9 months and likes to wake at 5am

[TS123]

My Ds is 9 1/2 months old and for the longest time has woken at 5 or 5:30 am. The only way I've succeeded in getting him back to sleep is nursing him, however, I don't believe that he's truly hungry at that time. He eats PLENTIFULLY during the daytime and is nursed right before bed at 7:30-8pm. I realize that this isn't exactly the worst thing in the world since he sleeps through the night otherwise, however, I'm struggling with this since I find it difficult to return to sleep after he wakes me, so I'm up for the day at 5am. This is particularly worrisome as my return to work approaches and also we're going out of town and have to leave him with my parents who won't be able to get him back to sleep at that hour of the morning. Have people had experience with problems like this? Should I try cc? (I tried this a few times and he's cried until the morning and not returned to sleep - which sets the stage for a very cranky tired mom and baby all day -- also, for the same reason, have not tried letting DH go in to soothe him). Any other ideas?

Our DS strarted doing this at 9 months too. Instead of giving him a milk feed we started to give him a small bowl of porridge - after all, he'd be in bed for 6:30pm the night before - 11 hours since he last ate so poor little bugger would be hungry. He usually goes back down for another couple of hours after that also blackout blinds are a blessing)

In our case, DS has been doing this forever, and when he was younger and went to bed earlier, I could believe that it was hunger. However, these days he's eating a large meal at 6pm plus getting bf at 7:30pm, so why is he hungry at 5am? At his age, I've read in many sources, he should be able to go 11-12 hours without feeding. So my issue is whether this is really a bad habit that needs to be broken?

I never take any notice of books saying what a baby should be doing - I swear my DS is from another planet as he doesn't conform to any of the books!
Has it been worse during the lighter mornings? We got a slat blind, a blackout blind AND curtains for DS's room to block out as much light as poss and only have a fairly dim (but funky) nightlight for him. Touch wood he's now sleeping through to 6:30 ot 7am now

It doesn't seem to relate to how light it is outside, and his room is pretty dark anyway. This morning he woke up at 5:30 for a feeding (room was pitch black) and wouldn't go back down!! This has thrown off the entire day in terms of his naps and he's totally tired and cranky. I'm terribly confused since I don't want to encourage him to wake up before morning by "giving in" but I also cannot let him wail for me until the morning hour (which he will do if I don't nurse him). HELP!

Message withdrawn

ts123 whats his day pattern like if hes up at 5am, when does he nap next and for how long?

His day will be shifted early when he wakes at 5:30am, he'll have his first nap at 9am (instead of 10am) and the second at 1:30 or so. Then I try to stretch him to his usual bedtime between 7 and 7:30pm.
Usually he will go back to sleep if he wakes at 5am for a feed but it's when he gets up later -- say 5:20 or later, that by the time I nurse him, it's like he's had just enough sleep to refuse to go back down but not enough to function well/be well rested. I guess I'm wondering if this early morning feeding is causing the trouble. If I refused to feed him until morning I wonder if eventually he wouldn't wake until morning? Have people had success with cc for the early morning waking?

TS123 do u feed him at 11pm, i did with my ds, feed at 7pm for bed time and then around 11/12 i would feed him again, and slept til 7.30/8 generally.

Mine wakes anywhere from 5:15am. Same age. We just leave him in his cot. He is happy to play with his toys until we pick him up at 6 am. HE gets a bottle at 6:30. They only sleep about 11 hours at night anyway. Does he take long daytime naps?

I wish he would lie quietly in his cot. He will cry softly at first, then after 5 or 10 minutes, he will start to wail. I have left him at least half a dozen times to see if he'd stop crying and he just goes on and on until morning (ie. 6am). Obviously this is not how I wish to start my days. I haven't tried the 11pm feed. Maybe it's worth a go.

Message withdrawn

My ds does the same at 7 months. We've done cc with him and sometimes it works and he'll settle back after a bit of a moan and sometimes he goes ballistic. We normally try giving him a bottle of water so he gets the comfort of sucking and something in his tummy without feeding him too early. Sometimes he sleeps through to 6 or so, but there is no rhyme nor reason to it!!

Oops . . . I think you are absolutely right. Thanks for repeating yourself because as an experienced parent, I appreciate your point of view. You have "weathered the storm" before and have the benefit of knowing that things that seem big and impossible now are going to seem small and insignificant in a year . . 2 years . . 10 years!!

ts123 definitely go with the 11pm feed, imo if you have feed at 7pm or so. then its 10hrs til next feed at 5am , to me it is enevitable wake up time, go with 11pm and see if u can strectch it further. my ds was feed a 11/12pm feed til 10mths and never woke ever at 5am. the feed stopped because i went to a wedding or somthing one night and he didnt wake.