can i do? Should i reduce the length of his morning nap? I am unable to figure out what is causing this waking.

Lauren

10/18/2022 11:48:50

Hi!
I have a 5 month old who has been waking up between 4 and 5 am for the past month. I can usually get him to go back to sleep but it sometimes takes an hour for him to settle back down. He was sleeping through the night at 3 months old and if he did wake up he would put himself back to sleep pretty fast. He was also taking at 45 minute naps independently but now he is barely making it to 30 minutes. He ends up taking two very short naps and then the last nap is longer because I can pick him up at around 20 minutes and hold him so he naps for 1.5 to 2 hours. I know he can nap longer by himself but that maybe happens once a week if I am lucky. He is usually in bed by 7:30 unless his last nap pushes him until 8. I'm not sure what to adjust to get him back to sleeping through the night and taking better naps consistently. We use a white noise machine, blackout curtains and keep his room cool. Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated!

Niki

11/23/2022 06:12:53

Hi Nadia
I read your post in the pit of despair!
My partner and I are having awful arguments because of it.
We have an 11 month old and for the past two months has been getting up at 4/5am
What has been happening; she goes to bed 7.30/8.. sleeps until 4/5, we then spend nearly two hours trying to get her to sleep.( A mixture of boobie, patting,ssshhing) finally goes back down then wakes up at 8. She normally has two naps : then 1st nap 11/11.30 for 1.5 hours up for 3/4 hours and then sometimes will nap till gone 5pm
Yesterday tho she said only had a morning nap slept till 12.30 no afternoon nap and bed by 7pm and up at 4am
I know this is all wrong
But how can I get her to wake up at 6/7?
I really don't know what to do anymore
Please help
Thanks
Niki x

Nathalie

11/25/2022 05:43:25

Hi I have come across your page through Google.

I have an 18 month old baby, she goes to bed at half 6 latest as she's exhausted and then wakes up at 4am, refuses to go back to sleep unless she is lay with me. I've now decided to start her day at 4 as I don't want her to think whenever she cries I will come and get her as the wakings were getting ealrier, but j work and 4am starts are awful for me and my little girl as she only has one nap a day. (I have tired for 2 naps but it doesn't happen unless I let her nap at 5 which is to clock to bed time)

Xx

Whitney

1/22/2023 11:24:00

Hi there!

Mommy to a beautiful 8 month old baby boy who seems to struggle going back to sleep when waking at 4-5 am. Currently on a 2 nap schedule in which the only way we are able to get 1-2 hour naps in is with contact naps with total daytime sleep usually between 2-3 hours per day. First nap is usually between 9-9:30a. Bedtime is usually between 7-7:30p. We have blackout shades and sound machine with temp kept between 68-70 degrees. Primarily breast feeds throughout the day, but receives a formula bottle before bed. Usually falls asleep within 15 minutes of being laid down. Baby is night weaned at this time. What are we doing wrong? Please help!

Wags,

Whitney

Andy

3/2/2023 20:58:12

Hi Nadia.

I have a 2.5 year old who wakes every morning at some point between 4.45 and 5.15. He also gets agitated after his bath and starting to get him ready for bed. His routine at the moment is as follows:

4.45 - 5.15 wake up
6.15 - out of bed and downstairs for a snack
8 - breakfast
11.30 - lunch
12.15 - 12.30 nap for 75 to 90 minutes
15.00 - snack
17.00 - dinner
18.15 - start bedtime routine
18 50 - in bed

Is there anything I could change in the routine to get Louis to sleep longer?

Thank you

3/2/2023 21:02:05

Maybe he is ready to drop nap?

I have 2 older children both dropped naps at different times and different ways. My 3rd is 2 year 4 months she is still napping but not for as long. I was talking to my cousin and she said she stopped her sons nap because he started waking at 5am?? Hop me this helps

power nap machine link

5/1/2023 13:14:01

Your article is quite helpful! I have a lot of questions, and you've already answered many of them. Thank you! We have been hunting for information on BABY WOKE UP AT 4:00 AM EVERY MORNING AND WON'T GO BACK TO SLEEP, and this article is really wonderful and outstanding. Indeed, a wonderful post pertaining to it!

Zoe

6/15/2023 09:48:22

Such a great article, but we have tried everything.

My 14 month old is now sleeping though but waking every day at 4am. we have tried like others all the things but nothing works. Bedtime is at 6.30pm and our previous sleep consultant recommended, 9.30am - 10am nap and then 12.30 pm to 2pm which he does most days.

We were going to try and drop the first nap but we can get him to wake past 4.20am which means he never makes it to 12.30pm.

Please help :)

Sophie James

7/12/2023 05:53:30

Hiya,

I’ve got a 9 month old who’s already come out of his 9 month sleep regression. He goes through stages of sleeping all the way through the night until 5:30am which he started doing at 3 months old, then when the first sleep regression hit his sleep has just been so up and down.

