24wk DS wakes at 5am every morning

[sharond101]

How do I teach DS 5am is too early? He slept through from 9pm until 8.30pm from around 8 weeks and since 21weeks has changed to an earlier slot! HE goes to bed around 9pm each night and has 3-4naps per day totalling around 2-3hours. When he wakes at 5am he has milk then will not go back to sleep for 2hours. I feed him in a dimmed room with no stimulation at this time. I have tried weaning him which has made no difference. He went to bed at 10.30pm the other night as he would not fall asleep and even then he was up at 5am. He is teething though it doesn't seem to be troubling him too much and I would have thought if it was that which was waking him the time wouldn't always be the same? Any suggestions????

Weaning made my DSs sleep worse when I weaned him before 26 weeks, not better too. How much solids is he having and is he still having all of his milk?

Sometimes they fill their tummys up on low calorie foods and although they have full tummies, they often wake because they are hungry. If you are bfing, try feeding him an hour before solids and try upping the number of bfs per day too. If you are ff he should be having 20floz in 24 hours, otherwise he could be hungry.

Have a read of this too as it has some great tips .

He started waking at this time before weaning&is still taking all his milk around 30ozs expressed breast milk alternating with formula

Hi. I always found that the later my little one went to bed, the earlier she woke up. Counting up the hours, your DS is only sleeping 10-11 hours per day, which sounds quite low for that age. Have you tried putting him to bed earlier? I remember having a hell if a week getting my DD to bed earlier but after that initial stage was over, she now goes to sleep beautifully between 7 and 8.
Good luck!

Sorry must have read your post wrong. Could he be too cold? Do think though that it is perfectly normal for a baby of that age to be waking. It could be the teething, it could be a growth spurt or a developmental leap or he could simply be missing you and want some milk. One thing is for sure, it won't last forever. In the meantime could you take it in turns to get up with him?

Oophs, I meant to say she now wakes up around 7, sometimes later.

Agree with Doreta about the late bedtime too. Do you have a bedtime routine at the moment?

My ds is 5 months and wakes up every day without fail at 5am no matter how late or early he goes to bed or how much he naps. Dd is now 9 years old and was exactly the same.... ! I've just accepted it and get up with him. It's harder trying to resettle him than just to get up to be honest.

Sorry not what you wanted to hear but at least you're not alone !!!

DS done this for a while i just left him in his cot until i could hear him start to get sleepy n start crying them went in and fed him back to sleep. He was in a diff room though i doubt that would work if your in the same room.

Have tried putting him to bed at 8.10pm tonight, fingers crossed.

How did you get on ?

Mine was up at 5.30 which is a marginal improvement on the 4.50 the day before !!! Groan !

Wow I'm very impressed your baby sleeps that long in one go, and slept through at such an early age! You're actually incredibly lucky -most babies still wake at least once at 6 months although some sleep through.

We found with ours they'd wake at 5 regardless, whether it was bed at 10or bed at 7 (although under 1 they did wake and need settling a couple of times in the night. Currently night weaning no 2 at 11months.)

How are his naps? Sometimes when they won't settle to bed easily at night they are actually over tired.

He was up at 4.50.went back down at 5.45 then up again at 7.15 he is sleepy again now. He naps after 2hrs of wake time. Naps can be anything from 20mins to 90mins but usually total around two or two and a half hours in a day.

Hi, I haven't read the whole thread, but did read OP query.

My ds1 did the wake up at 5 and start the day thing too... I was exhausted as he was still feeding all through the night as well...

I tried all sorts of tricks to get him back down but eventually gave up and accepted it.

Sorry might not sound like much help, but what I did do, I hope you will find helpful, was give in to what seemed his natural rhythm at the time....

So we would get up, have a change and go upstairs. I created a safe play area (used one of those baby gates from babydan that can section off half the room). I baby proofed it and put toys and pillows in there... And a futon for me! I turned on some baby music and We both went in and I sort of nap rested for the first hour / hour and a half while he played.

He was happy. I felt guilty and awful for awhile, but chose to look at it like this- I wasn't coping and was exhausted. Many parents let their children play safely in their cot or play pen. I just simply created a space big enough for us to be together.... this way I could hear or respond if he needed me.

I wouldve let him play in cot but he wasn't happy in cot and wanted to be "up". Cot was in our room and DH needed to get the sleep for work.

After i did this, I then started having a little more energy during the day and tried to get him out more in the stroller, basically just tried to find new ways to stimulate him and found that after a few more months he gradually slept later and later.

This seemed to be at the same time I was also getting his naps more in line ( is your little one getting enough naps?).

For awhile it was a 5am start..... Then 6.... And now 7. Never got him later than 7, but it's so much more civilised than 5.

At age 22 months he started waking early again. We got a grow clock. He still won't go past 7, but at least he went back to a 7 am start again with the help of the clock :)

Hth x

Is yours in the same room as you/ mine was and was doing the 4.30 - 5 thing. I decide it was time to move to her own room!!! it did the trick and she went on until 6.30 7 from the very first night. Also read some threads on here about the 'wake t sleep' concept. put it the search box and you should find it.

I usually sleep in the same room as him. A few nights ago I didn't and he still woke at 5am.

We had this for a while, he was up for the day at 5 and no amount of feeding in a dark room would change that. It started about 4.5 months and at 6.5 months it is a bit better, if I bring him into bed with me for a lying down feed at 5.30 he will go back to sleep eventually and snooze till gone 7. So I think the early waking is probably some sort of Phase. when it ends another "phase" begins to take its place!

It might be hunger or it might just be that he is a morning person; ds1 was and is an early riser. When weaning, he started to wake earlier than 5am, so I tried to bulk up the evening calories (including for me prior to last feed), which got us back to 5am. He is now nearly 7 and still springs out of bed at 5am, every day.
We used to be able to get an extra 30mins lie down by leaving toys and soft books in the cot, but after that accepted it was time to up and start the day. and I used to go to bed religiously by 10pm.

So yesterday I tried omitting the solids which he didnt seem to miss.he took 10ozs (more than normal) milk before bed&went sleep at 8.25.unfortunately he woke at 2.30 hungry,went back down at3.40 then up at 6.45.think I might have to accept I have an early riser,at least for now.

Ds did this til at least 3 - then we did the no getting out of bed til 6.30am with a bro clock thingy.