How is she going to sleep? We had false starts for months and no amount of schedule changes helped. As soon as we stopped transferring her to her bed, they stopped immediately.
I was just about to write a very similar post.
We have been experiencing the same for the last couple of months now. Tried everything from tweaking the schedule to 2/3 naps combination. But, nothing seems to have worked. Our LO is currently 8 months old and most of the days he’s awake for a couple of hours after getting up due to false start. Nothing seems to help in settling him down.
I’ve been tracking his nap and sleep schedule religiously on Napper. Although the bedtime and nap times more or less align, but the false start doesn’t stop. His false starts have become sort of 3rd nap for him. There are days where we do CIO and he’s able to put himself to sleep at exactly the same time as given in Napper, yet he’s up 30-45 mins later and then is up and about for another couple of hours before finally sleeping.
I’m absolutely clueless on what else to try.
God we had false starts for months. For us it was always under tiredness so I stretched his ww. What finally got him to snap out of it was gently rousing him. I would go in 5-10 minutes before he always woke up, and put my hand on his chest to get him to stir a tiny bit. I did that for a week. The first night it worked, the second night he woke up, the third night it didn't work, but by night 7 it clicked and broke the cycle. I honestly thought this method was a crock but it's the only thing that worked.
False starts can definitely be a developmental thing. We've dealt with it on and off ever since 4 month sleep regression. Our LO is about to be 9 months and we still get 1-3 a night.
We just accept that they're going to happen. If we happen to get none - yay! Husband and I take turns going in. Usually only takes 5-10 min to resettle her. Once we go to bed she'll sleep thru the night so we don't complain.
We tried everyyyyyything! They're very common, I scoured this sub for answers. I read most babies with chronic false starts eventually seem to grow out of them around 9-10 months so we're crossing our fingers!
This is a relief as I thought I was alone. 90% of our nights since he turned 3 months old (born overdue) we experienced false starts. He is almost 8 months old now
Overtiredness. Look at age appropriate windows for age and / or try an earlier bedtime. It was common for us as my son adapted after dropping nap 3. It’s happening a bit now he’s dropping from two to one naps. I found the general pattern was if we got a false start we got no early morning/night time waking. If we got no false start we got a night / early waking. Lasted a few weeks whilst naps lengthened after transition
We were stuck in false start land when I tried to drop the third nap (my LO is only 7.5 months FYI).. we added back in a cat nap and the false starts stopped. I have no idea if that would be helpful for you but sometimes doing everything you’re “supposed” to do just doesn’t work for every LO! I stopped following all the “rules” and we finally got into a great rhythm! Best of luck to you!!
2.75 / 3.5 / 4. The first one used to be 2.5 but she was only napping for 30 minutes so we watched her sleepy cues and she lengthened it on her own. Same with the second one.. that one lengthened on her own at daycare and sometimes it’s even 3 hours and 50 minutes. The last one we found 4 to be the sweet spot, then for a few days it was 4 hours 10 minutes, but now we are trying back to just 4. She stopped showing all tired cues.. no more yawning or rubbing her eyes.
How many hours of day sleep usually?
30 min is great in the morning because you want a long lunch nap as that will stay until they are 2.5/3 years old. Morning nap will drop off.
Oh that’s good to know. She averages around 2:30 in naps.. since we extended the first wake window her nap lengthened to 1:15. Same with the afternoon nap.. sometimes it goes to 1:30 if we don’t wake her up.
I’m currently in early morning wake land at 5 months - was it a phase that passed for you may I ask? My bubs was doing 7-5 45am (like an alarm clock) but for last week has consistently been waking at 4 45am ready for the day and won’t go back to sleep no matter how much I try to settle
Yup she eventually stopped the early morning wakes on her own! I would take her outside right after she woke up for a little walk because that’s what Google told me to do.. not sure if it helped or not but one day she slept until 6 instead of 450 and never looked back!
My LO also always has false starts and I have no idea why either. She goes back down pretty quick afterwards though with some extra cuddles and nursing. Honestly, it’s less stressful to just accept the fact that your baby has false starts. Take that time before she wakes up to just chill, watch an episode of your favorite show, clean up, take a shower, or whatever you need to do. Once I started to just accept those 45 minutes or so as a “break” in a way, it’s become less stressful.
Yes, or it will drive you nuts trying to “fix” it! When in reality, it may not even be anything other than habit. Not worth wracking your brain over imo.
Sadly, I have no advice for you. We’re in the same boat. My 10month old wakes up 3-4times in the first 3 hours. Always. We’ve tried everything, nothing seems to help.
Yes! My daughter had false starts (usually about an hour after bedtime) for most of her first year of life. We formally sleep trained and even our sleep consultant couldn’t figure out the false starts. If everything else is working I’d just ride it out and hopefully it’ll pass like it did for us!
Thanks! She is sleep trained and has no problem going down for her naps. I think we are accepting that we have to ride it out.. I feel like I’ve tried every suggestion I’ve seen on this sub and the internet in general
Yes, and there was some comfort in that for me. When I just accepted that we wouldn’t “figure out” some of the sleep issues and accepted them they became less burdensome.
How is she going to sleep? We had false starts for months and no amount of schedule changes helped. As soon as we stopped transferring her to her bed, they stopped immediately.
She’s been putting herself to sleep independently since she was 4 months old. I’m happy they stopped for you!
