Do I give in and give milk to 9mo at 5am as a night feed or get us both up to start the day?

[BiscuitStuffer]

DS wakes at 5am but isn't really ready to get up then and only fully awakes because I refuse to give him milk at that time. If I did, I am sure he would go back to sleep BUT I do not want to reintroduce night feeds. I have offered water which just makes him furious. So I have been getting up with him (otherwise he wakes the older one) and he has milk after a little while, which he really goes for.

Does anyone have any ideas of how I can get him to sleep until he's actually finished sleeping??

is his room really dark or is he waking up because it's getting light (apart from the obvious - that he wants milk!)?

Can you feed him more in the day and give him something filling at bedtime, try his bottle and then a bit of weetabix or something? I'm sure someone will be along soon with advice for you though.

ive been giving in and bfing ds i did the get up at 5 am thing with dd and i think that it is the lesser of two exhausting options for me

I put these up a few weeks ago and dd has gone from waking up at half five to eight this morning.

That wasn't terribly clear. She woke up at 8 am this morning, where previously she had been waking at half past five. She's also taking a longer nap in the day time. She's 1 in a couple of weeks.

why don't you want to feed him when he is asking for it?

the phrase 'giving in' is a bit odd IMO

IMO the way to get him to sleep until he's actually finished sleeping is to wait until he is old enough to do all his sleeping in one chunk
not all babies are at this age
it won't take long probably, but he doesn't seem ready yet does he?

it's not really reintroducing night feeds is it? When does he go to bed? I really believe if he's going to bed about 7 ish, he's had a long time between feeds and deserves some food if he's hungry. Just be happy he's normally going back to sleep afterwards, so presumably you too. feed the poor little mite. it might well be another growth spurt. my dd is 10 months and this last week has suddenly been waking at 11, 2 & 5 again! But she is hungry. S I'm feeding her.

Thank you all for your replies.

I don't think there's another reason - the room is dark etc. He goes to bed at 6:45pm and flips between waking at 5ish (which is too early for him) and 6ish which seems about right. When he wakes at 6ish (with no wake ups at all in the night), he really isn't bothered about milk at all and generally won't take it until 7ish. I should have put this in the original post. Does this shed any more light??

Just to let you know my dd did this at this age - I was still bfing so would just give her a feed and she would go back to sleep for about another hour. She grew out of it a couple of months later (though she is still usually awake just before 6).

It seemed like ages at the time but it wasn't really - it is just a phase. I didn't really think of it as a night feed - I just did what was necessary to get her back to sleep for a bit longer. Often I didn't really get back to sleep but at least I got to lie in bed and doze for a bit longer. Hth.

i think he is genuinely hungry at 5 then. he just needs a top up every other day, and i think he will slowly grow out of it. i would carry on feeding him and laying him back down to carry on sleeping.

biscuitstuffer I think have the same thing happening here - my ds is 8 months, wakes at 5ish clearly still tired but actually not that interested in feeding, or in going back to sleep. When I do feed him it doesn't send him back to sleep... And like yours if he can sleep until 6 he wakes cooing and is not bothered about a feed until 7ish. I have no idea how to solve what I think is probably more a waking issue, unrelated to hunger. I've just been getting him up and starting our day, rather than spending another hour or so with both of us a bit stressed! Let's just hope they figure out that they need the extra hour hey?