Hello - recently our 6 month old has started waking up early morning after many months of sleeping 7-9 hours through the night. I am curious if this is typically? What would be causing this? Or did we just get lucky with her sleeping so well for so long?
We did recently start feeding her rice cereal (about a week before this started to happen). I thought cereal was supposed to help with sleeping?
Any advice would be great...
It's completely normal. As I was told, you can either let her stay in bed until this phase passes (providing she isn't screaming) or you can make this your new wake-up time. I chose the former and it passed.
~L.
I've found that as they learn or are learning new skills, walking, cruising, crawling, their sleep patterns are disturbed. It will probably return to "normal" in a week or two.
Well, if you figure out the trick, let me know. :-D My son slept really well from birth until about 4 months, then, he started waking up a couple times a night, but, he'd go right back to sleep after a bottle. However, he has always woken up early. I have never had a day where he has slept past 7am. Generally, during the week, that's ok becuase we have to get ready for work/daycare, but, I'd love a little extra rest on the weekend. At about 8 months, it got to the point where he was just waking up because he wanted to be held. I finally had to put him down and walk away and check on him when necessary but let him fuss and cry for a while until he fell asleep on his own. He is back to sleeping through the night, but, he still wakes up between 5am and 6am every morning, no matter how late I try to keep him awake and regardless of if he naps well during the day or not. My ped told me it's just the child and that he will probably generelly be an early riser.
5:30 is the new 8 at our house with our 7 month old these days...you're not alone! We're trying to figure out if it's teething, growing or just a strange spurt. We're putting our foot down tonight about middle of the night feedings...I know he doesn't NEED them. As for the early rising, I just keep telling myself, this too shall pass and try to look at it as an opportunity for one on one time with my little guy. If you find the magic formula for sleeping pass it on! Good Luck!
I found my daughters sleeping pattern changes all the time. Growth spurts, new emerging skills, and teething can all disrupt sleep. It typically passes after a few weeks and then things go back to normal.
Hi A......we have the same thing in our household right now! My 5 month old was sleeping wonderfully until the last maybe 3-4 weeks. She will wake up at least 3 times a night. We cant figure out what it is either, her wake up time is about 630am, but I just go in there and give her her paci and turn her music back on for her and she goes right back to sleep. We also have started giving her cereal at night hoping she would sleep better and it seems to be not helping! Ugh!!! I guess this is just the life for us first timers!
My son started teething at that age and started sleeping terribly. If you think it could be the rice, give it to him a couple of hours before bed so it has time to digest. Good luck
Babies' sleep patterns change all the time. I think you just got lucky. Keep her as close to her regular naptime/bedtime routine as you can. She is probably for one, on a growth spurt and two, at that age babies tend to become more aware of their surroundings and don't want to miss anything. Is she getting some teeth? Learning to scoot, sit or some new skill? No worries!
My son did that (and still does) as he goes through teething. It's rough. Most of the time I could just go in his room, rub his belly, and he would fall back asleep easily. Just remember to give your child some time to put themselves back to sleep. Our ped recommended Motrin 1 hour before bed to help sleep.
Sounds like the 6 month growth spurt. Try keeping the room dark when she wakes up; no playing, no laughing, no talking. If she's hungry, feed her and then keep things very quiet. My 9 month old did this at about the same age and she eventually learned to sleep in past 5:30 when we started doing that.
Also: solid food doesn't automatically mean your baby will sleep better at night. In fact, she could be waking up because she has gas from the cereal!
Wonder if she's got a tooth coming in? It will pass. They never stay like that forver.
I second the teething idea. I always knew that my girls were teething because they would do exactly that... wake up early or in the middle of the night in tears. However, this would happen weeks and even months before the tooth actually broke through the surface (so in the beginning, I had no clue!) Once the tooth broke through, sleeping patterns immediately went back to the status quo. Just recently my 3-year old started this yet again... I'm sure that it's her upper 2-yr-old molar that has yet to come in! :)
My daughter's sleep went downhill around 6 months. She also began seriously teething around that age. I had to completely revamp the our sleep routine at that age, then again at 1 year and 18 months. Good luck!! Infant and toddler sleep is a tricky thing.