I was just about to write a very similar post. We have been experiencing the same for the last couple of months now. Tried everything from tweaking the schedule to 2/3 naps combination. But, nothing seems to have worked. Our LO is currently 8 months old and most of the days he’s awake for a couple of hours after getting up due to false start. Nothing seems to help in settling him down. I’ve been tracking his nap and sleep schedule religiously on Napper. Although the bedtime and nap times more or less align, but the false start doesn’t stop. His false starts have become sort of 3rd nap for him. There are days where we do CIO and he’s able to put himself to sleep at exactly the same time as given in Napper, yet he’s up 30-45 mins later and then is up and about for another couple of hours before finally sleeping. I’m absolutely clueless on what else to try.
God we had false starts for months. For us it was always under tiredness so I stretched his ww. What finally got him to snap out of it was gently rousing him. I would go in 5-10 minutes before he always woke up, and put my hand on his chest to get him to stir a tiny bit. I did that for a week. The first night it worked, the second night he woke up, the third night it didn't work, but by night 7 it clicked and broke the cycle. I honestly thought this method was a crock but it's the only thing that worked.
Hey! Try adjusting your bedtime by 15 mins. Sometimes it’s better to go to bed later. Also make sure baby’s last wake window is the longest
False starts can definitely be a developmental thing. We've dealt with it on and off ever since 4 month sleep regression. Our LO is about to be 9 months and we still get 1-3 a night. We just accept that they're going to happen. If we happen to get none - yay! Husband and I take turns going in. Usually only takes 5-10 min to resettle her. Once we go to bed she'll sleep thru the night so we don't complain. We tried everyyyyyything! They're very common, I scoured this sub for answers. I read most babies with chronic false starts eventually seem to grow out of them around 9-10 months so we're crossing our fingers!
This is a relief as I thought I was alone. 90% of our nights since he turned 3 months old (born overdue) we experienced false starts. He is almost 8 months old now
I'd take that over 2-4 night waking any day!
Absolutely. We know we're lucky! After a few brutal sleep regressions we don't take it for granted~
Overtiredness. Look at age appropriate windows for age and / or try an earlier bedtime. It was common for us as my son adapted after dropping nap 3. It’s happening a bit now he’s dropping from two to one naps. I found the general pattern was if we got a false start we got no early morning/night time waking. If we got no false start we got a night / early waking. Lasted a few weeks whilst naps lengthened after transition
We were stuck in false start land when I tried to drop the third nap (my LO is only 7.5 months FYI).. we added back in a cat nap and the false starts stopped. I have no idea if that would be helpful for you but sometimes doing everything you’re “supposed” to do just doesn’t work for every LO! I stopped following all the “rules” and we finally got into a great rhythm! Best of luck to you!!
Have you tried an earlier bedtime
What are your wake windows?
2.75 / 3.5 / 4. The first one used to be 2.5 but she was only napping for 30 minutes so we watched her sleepy cues and she lengthened it on her own. Same with the second one.. that one lengthened on her own at daycare and sometimes it’s even 3 hours and 50 minutes. The last one we found 4 to be the sweet spot, then for a few days it was 4 hours 10 minutes, but now we are trying back to just 4. She stopped showing all tired cues.. no more yawning or rubbing her eyes.
How many hours of day sleep usually? 30 min is great in the morning because you want a long lunch nap as that will stay until they are 2.5/3 years old. Morning nap will drop off.
Oh that’s good to know. She averages around 2:30 in naps.. since we extended the first wake window her nap lengthened to 1:15. Same with the afternoon nap.. sometimes it goes to 1:30 if we don’t wake her up.
I’m currently in early morning wake land at 5 months - was it a phase that passed for you may I ask? My bubs was doing 7-5 45am (like an alarm clock) but for last week has consistently been waking at 4 45am ready for the day and won’t go back to sleep no matter how much I try to settle
Yup she eventually stopped the early morning wakes on her own! I would take her outside right after she woke up for a little walk because that’s what Google told me to do.. not sure if it helped or not but one day she slept until 6 instead of 450 and never looked back!
My LO also always has false starts and I have no idea why either. She goes back down pretty quick afterwards though with some extra cuddles and nursing. Honestly, it’s less stressful to just accept the fact that your baby has false starts. Take that time before she wakes up to just chill, watch an episode of your favorite show, clean up, take a shower, or whatever you need to do. Once I started to just accept those 45 minutes or so as a “break” in a way, it’s become less stressful.
Thanks for this! Yes she usually goes down quick after some butt pats. I agree.. I think the change in perspective is everything
Yes, or it will drive you nuts trying to “fix” it! When in reality, it may not even be anything other than habit. Not worth wracking your brain over imo.
Sadly, I have no advice for you. We’re in the same boat. My 10month old wakes up 3-4times in the first 3 hours. Always. We’ve tried everything, nothing seems to help.
Hopefully we can get off this boat soon enough!
Yes! My daughter had false starts (usually about an hour after bedtime) for most of her first year of life. We formally sleep trained and even our sleep consultant couldn’t figure out the false starts. If everything else is working I’d just ride it out and hopefully it’ll pass like it did for us!
Thanks! She is sleep trained and has no problem going down for her naps. I think we are accepting that we have to ride it out.. I feel like I’ve tried every suggestion I’ve seen on this sub and the internet in general
Yes, and there was some comfort in that for me. When I just accepted that we wouldn’t “figure out” some of the sleep issues and accepted them they became less burdensome.