DS rising at 430am every day.. please help!!!

[sharon137]

My DS is nearly five months,and sleeps pretty well. He goes to bed around 7pm and gets up for two feeds during the night - lately he also gets up to fuss now and again, because of teething pain - but my question is about when he wakes up.
He used to wake around 5 - 530am. I am a naturally early riser, so this was ok, but gradually it has gotten earlier so that it is now more like 430 that he wants to get up. He is usually up for an hour and a half, then has a nap. The past couple of mornings though, he has been in a really grumpy mood after being up for 15 mins or so, and I am wondering should I just try and settle him?
Bringing him into our bed doesn't work, he has never slept in our bed so he thinks its time for chat and tickles, and we have tried getting him to bed later,but like clockwork he drops off at 7pm and I CERTAINLY don't want to wake him!
Any ideas onhow I can encourage him to go back to sleep when he wakes up?? 430am is just TOO DAMN EARLY....

I remember having a similar problem last summer as it gets light around then. Do you have black out curtains? Can you try some thick material over the window - or improvise with some tape and cardboard.

Is he too hot/cold? It's difficult to judge what to put them to bed in at the moment with the weather. By 4.30am he's had enough sleep that these things will start to wake him up and make it difficult to get back to sleep.

Final suggestion is could he be hungry. Would feeding him settle him back and buy you that extra hour that you've lost?

Good luck. I don't think it will last for ever - we have had morning waking as anything from 4.30am to 8.30am over the last 20 months and bedtimes have remained a constant 6.30-7pm.

I'd have a go at settling him.

My 6.5 m.o. DS has spells of doing this - first it was 5.30, then 5.00, then 4.30. I generally refuse to get him up till 7.00 but he sleeps on a mattress next to me, so I would just get up and cuddle him until he got tired an hour and a half later when I'd pat/rock him and he'd usually go off again. It doesn't sound like it'd work for you, though.

You could try moving bedtime earlier in case it's overtiredness. How are his naps? It could be to do with insufficient daytime sleep.

You could also try moving his first sleep slightly later after he wakes - do it gradually so he doesn't get too overtired. Sometimes the first nap is actually an extension of the night's sleep,because the awake time between getting up & the first nap is too short.

And blacking everything out as much as possible is worth a try, as notasausage says.