21 wk old waking up at 4.00 am..please help

[neilsmum]

21 wk old ds sleeps at 7.30,wake up at 11.00 has a feed and goes back to sleep by himselfimmediately. however, wakes up at 4.00 am bright and alert, wanting to play after his feed!we make it a point not to switch the lights on etc.after much cuddling and rocking, finally sleeps at 5.30.if we try to put him on his bed and shut the door, he rolls over and has his hands caught up in the spars and starts screaming.very exhausting!any ideas on how to break this habit?

bump

8 1/2 hours is a good stretch for a baby of that age. Maybe try putting him to bed later if you want to get up later.

Probably not what you wanted to hear!!

It might be an idea to drop the 11am wake up feed. I found that it disturbs their sleep and makes them more likely to wake up in the night. Try not waking him up at 11 and see how long he goes and feed him when he wakes.
Is he having 5 feeds in the day? It might take a week of disturbance but we found that our little one then slept 7 - 7

Good luck

We have the same prob with ds who is 23 weeks. He feeds at 7pm,12ish. We dont wake for a dream feed as he still woke normal time. He then wakes at 4am wide awake and playing. Weve tried feeding him and laying him back down but he wakes straight up. The only thing we are doing is bringing him into bed feeding him and then leaving him next to me where he was sleeping. Now mind seems to have decided that he wont even sleep then.

No answers sorry as Im on the look out for a cure myself but your not alone.

dd 6m sounds the same - feeds at 7, 11 (gave up dream feed) then 2-3ish, but won't settle after. she comes into bed with me - we're trying to lose the dummy as i think it's making it worse. she's wide awake at this time. hopefully it's yet another phase????

I have a ds and he's 26 weeks now. From about 8 wks we slept from 7pm - 7am and had one nap in the morning and one nap in the afternoon, both about 1-1.5 hours. He then started to have 2 naps in the afternoon and so was having about a total of 2-3 hours sleep plus his usual hour in the am, and found that when he was sleeping too much in the afternoon he woke at 4am wanting to play. I've since cut his afternoon sleeping down so that when he goes to bed at 7 he is really tired and he's sleeping through again.

Don't know if this will help but might be worth a try??

DS hardly naps so I cant see how that would help us plus he already spends from 12pm onwards moaning because hes so tired.
He naps
9.30 -10.00am
12.30 - 1pm
3.30pm - 4pm
bed at 7.30
So a total daytime sleep of 1 1/2 maybe 2hrs

worth a go though I guess

Thanks for all the replies, makes me feel better that I am not alone. Have hit upon a plan- will wake him up an hour before he usually gets up at night for eg at 3.00 am since he usually wakes at 4.00 and give him a feed. hopefully that should disrupt his habit. dont know if it will work!!

Is his nursery really dark? We have ours pitch black and I'm sure that helps when they come into light sleep, its so dark they think its the middle of the night.