Baby always wakes up really early

[Pizzaandsushi]

Ever since my baby was born he wakes up for the day at 5am, often as early as 4:30am.
Initially I think this was due to his cows milk allergy and tummy discomfort but he’s now 15 weeks old and nothing I do will stretch him out until 6am
I have the room completely pitch black, play white noise, dress him in a sleeping bag of an appropriate tog for the temperature. I’ve tried extending his bedtime, making his bedtime earlier, we follow his wake windows and always make sure he doesn’t sleep too much in the day (although often looks like he needs more as he’s yawning and rubbing his eyes after only an hour awake) and still no success.
I feel as if he’s maybe not getting enough sleep during the day as some of his naps are only 45 mins (what age did yours naturally start extending naps?) but I keep reading at this age they shouldn’t nap for more than 4-5 hours which he does easily over 4-5 naps. I keep thinking if you just slept until at least 6am you wouldn’t be so tired!! Bedtime is usually somewhere between 6-8 depending on his last nap so there’s plenty of time to get the 10-12 hours of night sleep but even an 8pm bedtime results in a 4:30-5am wake up.
Am I fighting a losing battle here and possibly being a bit ridiculous with it all. Do I actually need to just accept the early rise and go with the flow more? I will say I absolutely love organisation and the fact babies don’t really fit to a schedule pains me 😂.
I also think he’s started the 4 month sleep regression as he’s fighting bedtime more and more even though he’s tired and wakes up every 3 hours on the dot to be fed and nothing else will calm him down as he seems genuinely hungry, whereas before he’d do a big 5-6 hour stretch at the start of the night.
He is able to go to sleep himself, although with a dummy and that’s causing some of the issues. I wouldn’t mind 3 hour waking if the hours in between didn’t involve me having to pop the dummy back in after he realises it’s gone and gets upset because I’m absolutely exhausted.
Wondering whether to go cold turkey with the dummy (which I’d hate to do) or wait until he’s able to put it back in himself as he’s more than capable of pulling it out all the time the cheeky wotsit.

I suspect I’m trying to be over controlling but I’m just so so tired any extra hours of sleep would be fantastic.

He's 15 weeks old. I wouldn't be limiting his daytime sleep at all, Id ditch the dummy and let him nap whenever he's tired for as long as he likes, but ultimately he's a baby and they don't usually sleep well!

If he wakes at 5, bring him into bed with you for a cuddle and a play and then put him down for the next nap without actually getting up in between! That's what we always did.

Mine is 5 months and does the same. I have to have them sleep on me when they wake to stretch it a bit. It's really hard.

I was just going to post what @MolliciousIntent said. My daughter used to wake very early but then nap again an hour later. I got into the habit of bringing her into bed with me for cuddles and a bottle and not get up until after the next nap.
She’s 15 months now and the vast majority of mornings she wakes more like 6.30 which feels much easier

My DS woke at 5am for years I’m afraid.

don’t worry, one day he’ll be a teenager and you won’t be able to crow bar him out of bed (true story)

Hate to break it to you but Dts are 10 and still up before 6am every day regardless of what time they go to sleep. We had a fair old year or so of 4am. They're just wired that way.

I do think that 4-5 hours daytime sleep at 15 weeks is a lot, especially if your putting him to bed at 6pm and looking for a 12 hour night...that's asking for close to 17 hours of sleep a day which only the highest sleep needs babies will be able to do. Most 15 week olds just cant sleep that much. The most my baby could do at that age was 13-14 hours, I tracked his sleep for a couple weeks and once I figured out his average sleep per day I adjusted the wake windows accordingly to add up to 10 hours awake time and it made a huge difference to middle of the night wakeups (I never really had the early rise problem).

what age did yours naturally start extending naps?
Around 5.5 months for me.

At 15 weeks I do t think there's much you can do. My son was an early riser (still is). I did all the night feeds and wakes and my husband did mornings. This suited us as I'm not a morning person and my husband is. It was murder sometimes though. My husband travelled a lot and those 5.30 starts were horrendous. I just gave up trying to change it and gave up doing anything before 11am. He used to get tired about 8.30 and we both would crawl into bed together for 45 mins or so. That helped. He never really did long naps unless in the car or buggy.

My daughter is not a morning person at all luckily. She doesn't tend to move before 7am!

DS is 7 and still wakes by 5.30am in summer! At least now he entertains himself without waking us up. And in winter when it’s dark and chilly in the mornings we have to crowbar him out of bed 😂😂.

Nothing we did ever got him to sleep later than the time his bodyclock told him to wake (and we tried everything!). Fortunately he would sleep through from 7pm to 5am, and DH and I just resorted to taking turns to get up with him - bringing him into bed for an hour or so wasn’t an option as then we’d both be disturbed!

The low point was the summer morning he decided he was up for the day at 3.55am. Urgh. Still makes me shudder thinking of it.

I think you are setting yourself up for disappointment if you are thinking that you can tweak a baby of less than 4 months' sleep pattern in order to fit your expectations.Just go with the flow for now and don't look at the clock. I'm not against the whole dark room and low stimulation to encourage them to recognise night and day but micromanaging in my experience is likely to be frustrating.