Early waking and experimenting with strategies

[NeatFreak]

I know it's been done so many times before and I've even been through it with dc1 but I have an 11 month old who wakes every day around 5. I try rocking, feeding, leaving alone, tv, Anything I can think of but nothing works... Bed time has no effect, not does daytime naps. We have the odd morning when we wake at 7ish but this seems to be entirely random.

Today's endless googling suggests that 20 minutes of fresh air just before bed can help as it interferes with the circadian rhythm so I'm doing that tonight and am also attaching blackout fabric to the curtains- already have thick curtains and blinds but am covering all my options!

Any other suggestions welcomed- am so desperate I'll try anything.

I'm not even going to think about the fact that he still wakes for a feed at 4am every morning as I can't stop that either

It is a so tiring isn't it?

I may be off the wall here, but personally at 11 months I would cut the 4 am feed. He really doesn't need it if he is feeding fine during the day.

Then at least you will get through to 5 everyday.

No oter advice really, if you have a dark room.

I've tried cutting the 4am feed but probably not hard enough tbh. If she wakes before that she normally cries for about 30 seconds then goes back to sleep but when it's 4am she cries until I go and feed her, no idea why so I have taken the easy option of a quick 5 minute feed then back to bed. I'm going back to work soon and we are cutting down on feeds so it would probably be wise to cut it out anyway...

I did find that once mine lost all their night feeds they slept through better, but you might just be suffering from summer mornings.

Thanks. I think you're right. I need to drop the feed altogether but have no idea how! For now I have reinforces the curtains with blackout fabric and will be taking a short walk at 630 tonight!