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My 5-month daughter is a poor sleeper since birth. She has been short of sleep for months. She slept only 10-13hours for this few weeks. She is super tired. Her bedtime has been moved earlier and earlier from 7pm to 5pm now. She always wakes up at 4:30am and seldom goes back to sleep. I have been picked her up at 5:30-6am for one week, and let her go for a nap at 7-7:30am (on the swing). Now her naps is getting worse. She does not has a schedule yet.  She will stay on the swing for an hour without falling into asleep. Then I did nap training. The first day, she cried through each nap time, only got 10-15 minutes fragmented sleep each nap time. I put her on bed at 4:45pm. She was quiet. I am not sure when she fell into night sleep may be around 5:30pm? She had a 11pm night feeding. She woke up for an hour then went back to sleep. 

What will you do if your child wakes up at 4:30am and cannot go back to sleep? And when will you offer her first nap then?

I tried holding her to sleep, sometimes she could sleep from 6am-7am, sometimes she just stayed awake. Nursing and cosleep not works for us. Maybe she is too tired instead of sleepy. I have been trying to get her out of the black loop for 2 months. But her overtired status keeps getting worse. She crie more and more. 

Any suggestions? Thanks,

Jing

Hi Kimberly:

Thank you for your reply.Sorry for the delay.  It has been a long time and a long way since then.

According to Nicole's schedule samples, I figured out a 3-nap schedule for her at 5-6 month of age . We traveled aboard and was co-sleeping for a few months. But she woke up and cried much more times when cosleeping. I tried ignoring her cry when cosleeping, then she cried 2  hours to sleep(got swelling throat), and cried again after half an hour-sleep. I ended up rocking her to sleep and rocked her every time she woke up during the night. The worst day she woke up after every 15 minutes sleep through the night. I was exhausting in those months. After we were back, I thought sleep training couldn't get that worse.  She was gradually moved from cosleep to her crib. She cried 2 hours and 1hour in the first two days of night time sleep train. I only checked and comforted her once. After that She still cried a little bit sometimes when falling asleep, that is much better. Then nap train in a few weeks when she refused to fall asleep in my arm. The nap train was not that tough. 

For the super early waking, we were doing check and comfort every 15 minutes. Finally, I found out that was interrupting. I ignored her until 6am. Gradually, within two weeks, she would sleep till 6am. Then gradually till 7am. 

My family do not understand why she is not sleeping well during cosleep, neither do I. Be consistent after you made a decision is really important. 

Bests,

Jing