Waking at 5am and naps help

[Welshygirl]

Hi I wonder if anyone can offer any advice?

I have a 12 week old baby who is happy and content most of the time but wakes every morning at 5am regardless of whether he has had a feed half an hour or an hour before and won't go back to sleep unless he is lying in my arms/on chest. The last few mornings I have had him lying on my chest for 2 hours so that I can get a little sleep.How can I get him to stay asleep in his crib?

He usually goes to bed at 8/9ish and has a dream feed at 11pm. He then sleeps until 3/4ish (although he has made it to 5am a couple of times). He is very difficult to settle at night and usually takes a couple of hours before settling properly. He will only go to sleep if rocked in arms/crib/rocking chair. He also naps in his rocking chair or in pram when we are out, in the day time. He has only fallen asleep once or twice without some sort of movement to send him off.

I find it very difficult to get him to have a decent nap in the day and he tends to cry because he is tired after an hour and a half to 3/4 of being awake but will not sleep unless rocked. He then usually sleeps for 30/40 mins. Should I be encouraging him to have a longer lunch time nap? How do I get him to fall asleep on his own? Any help gratefully recieved.

[blondissimo]

Try to make sure that the room is as dark as possible in the mornings ie blackout blinds, door shut.
Regarding naps, I had this problem with my ds and only found out at a later date that all babies have a natural cycle of sleep and that means that they wake up a bit after about half an hour. If there are things going on, eg tv, music, talking, people about then they will just wake up, however if they are in silence and in the dark, they will probably stir and then go back to sleep, or you might need to pop in and settle them a bit.
My ds only had half an hour three times a day from 3 months to 6 months until I found this out! He is now 11 months and sleeps for half an hour in the morning and 2 hours after lunch! Bliss!

[bippyhippy]

You probably do need to get him to learn to fall asleep by himself but i don't know how you would do this.

You could send the question into the Sleepytot blog maybe as I know others on this forum who've got good advice that way. And I have in the past.

Fo his age though, sounds like he sleeps quite well.

[Umlellala]

Sounds like he sleeps pretty well mostly! Tbh if he sleeps anywhere post 5am, I would take it

My dd would happily sleep next to me in the morning after feeding if she couldn't settle in her cot. Ds, nope. Once he's awake, that's it . Has been 6-6.15ish - hurrah, but today was 5.05 . Don't have clock in room so thought it was later....

My -older- ds is more likely to sleep past 6 if he goes to bed earlier. Ideal is 6-6.30pm bedtime! Oh yes, and yesterday was 8pm, think it's to do with sleep cycles. Didn't affect dd, we'd put her down at 8.30ish.

And of course a 12 week old wants rocking, they're only 3 months out of your lovely rocking womb! I have always fed ds to sleep - occasionally he wanted rocking til v recently, and it's been lovely. No stress, headache of trying to get him to self-settle like with dd (bar the odd teething day). He can clearly self-settle as he sleeps long stretches anyway. And is now starting to be able to go to sleep without feeding...

On the nap front, yes, I think you are right that they need to sleep past that cycle BUT I could never get dd to do it, we'd be walking round the park, 27 mins and BAM, she'd be awake! So worth a try but some babis take longer to learn/develop (she was sleeping longer by maybe a year? When I started having a nap/rest/read next to her).

Good luck, and congrats on your baby