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Help - 5am waking in a 6 month old

7 replies

Jenny1869 · 20/08/2005 21:23

Help! Baby No 2 is still waking at between 4.30am and 5.30am every morning despite blackout blinds where ever we go. He goes down well at 7pm and sleeps through which is great but then wakes at 5am, crying. He's done this for sometime and we used to give him a bottle which put him back to sleep until about 7am. However, about a month ago, we stopped the milk as he was no longer going back to sleep and he has to wait untill 6am. For the first week, this was really hard as he would scream and you had to wander round and give him water to try and settle him which was sometimes sucesful. He then got better and would settle after a 5 minute cuddle and a quick drink. But, over the past 2 weeks, he's gone back to not settling and can spend the time screaming blue murder. It doesn't seem to be hunger as he isn't depserate for the bottle and is rarely interested in water - he just wants to get up. It also doesn't seem to be light as at 4.30 and even 5am, it's still pitch black ( it starts to get light at about 5.10am at the moment!)

Has anyone any tips on what to do with this as 5am ( or even 4.30 am ) is just too early for me to get up?

We don't want to resort to controlled crying as he has a great set of lungs and his 23 month sister is in the next room, who is a great sleeper but will wake up if he screams at this time and the last thing we want is two of them up at this time!

OP posts:
colditz · 20/08/2005 21:54

I think you will have to either treat this like night waking, however you treat night waking in your house, or just get used to getting up.

Personally I think 5 am is a disgusting time to get up, worse than 1 am!

Jenny1869 · 20/08/2005 22:11

Thanks Colditz - it really is the worst time. I much prefered the 3am bit that they both did. The problem is that I haven't had to deal with night waking in either of them and so am a bit stuck. I remeber no 1 doing something similar but she got over it quicker and settled into a 6.30-7am waking.

OP posts:
meggymoo · 20/08/2005 22:34

Message withdrawn

busywizzy · 21/08/2005 19:49

Jenny, my DS (five months) has just started doing exactly the same thing but at 3.30am! He settles well at 7.00pm and had slept through until 6.30am about 4-5 times. It was a bit inconsistent though so I decided about two weeks ago that I wouldn't feed him if he woke earlier than 5.00am as I knew he could go through the night.

For a while it worked well but the past three nights he has woken at 3.30am. He chatters away to himself for about half an hour and then gets fed up with his own company and starts fussing. It's been taking me up to and over an hour to settle him and last night, I eventually got him back to sleep at 4.45am only for him to wake again at 5.50am (when I fed him as I couldn't face it again !!).

I've increased his solids today (been on solids for three weeks) to see if that makes a difference so we'll see how tonight goes.

I'm going to watch this thread with interest to see if there is anything I can learn. I can't give you any advice as I'm clearly not doing something right either

Jenny1869 · 21/08/2005 21:27

Dear Busywizzy and Meggymoo

Thanks for the posts - at least I'm not alone and when my husband tells me for the 50th time that it's not normal, I can show him these!

The remote mobile sounds a good idea- I did think about one of those for his sister but never got one - if I'm still desperate next week... I wouldn't mind but I went back to work 3 weeks ago and I need my sleep

One thing Busy wizzy, I will feed him at about 6 - this is supposed to be his 7am bottle but he sometimes gets it at 5.45 and rarely any later than 6.30 - it's not good for my sanity to delay it any longer.He doesn't then get his next bottle untill 10.30 - 11am which he manages fine and is then back in routine. So I wouldn't worry about ocasional early feeds - you need sleep too!

OP posts:
mancmum · 21/08/2005 21:32

just to repeat what megymoo has said...trawl back in archives -- there are loads of people with 5am starts!! I asked the same question and got loads of advice...and now my early morning riser has to be woken up as she would sleep in past 9 every day given a chance... ultimately it is a phase and will pass!!

busywizzy · 27/08/2005 21:40

Jenny, how's the early waking going? Have you managed to sleep later than 5.30am this week. We've had a nightmare week as DS has been poorly so up crying at 1.30am (latest) every night and awake between 30 minutes and 2 hours!! Last night was 'better' as he slept until 3.30am but woke up with the worst humdinger of a nappy he's ever had. What's worse than changing a nappy that's gone up their back, down their legs and all over their clothes ...... having to do it at 4.00am

Sleep vibes to you and DS

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