Baby waking up too early is one of the main reasons parents are looking for sleep training methods. It happens such a lot because of the baby’s lack of ability to self-soothe. This will change when you teach your baby to fall asleep alone! But there are also some other tips you can try out.

Isn’t the baby hungry?

Especially if you’ve recently given up night feedings – your baby is probably just hungry. The key is to consider too-early waking as night waking and treat baby the same you treat it at night. Don’t give the impression it is daytime yet and put the baby back to sleep after feeding. Darkening curtains may be very helpful here.

Isn’t the baby just rested enough?

You need to consider the possibility that you… may expect too much. While you can expect six months old baby to sleep 11-12 hours, for newborn 8 hours is enough. If of course also depends on the amount of daytime sleeping – how many naps do you have per day? How long does one nap last? If you know your baby should sleep longer and you want to get up later - the answer may schedule adjustment. Just move the bedtime later and see what happens.

Isn’t your baby unable to self-soothe?

There is a huge possibility that your baby would like to sleep longer but is responding to every distraction. When something happens – sound, light or personal discomfort of any sort – baby simply cannot go back to sleep. If so, you need to consider sleep training. After the training, the baby knows how to self-soothe. It is essential while falling asleep in the evening, but it develops the skill to fall back asleep after delicate distractions as well. Once taught – it works in every occasion. Naptime too!

If you think of sleep training, I highly recommend Hold With Love method. It is very gentle but proven to work method, teaching your baby to fall asleep alone. There is no Cry It Out approach, so you don’t need to feel any guilt. All steps are compiled in a nutshell – I know young moms don’t have much time to read since I’ve been there not so long ago. I wish you all many slept-through nights!

Susan Urban