Getting DS to sleep 7-7

[LittleMilla]

I feel that I am posting quite a bit on here at the moment, so apologies in advance - I just find MN advice SO much better than RL.

My DS is 7 months old - healthy weight and eating 3 good meals a day. No teething ishoos at the moment and is generally very happy. With a small amount of CC, we've got him sleeping 7-5 (ish) for the past month or so now, which is brilliant. However, how can we get him through to the magic 7am? I BF him at 5 and more often than not he'll go back to sleep. However, the closer to 6am it is, the harder it is.

I really struggle to go back to sleep after the 5am feed and so constantly feel knackered. I know that compared to the early days and others it's fine, but I NEED my sleep. DH and I have spoken about doing CC to get him through. But it goes against my instinct and I always feel very proud that he's done 10 hours! However, I worry that by always feeding him at 5am it's just reinforcing a habit.

We dropped the dreamfeed about a month ago and have tried to offer water. But he wants boob!

Any thoughts?

mine sleeps 7-7 and has done since about 11m (now 25m), except for nights when he's ill; he doesn't sleep much during the day though, an hour after lunch about twice a week! Before 11months he slept 7-5 like yours, the change can be gradual as their tummy gets slightly bigger and he seemed to start sleep later than 5am after his teatime went to 5.30 instead of 5 AND he could eat a nice bowl of semi-solids like pasta or casserole plus fruit and yoghurt and milk, i.e., more than he used to be able to eat at his 'last meal' of the day. also, even these days, the warmer he is in the cot the longer he will sleep, if he's in light PJs and kicks the cover off he will wake at 6am with cold feet, but in a thick fleecy all-in-one he slept till 8 yesterday I feel your pain as the whole first year for us was a 5am start, and no matter what time we had gone to bed it felt waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to early to start the day!

It can be done, mine sleeps from 7 - 6.30am. Not an urban myth! But not necessarily down to anything Dh and I have done/ or not done, either.

A couple of things to try before you give up completely (haven't read the whole thread but hope these ideas are helpful):

• make sure he's not waking up cold? It's the coldest time of the morning
• only offer water at 5am, no stimulation. If there's 3 solid meals plus milk plus snacks during the day he really won't be hungry.
• a decent dose of fresh air between 4-6pm really helps kids of all ages get a good night's sleep.
• any noises that might be waking him up? (e.g. we have an upstairs neighbour who showers at 6.30am that wakes DD up every morning).