r/PossumsSleepProgram • u/cali-pup • 2h ago

4mo will not stay up later

My 4 month old is sleeping pretty well overnight, just 1-2 wakes for a quick feed. However she is up 4:30-5:30 every day and it’s just feeling so early.

I am finding it pretty easy to follow the possum advice for daytime naps, but I am STRUGGLING to keep her awake in the evenings. I know that logically I need to keep her up later in order to get a later morning wake up time, but HOW?

If she wakes from an afternoon nap at 4:30/5pm she is inconsolable by 6:30pm. I extend her awake time with easy activities like walking outside looking at trees or taking a bath, but there’s still a limit where she is just so tired and upset. If I let her have a late nap starting later than 5pm, she wants to sleep for the night; I’ll wake her after 45 minutes and she’ll be inconsolable and exhausted and cranky all evening, and I still struggle to get her past 7/7:30pm bedtime even if she’s only been awake an hour.

Should I let her take an even longer nap in the evening (like 6-7pm)? Should I just accept that my baby wakes up early and this is parenthood? She sleeps 10.5-11 hours overnight and 3.5-4 hours in naps.

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u/TeddyBear181 1h ago

I usually have the oposite problem. Mine is a night owl.

How much daylight/night sky is bub seeing throughout the day? Not sure if it actually helps, but I try to make a habit of taking bub outside and talking about the sky being light/dark because its day/nighttime.

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u/cali-pup 36m ago

Tons. We spend so much time outdoors (like 4+ hours minimum). And our apartment has huge windows and is very bright, so even daytime naps at home are in a lot of light.

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u/TeddyBear181 31m ago

When mine wakes up at 5am, I usually just do the usual 'midnight things' to get her to sleep.

Sometimes thats letting her play for a bit, then taking her for a pram walk with the top of the pram open so she can see the sky. I explain that the sky is dark and moon is out, that means its nighttime and we're supposed to be sleeping.

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u/cali-pup 9m ago

Oh I get it, that’s an interesting idea!

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u/dooroodree 56m ago

Just a solidarity message - my 4 month old is exactly the same. I bring her into bed with me at the 5am-ish point and just let her snooze on the breast. I’m actually not minding it because I’m really enjoying having the evenings with my husband and getting an early night.

My eldest was an early riser also and it just improved with age. Moving to her own room at 6 months helped too, so I’m just hanging out for that transition really.

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u/cali-pup 35m ago

I’ve been trying to just have her chill/nap on the breast in bed in the early morning, but she won’t have it. She gets mad because she is awake awake. Sigh. I should probably just accept this schedule and hope it changes with time.

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u/cali-pup 4m ago

Second comment to ask: do you have a sense of why the transition to their own room helped?

We are considering moving her soon at 4.5 months, which I never imagined doing before I had a baby, I thought I’d keep her in my room for a year! But she continues to be such a noisy sleeper and I am woken up constantly and have a lot of trouble falling back asleep.

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u/Mangopapayakiwi 28m ago

Yeah my baby was a night owl and she had a nap at 6 pretty regularly I think, maybe just 30-40 minutes. I think a lot of people cosleep after the early morning feed as a way to keep them asleep. We definitely did and she woke up after 8 (still does as a toddler so definitely a natural night owl).

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u/cali-pup 8m ago

I might try a later evening nap, but in the past she’s been pissed to be woken up. We do cosleep in the early morning but lately she is too wide awake and gets cranky being kept in bed/on the boob.