My 6mo wakes at 5.30 EVERY day, what am I doing wrong?

[Chocolateporridge]

He's not hungry, not crying, not in pain, he just lies there being noisy and bashing his mobile. He doesn't even cry when we get him up and change him at 7am. This has been going on for over a month.

He naps at 9.15 for 45 mins, 1pm for 45mins and 4.15 for half an hour (rough times) and feeds at 7am, 11am, 2pm, 5pm and 7pm and he's usually asleep for the night by 7.30.

Is there something in his routine I can change to encourage him to sleep a bit longer?!

Maybe over tired with the short naps?

I just can't get him to nap longer. To be honest some naps are only 20 mins, he'll cough and wake himself up and then just lay there awake.

Any tips for resettling?

My nearly 6 month old goes to sleep about 8pm but I give her a quick change and dreamy feed about 9.30pm and then she always sleeps through til at least 7.30am. The one time I missed out the later feed she woke up early. Maybe worth a try?

basgeti is she waking up early hungry? I'd considered a dream feed but he's not crying in hunger when he wakes.

She doesn't cry in hunger and is happy to wait for me to make up her bottle but she is always ready to guzzle down her feed so I think she does wake up hungry. She's just so placid its hard to tell!

Sounds like my ds Basgeti he's so much more placid than his sister. Right I'll try that tonight, thanks

we have one of those 5am babies too. Although she was so tired yesterday she was in bed by 6.30 and woke to begin her day at 3.30 am I actually cried!

Although it was a good 9 hour stretch for her, by the time I caught up on house work washing bottles etc I has maybe had 2.5 hours sleep!

There was a stage when she was doing 9pm - 10am but is now just far too tired in the evening to last and I just can't get her to nap any more than about 40 mins (on a good day. Sometimes it's 20 mins) usually twice a day but most of the time it's one nap! She is afraid of missing something

excited our dcs sound like twins! I'm going to try waking him this evening, changing his nappy, feeding him and putting him back to bed, plus put a long sleeve vest under his babygro instead of a short sleeved one. Plus try and find heavy duty earplugs

Chocolate we have just had the most horrendous hour of sleep fighting she cried that much I thought she was going to be sick! 2oz top up of a bottle eveventually settled her down and she nodded off. Goodness knows how long for! I'm currently too scared to even sneeze!

Hopefully a good nap now will delay bedtime a little tonight and normal service will resume (keeps fingers & toes crossed!!!)

Can I ask what milk your ds is on? We had a sleep issue when I changed her to follow on and she has been great from I switched her back to stage 1

Oh I really hope she goes down later tonight for you! Ds is mix fed, but his last feed at night is formula and he's been on Hipp Organic since he was teeny. Mine has fallen asleep in the pram so hopefully he'll go down a bit later too

If you really can't cope with 5:30am starts (I know I couldn't) then I would start Pushing your entire routine back by 10 minutes at a time and in a week he should be going to bed an hour later and getting up an hour later. I did this with mine as 7pm - 5:45/6am was too early for me (I start work at 10am, not 9) so we pushed everything back and made bedtime 8pm so we could get 6:45/7am wake ups.

Also try for a later first morning nap as that can sometimes encourage early wake ups. We would aim for no naps before 10am.

Ds2 is 7mo and wakes at 530am.

Ds1 is 2.10yo and wakes at 5am.

Well we got a 30 min nap earlier but she didn't go down to 8 sounds perfect but she only drank 3oz of bottle! So who knows what time the day will start tonight/tomorrow

Mine went down at 8pm after a big bottle and some decent naps, wearing an extra layer, so here's hoping!

Decided not to do the dream feed, maybe try that tomorrow night

We have the extra layer on the arms tonight too! It's all trial and error to see what works isn't it! Good luck hope we're back tomorrow well rested after a good nights sleep!

Aaaaarrrrggghh, half five again and actually noisier than ever, even my dh couldn't sleep through it Dream feed tonight then!

DS1 still wakes up at 5 every morning, he's 25! That seems to be his natural waking up time. Making bedtime later might work, or it might not.

My older one has always woken at 5.30 or earlier; at 6mo it was about 4.30 . He's now 4yo. His little brother, OTOH, would happily go until 7 if we let him.

It'll be useful when school starts at least! Sorry, not much help

You lucky think. 19 months at least 2 wake ups and 5am start here. It used to be 330!!!

Oh no chocolate we had progress... 5.55am try the dream feed and see how it goes. If you can change nappy after bed bottle don't change at dream feed as that can Waken them too much! Speaking from experience here

Dd took to waking when I put her on follow on milk around 1am for top up. Drained a 7oz fell asleep and stayed in bed to 8am a few mornings I almost preferred that arrangement!!

Oh that's great excited every five minutes counts at that time in the morning! So are you still using the follow on milk?

All those mums whose dc's are confirmed early risers (I'm still hoping this is a phase), how on earth do you cope, especially if, like me, you have other small dc? My energy usually runs out just after lunchtime!

No I put her back on the 1st stage milk and she doesn't Waken for a top up anymore. Still getting up early but she doesn't appear to be hungry straight away after a 9ish hour sleep!

I really hope she doesn't become one of these 5/6am children on a weekend that you can't drag out of bed for school when that stage comes!

Yes we have recently introduced a blackout blind too - not much difference tbh.

In terms of early starts : they aren't common here but when they do we dont actually get up early. There is no sense in starting your day early because you will be ready for bed at lunchtime. I try to never get out of bed before 7.30 whether I am awake because I've got work to do, diy or the DC or pregnancy is waking me up.

Dd1 and I also have a film on n the afternoons on the days she isn't at preschool and we are both at home. While dd2 naps.

Thanks Poocatcher, I'm trying out your film watching tip as I type!

I did a dream feed last night, filled with confidence, and he woke up fifteen minutes earlier than usual He did go back to sleep for a while after about twenty minutes though, so not sure whether I should try a dream feed again or if I'm making a rod for my own back?!