Early morning wake ups are the worst, specially when you stayed up late binging on Netflix!
If your kids are anything like mine they normally tell me something need to change in the day time by giving me early morning wake ups.
Things to think about first:
Light and noise – Is their bedroom dark enough? Is it getting lighter earlier? Is something or someone accidentally waking them between 5-6 am? Overnight sleep pressure is at its lowest at early in the morning, so even the slightest noise or light can wake them. For example, our newspaper man was waking my son with his motorbike so we had to move his bed to the other side of the room!!
Food – Is baby getting enough calories during the day. Nutrition is so important for our little ones. After the new born phase babies should be having full milk feeds every 2-3 hours throughout the day. The addition of solids after 6 months is important but milk should always be offered first.
Appropriate Awake window / total day time sleep –Sometimes early waking’s can be a sign you need to extend babies awake windows and reduce day time sleep, as sleep needs may have dropped. For example, I started getting early wake ups from my twins when they were around 11 months old. I started capping day time sleep at 2.5 hours and managed to stop the early waking’s. However, all children have different sleep needs so always be guided by you little one.
Temperature – is the room too hot/cold? Even in Singapore, early in the morning is when babies will feel cold the most. As sleep pressure wears off if they feel too cold they are likely going to tell you about it!!! Do you need to increase the aircon temperature before you got to bed or get the heating to come a little earlier?
Hope this helps!