5am wake ups!!

[sparklestar4]

My little boy is 11 months old and has been waking up at 5am every day since 8 months. I’m at my wits end, I’m shattered and it’s affecting the entire family.

His current routine is:

5am wake up
9am Nap 1
10am wake up
1.30pm Nap 2
3pm Wake up
6.30pm Bed

We’ve tried adjusting his nap times but still 5am every day! We’ve tried an earlier and later bed time and still the same.

Any tips or do I have to admit defeat that this is the time he wants to start his day?

Ds did this from time to time, I used to set an alarm for an hour earlier then go in and give him a little poke - just enough for him to rouse slightly but not enough to wake him. It seemed to reset his sleep and we got extra time out of it, you could try that for a few nights?

Some kids are naturally early rises. More of our body clocks are set by genetics than people realise. But that’s also a really early bedtime, how late have you tried to make it?
On the flip side both my kids will sleep in till 7 or even 8 but stay up until 9pm so we rarely get much evening without them. There’s pro’s and cons to all the options.

I think it’s a developmental thing. I spent months waking up by 5am until DD just grew out of it. The only thing I can think of is having a longer nap in the morning and then a short one in the afternoon so he might have more sleep pressure to stay asleep.

10.5 hours is plenty of sleep for a lot of babies especially if sleeping through. Have you got a black out blind ?
the obvious one is to put him to bed at 7.30pm instead for a 6am start

Try a later feeding before bed to fill the belly

I think this is a phase a lot of babies go through. Ours did and only stopped once he went down to one nap

If I put either of my children to bed at 6:30pm (at that age) they’d have been up at 4am 😂

in my experience, the only thing that works is less sleep in the day or a later bed time. At that age I’d go for later bedtime as his naps look fine

thats extremely brave of you 🤣

Mine would have needed more sleep than that at that age, is it possible he’s overtired? I know it doesn’t make sense as he’s waking early but so many parents think the solution is to curb sleep rather than offer more.
His wake window particularly in the morning also seems a little long to me.

Yikes! High stakes game 😂

your 8 month old sleeps through from 6.30 to 5am??!?!?!
My first 2 never did. Trust me I'm so jealous. Both of mine had multiple wake ups between that time ALL night.
Think you have no idea how good you have it compared to some of us. Just go to bed earlier x

As pp said, put baby to bed later if that helps

How long have you persisted in trying a later bedtime? Enough to reset his body clock a bit? My understanding is that 10-11 hours sleep is normal for a baby of this age. I have a 9month old who usually sleeps 8pm - 6.30ish am - so I think if we put him down at 6.30pm that would also lead to a 5am wake.

When DD was still breastfeeding we would give a bottle of formula around 11pm. This seemed to help her sleep a bit longer!

if my son made it to 6am it was a good day. He went to bed between 7.30-8pm. He still is an early riser at 21.

@Wavescrashingonthebeachexactly this 😅 my DC didn't sleep through till betweent the ages 1 and 2, and even then that was better than a lot of my friends DC!