baby sleeping

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my 8 1/2 month old daughter wake up too early in the morning for our tastes. Is there any way to get her to sleep a little longer?

She usually takes her hour long nap twice a day and goes to bed around 8 or so and sleeps until about 6 or 7 AM.

Before she was born, we were used to going to bed around 12:30 and getting up around 10ish.

It certainly can be done.

Very slowly move her bedtime back and keep her up later. That means her naps and everything else will have to slowly shift too.

I'd just push it back at 15 minute increments.

When my 6 month old wakes up too early, I just bring him into bed with us and he feels safe, warm, and secure and goes back to sleep for an hour or two.

Welcome to parenting. Children will follow schedules to a point. Sounds like you're lucky, as it is, as one of mine was up at 5-5:30AM from the time he was born...and nothing we did would change it. His little brother slept in 'till 7:30. We were ecstatic.

You can try and keep her up later...but that may cause her to be cranky, and still get up at her regular time. It's often easiest to adjust your schedule to hers...go to bed earlier and get up earlier.

Remember that by nature, babies and children get up early. It's part of our proper circadian rythm. It's also been proven that you get your best sleep earlier at night (scientific study related to melatonin and sleep cycles in shift workers).

Good luck.

It's true that crankiness will probably ensue, but over time, it will get better. I've managed to get 4 babies closer to our schedule. It's worked with every one of them. PAtience is the key. It will take some time. Once a baby is older(5 months or so), they are capable of being on a more regular schedule that's tuned to your lifestyle. Our 6 month old now sleeps from 9:00 or 10:00-midnight-1:00, then has another bottle and is down until usually 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning. He does wake up a few mornings a week at 5-6 and that's when I bring him into bed with us if he doesn't go back to sleep on his own.