If your baby is waking up groggy, the first thing to do is figure out whether your baby is simply not a morning person or whether she's not getting enough sleep.

Ask yourself: Does your baby wake up on her own or only after other members of the family are up and about? If she's sleeping lightly, as many people do when they're nearing the end of their night's sleep, she may be more easily awakened by a noise than she will be by a similar noise at 10:00 P.M. The TV in the living room that doesn't bother her in the evening may bother her at 6:00 A.M., even if it's on at a lower volume while you listen to the morning news. Having the radio on with its traffic and weather reports as you're getting dressed or sipping coffee could also be the culprit.

Sleeping lightly as she is, the noise more readily wakes her than it would in the evening. In addition, there's probably constant household noise in the background as she's lying in her crib falling asleep, and it continues through the evening. The volume may vary. The type of noise may vary — TV or stereo, voices or the ringing phone, even a siren going by in the street — but there's been some sort of noise. Overnight, though, it's been quiet. Now, in the early morning, suddenly there's noise again, and occurring after a long period of silence, it's more likely to disturb her slumber.

She's even more likely to be awakened if the noise is in the same room. If her crib is in a room with her older sibling, the sound of her sister getting out of bed, perhaps calling to you or opening her dresser drawers or her closet to remove clothes can easily awaken the baby. If her crib is in your room, the sound of your alarm clock, of you and your spouse opening drawers and the closet, perhaps showering in a bathroom that's off the bedroom, perhaps jangling jewelry as you select a pair of earrings, or perhaps talking to each other, no matter how low your voices, can also awaken her easily enough.

Do a little detective work: Does she wake up groggy but wake up only after other family members are up and about? She may not be getting enough sleep. A good test would be to make sure that you don't wake her up so that she is allowed to wake up naturally. Evaluate the mood she is in when she wakes up. If that isn't feasible, try putting her to bed half an hour earlier or even an hour earlier. If she then wakes up a half hour or an hour earlier and still wakes up groggy, you'll know that's not the answer. Try to have a consistent morning routine, and give her a little time to fully wake up in her crib before you go to her. If all of this doesn't work, you're simply dealing with a baby who's not a morning person and is going to be slow to wake up no matter how much sleep she's had. You can come to that same conclusion without adjusting her bedtime if she normally wakes up first in the family yet is groggy nonetheless. Also, how long your baby stays grumpy means something. If she wakes up grumpy, but quickly gets into a good mood, she's probably gotten enough sleep.