Any ideas on how to stop the 5am wake up call?

[Katy44]

My DS who is 11 weeks tends to fall asleep at 9pm, then wake at 2, then at 5 (all rough times). He's fantastic at going to sleep, at 9 and 2 we just need to wait until he looks a bit sleepy, put him in his cot, check on him 5 minutes later and he's either asleep or looking extremely sleepy. At the 5am feed it's completely different. Once he's finished feeding he's wide awake and wants to start the day, or even if he does look sleepy, it's hard to settle him and then he wakes every 5 minutes or so after this and wants settling back to sleep.
I know he's still really young, and I don't have a problem with the number of times he wakes, just the fact that he doesn't go back to sleep after the morning one. Does anyone have any ideas, or do I just resign myself to starting my day around 5am (today it was 4.45). Just one more hour in bed would be wonderful! I try not to change his nappy, and I feed him in his own room, calm and fairly dark, don't talk to him too much, but he's just awake and playful!

[deaconblue]

Ds is 15 months next week and we still regularly have the 5am start. Sorry to depress you, good job they are adorable, hey? When he was tiny I used to have to get up with him, play with him for almost exactly an hour and then he would happily go back to sleep for another 2. I got really good at instantly falling back to sleep.

[mckenzie]

I wonder why he goes from 9-2 (5 hours) but only from 2-5 (just 3 hours)? Does he feed for less time at 2am?

[Bubbaloo]

Katy,
My ds2 is 12 weeks old and until recently he'd do exactly the same.His last bottle is usually between 10-11pm,then he's stirring at 2am(ish) for his dummy,up at 4am for another bottle,then wide awake and not very quiet with it either!
I was taking him downstairs and was then basically up for the day(didn't want to keep him upstairs incase he woke ds1)and completely exhausted by 9am.
Last night we decided to put him in his own room for the first time and it was so much better.He had a bottle at 10pm,woke at 4.30am for another bottle and was asleep again by 4.50am and slept through til 7am.
With us I think the answer is due to the fact that we don't close the curtains in our room and at 4am it's starting to get light.Ds2's room is pitch black with his blackout curtains,so I'm guessing that they helped.Lets hope I haven't jinxed things and that he sleeps well tonight too.

[Katy44]

Thanks everyone
Well just to make a liar out of me he woke at 5.45 for his feed, which would be OK in itself, but then went back to sleep afterwards, not easily, but he did! DH went to say bye to him as he left for work at 8am and found him in his cot, wide awake and entertaining himself
shoppingbags, if he carries on I might have to do something like that but TBH I'm too tired (sorry to sound pathetic!). The irony is I could happily play with him at 2am but at 5 I'm exhausted.
mckenzie, I know, it's odd isn't it. He usually goes between 2 and 3 hours during the day, so I assume that the first part of the night he's just so tired he can do without for a bit longer. I do try to feed him just before bed (even if his last feed was just half an hour earlier) so he's full.
Bubbaloo, yes, the only thing I could do was take him downstairs, put him in his moses basket and sleep on the sofa (he's need soothing / dummy etc but I could do that half asleep as he was right beside me). He's a bit too big for his basket though so I'm desperate to get this sorted out before it's not an option.
We've got blackout blinds in his room as well, do you shut your DS's door? Although the blinds are really good, we've found that a lot of light filters in from outside the room, so he might still be waking as it gets light
Maybe the answer is just to persevere with it, and play with him when he doesn't look at all sleepy. uurgh

[mistlethrush]

Sorry to disappoint you, but we still often have 5am starts with ds (2.3). When its bad its 4am starts, although I can normally get him back to sleep at that stage if I'm lucky. This morning we had sucess in that he woke at 5 (needed potty) and I managed to get him back to sleep for another hour - he has blackout blinds in his window and always has the door shut. I can now explain that it is still night time and he should be asleep until the alarm clock goes off, but this doesn't always work - sometimes I end up with him in bed with us and he wriggles and fidgets for an hour until the alarm goes off.

Hang in there, try to sleep when he does in the day (don't try to do all the other jobs in the house - sleep is more important for you at the moment!

Good luck

[Katy44]

Oh no!
I'm hoping that it is the light outside that keeps him awake, so hopefully when it starts to get a bit darker he'll sleep longer (or go back to sleep at least)
4am - poor you!
I would love to sleep when he sleeps, unfortunately he doesn't tend to sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time during the day. Plus I'm finishing off an assignment and doing some stuff for work, that should all be over fairly soon hopefully

[bumperlicious]

Katy, can you put him in bed with you at 5am? we have a similar pattern with DD. fortunately dh sometimes is up a 6 so when she has finished feeding I put her next to me. she is a bit unsettled but I can sooth her half asleep.

do you have a partner who can alternate with you in the early starts?

[Katy44]

That sounds like a good idea, would get round the basket problem
DH getting up wouldn't really help as I'm bf, apart from to give me company in my misery