When he naps he naps no longer than 2 hours, the minimum he’ll sleep is 30 minutes. I’ve got his day time sleep down to 2 naps a day, I’m trying to figure out his eating schedule to fit with his bedtime so he’s not going to bed hungry or likely to wake in the middle of the night hungry but he just seems to wake around 3:30 very unsettled, then I’ll settle him again and he’ll wake again around 4/4:30 and won’t go back to sleep as he’s really hungry.

Bedtime is at 5/5:30pm, first nap usually is around 2.5/3 hours after wake up in the morning and then I try to make his second nap 3/4 hours after the morning one so it allows him the 3/4 hours of awake time before bed.

7/12/2023 10:01:30

Hello Sophie - sounds like you are making great progress, 2 naps of no more than 3 hours total is about right. 2-3 hours is ideal in total.

Your bedtime looks a little early at 5/5:30 and hence the early rising, aim for bedtime later to allow 10-11 hours of nighttime or maybe at a push 12 hours of nighttime.

If you look at my free nap guide link above there is a page all about 9 months and a schedule to fit in milk and solids.

Simone

10/10/2023 01:28:25

Hi
I'm really struggling with my 15 month olds sleep and I don't know what else to do

He goes to bed at 7pm fairly easily. I give him a breastfeed and cuddles and place him in his cot awake or asleep. If his still awake he will cry for maybe 2 minutes and then fall asleep.

He normally wakes up around 9pm and 12pm but I return his dummy, lie him down and he falls asleep straight away. I'm happy with this.

He will then wake up between 3.30 and 4am and will not go back to sleep. He is then exhused by 7am. He does manage to stay up untill 11.40am (his nursery's nap time) but only sleeps for 40mins-1hour.

He then struggles to make it till bedtime as he is exhausted.

He is not getting enough sleep but I don't know what else to do. If I change his night time bed time he wakes up every hour and refuses to sleep.

Is it possible he only needs 10hours sleep per day is this something you could help with?

Thank you

Tina

11/17/2023 06:13:45

Hi there!

We’re really struggling here…
My baby girl is 17 months old now. She’s been sleep trained 3 months ago and in the beginning it worked well. She would go to sleep at 8 and wake up at 6 which is good for me as I wake up at 6 30 to go to work and take her to daycare. I am a full time working mom and I really need sleep, which Is why I endured while she screamed for a week, and I am really happy with the sleep training results
. But for 2 months now, she’s been waking up at 4 30 am screaming. In the beginning I would let her scream for a while but it would just get so bad that It was hard to soothe her afterwards, and she never went back to sleep. As I’m desperate and she is still sleepy, I take her to my bed where she moves around and sleeps very lightly until 7 am (no sure she even gets any sleep). If I pick her up and start the day, she is just to nervous and tired and Id trying to lay on the couch. I’m pretty desperate at this point…

The routine atm is :
Dinner 7 pm
Bath 7 30
Lotion pijamas/sleeping bag.
Milk
Story
8 15 I put her in her cot and say nigh night and she falls asleep with no complaining.
Sleeps really well until 4. Wakes up at 4 30 screaming and I take her to my bed where we don't sleep.
Even in the daycare they’ve noticed she’s tired in the morning. Her first nap though isn't until 1 pm. She has only that one nap in the nursery.

What can I change??
The room is dark, its quiet, not cold.
I’ll try anything

Lucy Bingham

12/3/2023 20:28:45

Hi Nadia, I need help!!! 😂

My 10month old was a fantastic 6-6pm sleeper right up until she was poorly at around a month ago! She used to self settle & go off like a dream.

She now wakes without fail between 3.30am & 4.30am for the day!
I have to rock her to sleep for naps & bedtime since she was poorly!
Her naps are great but I just cannot get her to sleep past 4.30am! 😩

Her routine is -

Wake 4.30am (I try giving her a bottle & she is drowsy but won’t go off!)
5.30am I give up & her up
9/9.30am NAP 1-1.5hrs
Lunch 12pm
1/1.15pm NAP 1.-1.5hrs
Bottle 3pm
Dinner 4/4.30pm
Bath 6pm
Bottle 6.30pm
Asleep @ 7pm

Anna

4/2/2024 23:49:24

Hello,

I also have a little 8 month old boy who has always been a terrible night sleeper. At the moment he wakes at 10pm, 1am and fully awake wanting to start the day at 4:30am.

He goes down at 6:30pm with 2naps during the day 8am and 12pm for approx 1.5hrs which we seems to have been pushing forward since he was waking up earlier.

Help! Aiming to start the day at 5:30am and getting him sleeping through the night with 1 to no wake ups

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Baby waking at 4am every morning and won't go back to sleep

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