Is it normal..... Baby wakes between 5-7am every night

[Confusedmum23]

Hi, this is freaking me out and worrying me hell of a lot. My DS who is now 6 months 2 weeks old seems to wake between 5-7am, sometimes even earlier, and he would be trying to sit up trying to roll over looking for something to chew/suck on (been already leaving a few muslin cloth around in the cot as comforters). Just awake. Letting out little cries from time to time which per sleeping training means I would try not to tend to him and to let him be. I stay awake watching the baby video monitor hoping he falls asleep and I lose sleep too. I am worried that as I have read babies his age needs 14 hours sleep a day - and as he does not nap too well during the day and as I am still giving him the dream feed at 11pm, he is sleeping much less than required? I out him down for bedtime at 7pm. Sometimes he would fall back to sleep finally but at close to 7am when we have got to wake him.... Help anyone out who experienced the same and know what to do???? Thanks xxxx

Hello

Sounds like you are having a time :( out of interest how much does he take at the dream feed? Could it be worth dropping it and seeing what happens so you can have a sleep.

So say he goes to bed 1/2 6/7ish and then Wakes around 3am for a feed... You could get a decent sleep in and then he may then fall asleep until 7?
Just a thought..

Sounds perfectly normal to me - as they get older they tend to sleep in longer, Well, mine does (mostly - except today when he was awake at 6.45) and he's now 20 mo. At that age i remember DS going through a phase of early morning waking. Tbh i'd feed him and put him back in his cot - he'd then either go back to sleep or lie there cooing happily while i got a bit more shut eye. Maybe he's not quite ready to sleep 12 hour nights? Have you weaned him yet? If in early stages, maybe he's ready for more food during the day. Once DS was properly established on 3 good meals a day (plus milk) he began sleeping 7-7. That was when he was 7.5 months. Now he's (usually) a 7.30/8pm-7.30/8am little man. But he loves his sleep. Yours might not. Sorry!

My 20 month old wakes between 4am and 6am most days. 5am would be a good day at the moment to be honest. We just give him some milk and put him back in his cot and he then usually goes back to sleep to 6.30-7am. I tried to fight it and let him cry but then it makes it worse. This way I usually manage to get a little bit more of a sleep in. I am also in bed by 8.45pm with lights out by 9.15pm because I work full-time. I would drop the dream feed and see if he makes it through until 5am anyway and that way you can get more sleep. I never did the dream feed with my son.

I agree with the others, this is normal.

Some people (including babies) are early wakers, especially in summer when it starts getting light extremely early (even despite blackout blinds!). One of mine woke at 5-6am until he was about 5 years old. Now he wakes between 7 and 8am usually. It is several years since he has been able to entertain himself on waking, but I wouldn't have expected him to do this as a baby or toddler.

Putting the baby to bed earlier might possibly help. The only other options really are to try to get an early night yourself and persuade your DH/DP to help in the mornings at least some days. You will get used to it .

Hi all,
Thank you so much for your kind suggestions and for sharing your experiences.
Dropping dream feed - as mentioned he is not taking enough milk during the day, we struggle to get to min. 500ml/20oz thus that feed is important. It's a long story why he wouldn't drink much milk (reflux / food protein allergies / prescription formula which tastes vile). So during daytime if we are lucky we would get 4oz first thing in the morning, 5oz in the afternoon and 4oz at bedtime. You see, the dream feed is important not only cos we might get another 4oz in but also in terms of timing. We tried to drop it before - he would wake around 2-ish, drink about 4oz and then refuse milk in the morning!!!! You see my dilemma??
Solids - we weaned him at 18 weeks old due to his reflux per paediatrician's advice. Maybe I am just useless as a mother but he doesn't seem to eat enough? Though as mentioned earlier I was also told that I might be overexpecting the amounts he should eat, or even worse overfeeding him thus he is drinking so little milk??!!
Thus ceeveebee and matana I was told to go easy and relax on the solids as at this age it is the milk that is most important. As mentioned I would feed him till he turns his head away / shuts his mouth / swipes the spoon away / cries and screams!!! Yes I do use Ella's Kitchen quite a bit - especially on nursery days as they don't provide the 5pm dinner (but honestly think Ella's Kitchen is healthier than their kitchen food anyway). Also Ella's Kitchen seems to be more acceptable to the tastebuds of my little fussy eater here! My homecooked food isn't very popular with him, maybe I am a bad cook. But considering he cannot have diary, citrus fruits, eggs, I feel somewhat limited to what I could use to cook for him to make things tasty enough for him.
Anyway I mentioned the pouches to get a better feel of the portion sizes. What do you all out there reckon is enough per meal for his age? Each pouch is around 130g. If you use Jar, how much is there in a Jar?
ceeveebee Avocados he loves, but I realise that whenever he has any at a meal, indeed it fills him up for longer but he would go on to refuse milk...
What am I doing wrong???

Have you thought about going up a teat size? Maybe it's too much hard work getting his milk..?
If that were the case you would get more milk in him in the day and be able to drop DF.
Also remember the 20oz includes milk used in cooking, cereals etc

And you are absolutely not a useless mother. You sound like a very caring mother

Hi Laracroft2001, thanks for your message. We are using Teat Size 3 (I think the biggest) for Tommee Tippee bottles. Actually for his reflux we'd need to be careful re the flow of the milk - when we moved him from size 2 to 3 before he was ready, we ended up having episodes of projectile vomitting or simply refusal to drink! As mentioned in my first post of yesterday, he is usually too tired to eat his breakfast which is the only meal with cereal which uses the milk! I used to be so paranoid re his intake of nutrients at the beginning of weaning that i put his formula into almost everything. As mentioned he hates his formula as it tastes and even smells vile, and so he struggled to eat the solids too. Then I said to myself, poor baby, weaning should be an enjoyable stage of his little life and I shouldn't ruin it for him by making everything taste the same and as horrible. So I stopped using the formula in his foods.
And thanks for your kind words. You know, sometimes I feel that as his mother I should care, so no credit to me for caring. But I have no excuse to be this useless and clueless when many of you out there seem to be coping brilliantly....

