Waking at 5am

[Lilirose2008]

My LO is 7.5 months and always wakes at 5am even if he's had a bad night. He'll sometimes play for 30 mins before he needs me. At the moment I'm giving him a feed and if I'm lucky he'll go back down for 30mins to an hour. I watched a video that said the earlier their first nap of the day was the earlier they rise the following day, but it didn't explain why. I was wondering if anyone knew.
He currently naps around 9/9:30 for 1 1/2 hours then between 1:30/2 for anything from 30 mins to 1 1/2. So he has around 2-3 hours sleep during the day. Maybe this is to much?
Bath time begins at 6 and he's in bed by 6:45. Thanks

[jimijack]

Ime it's a phase, very annoying but a phase.
Both mine did this, my 2 year old is doing it again now after settling down.
Up between 4/5 every morning for the day, it's been a long 3 months as I have to go to work so I am shattered.

I'm just waiting it out.

Do you have blackout blinds?

[Lilirose2008]

Yes, we have blinds, black out curtains and recently I put up some fabric to make it even darker as it was still quite light. Our house is near lots of trees so we do get the birds singing but unsure if this bothers kids as much as it does me :(.
I'll hang in there. :)

[RobotHamster]

I would try and push the afternoon nap slightly later if you can. It sounds like he's getting a good amount of sleep in the day, I wouldn't try and reduce it at this age.

I read somewhere recently that there should ideally be about 4 hours in between the end of the last nap, and bedtime. We've pushed the afternoon nap back, so dd sleeps about 1-3pm now, and then in bed just after 7pm. It does seem to be working... We have had a run of a few 5am starts, but it's the middle of June, so it's to be expected really.

[FATEdestiny]

I have also ready people saying about pushing morning naps later having an affect on morning wakings. I'll bump the thread to see if any of these posters see the thread.

Personally I don't believe that making morning naps later affects morning wake ups. Morning nap gets later naturally as the baby gets older (and transitions from two to one nap) and this may happen co-currently with morning wake up getting later. But I believe these are two things happening at the same time, rather than one being the cause of the other IYSWIM.

Between 6 and 12 months has been the age that most of my children have established sleeping though consistently without waking up. This process of learning to sleep through usually begins with an early wake up because baby can perhaps go 9 or 10 hours from bedtime and need a re-settle, but is not yet at the 11-12 hours per night it will eventually settle at.

This nearly but not yet sleeping though phase is what I would consider the cause of early mornings.

As we approach 12 months old (or thereabouts), in my experience, baby naturally starts to be difficult to settle at the usual 9.00/9.30am nap time an starts staying up later in the morning. Eventually the morning nap gets so late that it merges with the afternoon nap to become a single lunchtime nap.

This transition of two naps to one is the cause of morning nap getting later IMO.

Moving to 1 nap happens at a similar time to fully establishing 12 hour nights, but is not actually a cause and effect thing as is suggested by those who recommend deliberately making morning nap later as a solution to early wakings. IMO.

[ToonLass]

I read something recently along the lines of 'wake to sleep'.

The idea is to wake DC and hour before they normally wake up, so say 4am, just enough so that they stir and go back over. It is supposed to put them back into a new sleep cycle so they then sleep a bit longer.

It would unfortunately mean setting the alarm for 4am for a few days but I suppose worth it if it works!

[PenguinsandtheTantrumofDoom]

Does going to bed later affect things?

Some babies seem to be hardwired to waking time. Others, if you shifted bedtime to 7.30, or even 8, would sleep correspondingly later in the morning

[RobotHamster]

Try wake to sleep at your peril, especially at this time of year when the sun is up and the birds are singing..