How would you deal with this night waking?

[Granadilla]

Hi,

My son is 11 months. Im having problems when he wakes at 5am; if he wakes earlier in the night he is easy to get back to sleep, however at 5am he always wants milk and is sometimes very difficult to get back to sleep. Breastfeeding is the only way I can find to comfort him but often he will be on and off for 60 -90 mins before he drops off again, if I withhold milk he gets very distressed. The problem is that he is still very tired at 5am so needs more sleep, but he needs to be up at 7/7.30 for me to go to work, so at 5am I am desperate to get him back to sleep.

Do I

1. carry on offering milk? There is a better chance that he will go back to sleep and get the rest he needs to wake up happy. Although getting him back to sleep this way is taking longer.

2. refuse milk? I will have a distressed/angry/tired baby. He might/might not fall back asleep and the childminder will have to deal with a grumpy baby. My fear is that this will lead to a consistent 5am permanent waking.

3. any other suggestions?

I know the 5am milk is habit, but I fear if I take it away I will end up with a baby that wakes at 5am for the day. So I am inclined to keep the milk. Also his four molars having been coming through for the last month and now also his canines.

Thanks

I had this with my son who is now 14m. 2 weeks ago I decided enough was enough - tbh I found the quality of sleep with him latched on from 5am was a bit rubbish, and his latch was getting worse resulting in sore nipples. So I decided enough was enough and stopped breast feeding. The first night he was awake crying for 90 mins at that early morning wake-up. I ended up climbing into the cot and eventually he stopped being angry and settled to sleep in my arms and I managed to put him down and get out. 2nd night 60 mins, same strategy. By night 3 he settled at the early am waking same as any other - I put him hand on mattress and he lay down on top. Since then we've had a few nights where he has slept til 6, which is good enough for me.

I made sure DH was in agreement - in the past we'd tried "try to settle for 30 mins then if not working feed" but that achieves nothing. For us this meant I told DH he would have to watch something on his tablet with headphones on to distract himself from the crying that first night.

I could have carried on breastfeeding just refused at night time, but I think the temptation of just feeding would have been too much for me so I needed to stop completely!

This also coincided with us dropping to 1 nap.

Hope that helps....

Omg! This is me. EXACTLY the same. This is weird

My dd is 10 1/2 months but yes, 5 am like clock work wants milk or a boob but will be on and off for ages.

No advice but ill wait with you to see if some magic person has a solution!

Thanks. Grainmum, I'm pleased I'm not the only one resorting to climbing in the cot. I agree on the poor latch too...perhaps this is the cue to drop breastfeeding...

Hmmmm what is going on at 5 am?! How weird ( I posted about a week ago )

My ds is almost 7 months and has been waking at 5 am for weeks now

And he is not breast fed

What is it with 5 am ? ! I have seen many threads on here referring to 5 am wakings.

Sorry not helpful OP, but I'm intrigued.