Is 5:30pm too early for a 5 month old to be going to sleep at night?

[momma2alauna]

My DD is so fussy at night that I can barely hold her off until 5:30. If I lay her down at that time she will typically sleep for 3-4 hours before waking up to eat, and from there she is up every 1-2 hours. I have found that if I lay her down later than 6pm she will not have that nice 3-4 hours strech, but will wake every 1-2 hours the entire night.

The reason I am asking whether 5:30 is too early, is because she wakes up soo early every morning. This morning it was 4am. Most mornings it is between 4:30 and 5:30, but always veeerrry early.

A little extra info on her: she usually naps 3-4x/day, typically in 40 minute chunks that are somewhat consistent. She starts out the night in her car seat, which I am starting to worry about as well, but that is probably an entire seperate thread. Once I have gone to bed myself and she wakes up to eat, I always bring her into bed with me and DH and she stays with us the remainder of the night.  

Any thoughts, experiences or suggestions would be super appreciated.
Thank you!

[Marissamom]

my DD slept 11-12 hours (not straight, with feedings every few hours) at night. so 5:30 is early if you want her to sleep past 4:30-5:30.  

[P.J.]

Well, if you can deal with the super early wake-up time in the morning then why not? If she otherwise would not be getting that 3-4 hour stretch then it seems like she does need that sleep and should therefore have it. Also, if you are having a hard time even keeping her awake that late and she's really fussy in the late afternoon / early evening, then that is another reason to just put her down that early.

And as for dealing with the 4-5 am wake-ups all I can say is, believe me it will pass. Baby sleep changes so much in the first year, it seems no sleep pattern ever lasts very long. Hang in there!

[~Adorkable~]

how about keeping her stimulated when she first wakes after the first long stretch, so basically turning it into a long nap, then putting her to bed a bit later when she seems ready again?

maybe even taking that "nap" a tad earlier than 5:30? if that works i would then make it so she took it in a brighter than nighttime room, and teach her that it is different than night sleep.

in the end you may get a great early evening nap and get that 3-4 hour stretch again too!

[tzs]

at that age, my dd was taking her 3rd nap around 5. then waking up and going to bed around 9 or 10ish. this was before she went down to 2 naps and pushed her bedtime way up to 7 or 8ish. we SAH so the late bedtime was fine as she would wake for the day around 9. ohhhhh....to go back to those days......sleeping in was so nice....

[Parker'smommy]

5:30 was also our 3rd naptime. I wouldn't get baby ready for bed  ( bath, jammies, books) at that time. Just put babe down for their nap. Then when baby wakes up after that sleeptime, keep baby up for at least an hour. Then do a bedtime routine- bath, jammies, books, song, nurse). Maybe you will then get another bigger stretch and babe will sleep in a bit longer. My baby at 5 months old was going to bed around 9 pm at that age, and sleeping until  9 am. 

[momma2alauna]

Thank you so much for all of the great feedback and advice.

Tonight I am going to try and lay her down for a late nap(as soon as she gets tired, instead of holding her off until 5:30) and get her up for an hour or so when she wakes up. I would love it if she would go back down for another long stretch and then sleep in a little later. Sounds too good to be true!

I will let you know how it goes!

Thanks again!

[osker]

At five months, E went down for the night at 5:30, maybe 5:45. She was a miserable screamy mess if she didn't!  But then, by 5.5 months it was 5:45, maybe 6:00, then 2 weeks later it was 6, maybe 6:15, etc.. every few weeks we would find that she could go just a little bit longer until about 7 months she was right at 7pm, which felt right. Now, at 9 months she goes down between 7:30-8 dpending on lateness of naps and how tired she is.

I think 5:30 can work if you don't mind the early morning.

[YayJennie]

My son went down between 5:30-6pm from about 4 months-10 months old.  He always slept better going down early, and would generally wake around 5:30am.  I tried to move his bedtime later and it had very negative consequences for his sleep, so I just dealt with the early wake up.  Around 10 months old he switched to 2 naps and it actually made his bedtime later.  And now, at 26 months old, he sleeps from 7:30pm-7:00am.  Much better than 5am!  So if I were you, I would just go with the flow and keep the 5:30 bedtime.  He probably won't need to go down that early for much longer :)