4 month old DD waking at 5.30 am but not hungry! Help!

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DD1 has started waking at 5.30 a.m. - but I don't think it's because of hunger. We gave up the 10.30pm feed last week because she was uninterested. I have been trying to leave her and feed at 7 a.m - but it's knackering us both! She's been fully ff since the age of 6 weeks, and needs only 4 short half hour sleeps during the day. She goes to bed sleepy at 7pm. Could she just need less sleep? Do I have to put her to bed at 8pm? Or shall I reinstate the 10.30pm feed? Gawd. The bags under my eyes are HUGE.

When DS wouldn't adjust his wake-up time, we adjusted our own bedtime and started going to bed at 9.30pm, so we'd wake up refreshed at 5.30am. Have you considered this?

Yes we were discussing it over our (very early) breakfast this morning! Will try tonight. Thanks!

DD is much the same and has never slept later than 6:30 in the last 2 years. She went through a spate of 5:30 waking at about a year old and it took roughly 8 months until she decided 6:30 was a more decent time. We tried consistently putting her to bed later for about a month - the result being she had less sleep and still woke at 5:30 am, we had a hellish day with a very overtired baby and we weren't even getting our evenings to recouperate as we were keeping her up.
The only thing I can suggest is maybe hope she'll play? When dd was in her cot, we'd go in and give her some toys then go back to bed for a hour.And go to our beds at 9:30 rather than 10:30, sad but productive!

Good luck!

Some babies just don't need that much sleep.

Sorry! Didn't read title properly, she's only 4 months old so toys won't really work!

Get to bed by 8 hun and say balls to the housework for a few months!

at 4 months old i think she probably needs a bit more than 4 0.5 hour sleeps per day...

maybe 45 mins - 1 hour in the morning... 8.30 / 9 - 9.30 / 10 ish... and a longer 2 hour nap in the afternoon... maybe 12.30 - 2.30+ ish?

given that she is 4 montsh she may well start being hungry for solids soon, as early waking is one of the signs that she is getting ready for solid food?

dont know if i intend to hold out until 6 months or not, nut a bit of baby rice only maay be in orer in a few weeks time... unless you want to just put up with it!

also only being 4 months i think that is a young to cut out a dream feed.... maybe give her a nigth bottle back at 11pm and see how that goes... otherwise you are expecting a 4month old to go 12 hours without food, and i dont think thats fair to exepect of such a young baby to be honest!