As for DH, he does try but he does worse in getting our DS to drink, maybe cos DS is just more familiar with me as I spent almost 7 months of maternity leave with him?? So whenever my DH tried in the past to feed him, sadly most of the time DS would end up drinking even less and so I'd end up waking up more times in the middle of night to deal with him.....

Wish me luck tonight - after a tough day at work, went to pick DS up from the nursery, they said he slept only 30 mins at lunchtime and was hysterical and didn't eat 1/4 of his dinner. And when I tried to give him his bedtime milk he drank only 3oz...!!!???? Tonight will be "fun"....

Of course credit to you for caring!! And many people will SEEM to be coping fantastically but I can bet you anything that they have all had at least one moment/week/month of tearing their hair out/crying/begging child to eat I know I have!!!

He is still a tiny baby and like many other posters said 5am is very normal and he is still getting lots of sleep. I also followed gina ford but tried to use it more as a guide for naps/feed times, not as an exact schedule he should follow.

You are doing great.. And like some one else said when he is 13 you'll be dragging him out of bed!!

Have you read What mothers do by Naomi Stadlen? It's the pnly parenting book that actually made me feel better about how things were going when times were tough.

You really do sound like a caring mum .

I hope you have an OK night and that he's not coming down with something.

Thanks both! That book sounds interesting - you know, I am desperate to read a book, I used to all the time before DS came into my life. Now I haven't even got time to read weaning books. Dream feed coming up in a bit.... Argh.

My baby wakes about 6am and gurgles in the dark for about half an hour. She has done this since she was born. She's eleven months now. We haven't stressed about it.

I don't have any practical advice, but sympathy for your early waking problem - my 7 mo DD sleeps from 7 to around 5am as well. It's a pita, but since she was born I've just taken her lead and arranged myself around her! You can see who wears the trousers in this house! I'll pass the matchsticks tomorrow!

Definitely get a copy of the Naomi Standen book, it has really helped me get through pnd...

Thanks - ordered the book from Amazon! I did and maybe still do have pnd....

You sound like a really caring mum.

In the nicest possible way, I think you are just worrying too much. Your son's sleep and nutritional needs will wax and wane, so try to ignore the pressure re: sleeping 7pm-7am, or having to get him to drink a certain amount of oz every single day. If his weight gain is satisfactory then perhaps he doesn't need it.

He is growing up so fast and won't be this little for long at all. Just try to enjoy it.

Oh I just wrote you a huge reply and MN failed :(
Will re-post tomorrow when I am not falling asleep.

Hey all, been up since 3-ish - he started crying at 5.15am so I tended to him since then. Fed him some milk, though he threw up a bit due to his reflux, and now he is still wide awake! I am shattered!

Hello :)

DD (6 months) is currently fast asleep, having had dream feed, fed at 1.15 and 5 am. This is normal for her, I have just accepted this for what she is! I do try and leave her for a bit in case she goes back to sleep, but I find the longer I wait before feeding her, the longer she takes to go back to sleep iyswim?

Regarding your DP, might be worth letting him do more feeds and the issue of your DS eating less might resolve itself as he gets used to your DP? DD sleeps better when my DP is on shift with her, I think
She knows I'm a soft touch!

Something we definitely seem to have in common though is finding it hard to sleep ourselves! DD often waked about 2 and then 5, going straight back to sleep after each feed. I, on the other hand, am often still awake at 3, 4 and sometimes even when she wakes again at 5. :(

Thanks Stardust01. I know I need to relax and chill out and worry less. I have been trying to do that re the feeding, I had been OBSESSED with feeding. Re the sleep, sigh if not for the fact that he can be so miserable at the nursery due to overtiredness in the morning which goes on to affect the feeds even more, which is like a vicious cycle as it then affects his sleep at night, I think I would be more relaxed about that too... Really I don't mind that he wakes in the night so long as he can be wakeful and cheery enough to enjoy nursery. Gives me a peace of mind when I am away from him whilst at work.

Rollersara Yes how annoying that we struggle to fall back to sleep after we tend to our little ones! Sounds like you are coping well despite that! We women are unbelievably resilient! Another thing that annoys me is that I have the baby monitor volume down to the minimum, one ear plug in (the other ear is pressed against the pillow), and I'd still get woken up by any little noise he makes! Even the tiniest moan he lets out as he turns his body. Then I couldn't fall back to sleep for a while!!!

What Stardust said. Seriously you do seem to making a mountain out of a molehill here. Babies are not machines and will naturally vary, like people! One day I may have a 2 hour nap and then the next may not nap at all. IMO Gina Ford is a unnecessary stick to beat yourself over the head with - she has never had a child so how can she be qualified to give advice?! Follow your baby's cues not some random woman!

Without being offensive I think you should seek the advice of your GP on your level of stress and obsession with your child's routine - it does seem to be excessive. Your baby seems perfectly normal to me

Good luck x