6 month old waking at 4am every day

[BonneMaman48]

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice/reassurance...

My DS has been a good sleeper since he was born and was basically sleeping through the night from about 8 weeks. As soon as he hit 4 months, however, he has been wide awake at 4am every morning. Things that changed at this point in time were the clocks going forward and we switched from breastfeeding to bottle feeding.

I feel like we’ve tried everything; adjusting bedtime, daytime naps, moved him to his own room, blackout blind, bought a myhummy, introduced solids... but nothing is changing this routine! Feeding him at this time seems to make little difference. I usually just get him up and bring him to bed to keep warm with me for an hour until I can face getting up at 5ish... he usually goes back to sleep on me but if I try to put him back into his cot then he wakes up.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Any ideas on where I can get advice?

TIA!

[butterybollocks]

I have similar with my 7 month old. I am working on the basis that it won't last forever so I try to get him back to sleep however, even if that means I'm awake... At least it might train his brain that 4am is not morning!
So really my only suggestion is to go to bed early!

[whymewhyme]

I have a 2yr old who still does this lol sorry I have no advice!

[Whattheactualfuckmate]

Wake to sleep it really does work

But it’s hideous.

There body clock is now naturally waking them up at that time out of habit. Do you have to set your alarm for 15 mind before they wake up. Record it for a couple of nights first so you get the real time. Then gentle go in a disturb them a tiny bit bit do not wake them. It sends them off in to another sleep cycle.

After three/four days of this they will get past it. Honestly it works.

Totally hideous but you’d be waking at that time any way !

[BonneMaman48]

Thanks for your messages everyone! After I posted my original post, I decided to google sleep specialists in my home city... to discover that they are very expensive! However, I did come across The Sleep Lady on Facebook and her most recent post was about early wakers! She explained that the first nap of the day should be no longer than an hour (my DS had been edging towards three hours in the morning!) and about an hour and a half in the afternoon (DS was getting up to two hours then ) so it suddenly just clicked that maybe he’s sleeping too much during the day! Seems silly in hindsight! So we changed his routine with immediate effect and over the last 4 mornings, we’ve stretched waking time to 5:45, which actually feels like morning compared to the middle of the night!!

Thanks for the sleep to wake recommendation, which I am most definitely going to keep up my sleeve... it does sound hideous but you’re right, I’d be getting up early anyway!

Happy (and less sleep deprived mama!!)

[BonneMaman48]

Wake to sleep even!