9m old waking at 5am and won’t go back to sleep!!

[Mummyc64728]

I’m not really sure if anyone can offer some advice on this but any advice at all would be appreciated!!! DS started sleeping through from about 7m. We had an amazing period where he would sleep 7-6.30, sometimes 7am(!) gradually this started to become earlier and he would often wake at 5am but after a change and feed would go back to sleep til 7ish.

For the past few weeks he’s been waking at 5 (sometimes 4.45) and will not go back to sleep. He wakes upset. We change and feed as usual but he then protests and stands up in his cot and just continues to cry until we give in at around 6. We keep the room dark, don’t really speak to him and treat it as a night wake. The room is very dark and warm enough.

He has started at the childminders in the last few weeks so we aren’t sure whether that has thrown things off a bit. His current routine (at home) looks something like this:
5am wake with feed
8.30 first nap- can be anywhere from 1-2 hours
1ish second nap for an hour/ 1.5 hours
bed 6.30/7

he also has 3 meals a day and 2 7oz bottles during the day. We have started to wean down his bottle before bed as sometimes we think he wakes due to a full nappy.
I am VERY greatful that he sleeps through and I appreciate this is something we may just have to roll with and accept however I do feel it’s starting to affect my relationship with DH as we are both shattered and having to go to bed so early to cope with the early starts 😩 especially now I’m back to work.

Changing and feeding isn’t treating it as a night wake. Personally I wouldn’t do either of those until 6am unless he had a dirty nappy. How are his naps- when and for how long?

2 bottles a day doesn't sound like enough to me at that age - particularly if you're reducing the evening bottle. Milk should still be baby's main source of food until 1. Maybe he's waking hungry?

In my experience they will sleep through a wet nappy, mine wakes soaked through to the sheets some mornings. They will wake for milk though so I wouldn’t be reducing the evening feed. We use pampers night time nappies, more expensive but they only thing that has kept him dry overnight so you could try that if you are worried.

My DS is 10 months but he still has milk on waking, 2 further milk feeds in the day and then an evening feed. Usually he wakes around 10 for another feed as well. He is a mix of bf and formula so I’m not sure on amounts but 2 bottles doesn’t seem like a lot?

@FlounderingFruitcake see above for naps

@MrsSamR most mornings he doesn’t seem bothered about the bottle and doesn’t finish it! So not sure whether he is that hungry?
also re: 2 bottles not being enough, just not sure when we could actually fit in another bottle! Should have said but the 2 bottles is on top his 5am one so he has that followed by breakfast. Has one bottle after 1st nap and then another bottle after 2nd nap. Last bottle is before bed so technically 4 bottles (sorry should have made that clearer)

@tealandteal are the pampers night time nappies the pull up ones?

Sorry just realised you posted nap times! First nap is quite long and early, he could have fallen into the trap of using that to compensate for missed sleep overnight. I’d want to push it to 9am and limit it to an hour. I also wouldn’t limit the bedtime bottle as that should be the very last to drop. Get pampers in a plus size if you’re having nappy issues. Getting him up out of the cot, changing him and feeding him will definitely be sending the message it’s morning time.

are the pampers night time nappies the pull up ones
We had the best overnight results from pampers active fit pants- wiggly sleeper and I find the pants expand better than the taped ones. But you might need to try a couple of types for yourself.

Yes we have the night nappy pants which are pull up. We’re no where near needing pull ups but they are the only ones we have found to not leak, tried active fit etc, two nappies, reusable nappies.

Your DS sounds like he is having the same amount of milk feeds as mine actually. He wakes at 6:30/7 then has a nap at 9/9:30 when back from school run. Usually 45 mins. Nap after lunch at 12/12:30, usually 1.5 hours. He’s recently dropped the third nap, so we’re still finding times that suit.

@FlounderingFruitcake thanks for this. I have wondered whether the first nap is too long and feels like a ‘catch up’ sleep. Also agree with you about sending him the wrong message in the morning, however it’s really tricky as he just stands up in his cot and cries until we can’t ignore it 😬

@Mummyc64728 ahh OK that makes more sense! Could it just be the lighter mornings? My 3 year old and 6 month old have both been waking up before 6am when they were previously sleeping later. Have you tried blackout blinds?

Assuming you've thought of the things mentioned above, it could just be a phase to ride out. We went through this and it didn't improve until going down to one nap at around 16 months.

You may well be right @Welshfiver!

The main cause of early morning wake ups is a too early bedtime. Now that he's getting older 6:30-7:00 is quite an early bedtime. I would essentially aim to shift everything forward an hour so he is going to bed more like 7:30-8:00 and therefore waking at 6:00 or after. You can do it gradually by doing everything 10-15 minutes later each day. Do you manage to continue sleeping whilst he's crying in the cot? If not it's probably best to go to him, ignoring him is very unlikely to get him to go back to sleep and will just cause more upset and stress for everyone. Have you considered putting him in your bed for a little bit of extra sleep? We've done this for quite a long time and it works well.