Baby wont stop waking at 5.30am :(

[KaransMom]

Pls help a really exhausted mommy.
Little boy is now 3 months. Wont drink more than 4/5oz. Has a feed at 7pm goes down by 8pm has his dreamfeed about 10pm and will wake up about 2/3am for a feed. Then he wakes at 5.30am! He wont drink any milk and wont sleep. If he ever does its such a light sleep when i put him back in cot he just wakes up and kicks his arms n legs about like hes tired.
How do I get him to sleep better past his 2/3am feed until 7am feed? I dont want to feed him earlier as it throws out his whole days routine and worse still his bedtime.
Any advice welcome - a very very overtired mum who just cries all the time now due to exhaustion.

Is he waking / stirring at 10? If not I'd skip that and feed him when he wakes - for my kids dreemfeeds made them then wake more in the night as they didn't settle properly afterwards. Id also start going to bed at 2100 at the latest until you catch up on your sleep. Can your OH do a couple of nights over the weekend to let you catch up before next week (assuming he is ft work and your on mat leave?), unless he is just as tired of course.

put him to bed an hour later, then the whole pattern might shift a bit later and he'll wake around 6.30. He sounds like he's doing pretty well to be honest - 5.30 is quite early but a lot of babies and toddlers are up around this time or at 6. You could try and drop the dreamfeed and go to bed earlier so you don't feel so tired.

It is so tiring at that age, but it sounds pretty normal tbh.

DD used to do the same but I was so tired I'd just take her in the spare room and lie on the bed with her. We'd play quietly with the lights low but we wouldn't get up and start our day exactly (mainly because I can't function at that time). Eventually she's take a feed and fall asleep again, usually around 7am, so I'd get some more sleep then and we'd get up properly after that. I never thought of the 7am sleep as a nap, more the last bit of our night's sleep.

She's 2 now and sleeps to 8 most days, not an early riser at all. It might be pure luck but I sometimes wonder if it's down to that early routine.

Anyway, the point is it will get better! 5oz is a big enough feed at that age, and when he can take more he may go longer between feeds.

Check that the room is sufficiently dark and there aren't any noises that wake him up.
No dream feed if that means waking him up.
Start making the 5:30 wake up very boring. Take him to bed with you?
Can you sleep anytime during the day?
Finally, make sure you are not starting with PND. As exhausted as you may be, I've been there and I didn't cry from exhaustion. It could be more than that.

5.30 wake up is pretty normal for babies and toddlers - you could be doing this for the next 4 years!

She's 2 now and sleeps to 8 most days, not an early riser at all. It might be pure luck but I sometimes wonder if it's down to that early routine.

It is pure luck. It is nothing to do with that early routine.

I would say that's totally normal but drop the dream feed and try to get your sleep earlier.

Our 3.5 month old goes down between 7-9pm and has just started going through until 5:45am. But he has only just dropped his 3/4am feed so I think that's pretty good going. Early starts are the norm for most children. Our 4 yr old wakes anytime from 6am.

My DD is 4 months and is almost exactly the same. I try & fob her off with a dummy/giraffe to chew, pat her chest & shush her. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't!

I don't want to scare you, but we were doing all that at 3 months (except the middle of the night feed was more like 1:30am), and I could just about cope sleep-wise. But then we went through the dreaded "4 month sleep regression" where after her 1:30 feed she would wake EVERY HOUR for no good reason: she had a full tummy, a clean bum, no wind, she just wanted to play. When i went into her she would literally laugh in my face which, despite the hideousness of the time, was soooo cute. I'd pat her & shush her & she would usually go back down.

We had the hourly wakings for about 2-3 weeks & are now back to getting up at 2ish & then at 5:30-6 which by comparison felt amazing!

Hang in there OP. It does get better. Previous posters have suggested some practical things such as dropping dream feed or moving bedtime which hopefully may work for you (although didn't for me). I always leave DD for 5 mins to see if she settles herself & if not I go in and pat, shush, out something in her mouth etc

Is DS in his own room? That was the first thing the health visitor asked me when I cried on her during the sleep regression. It's annoying having to get up and go into them, but it does make it easier to ignore them!

Good luck. It will get better.

Mine is 11 months and is still up at 5.30am every single day. Doesn't matter what time she goes to bed, what time she has milk in the night... Last night she slept until 4am, had 7oz of milk and was still up at 5.30am. Unfortunately early waking can be normal for some children. My 2.5 year old on the other hand has just woken up!

Sounds perfectly normal to me. Better than my 2.5 year old manages too!

We had 5.30am starts for a good 6 years in this house op. Sorry.

Oh and my toddler and baby have both had identical routines so not sure I can blame routine for any of it.

I dont wake him for a dreamfeed so hes still asleep. Im too scared to drop the dreamfeed as without it he only used to sleep till 12.30/1am at the latest! I would drop it if he was increasing his milk as he would sleep longer.......
Other half helps so much so hes just as knackered. He will do 3am night a few nights a week to give me some rest but im still exhausted.

Its dark and theres no noises - he wakes at 5.30 i think out of habit. A few times hes had a dummy and gone to sleep as hes not hungry. I have fibromyalgia so exhaustion plus pain not a great combination and its hard to cope. I cry with frustration as I just want to feel better.

7pm-5.30am is a long sleep at 3 months

I would just put him to bed later

At 3 months mine roughly fell asleep 9pm in living room. Dreamfeed at 11pm and took to bed with us. Woke 7-8am most days with occasional overnight feed

At 3 months you need to choose if you want them asleep at 7pm and awake at 5am, or asleep at 9pm and awake 7am onwards

Sorry I thought you said he was 3 years old! 3 months? That's amazing sleep! Totally normal. Sorry.

That's actually really good sleep for a three month old! I'm another one with one who wakes EVERY FORTY MINUTES... 😫
he also wakes for the day well before 5.. :(

I think some are just larks.

7.30 - 5.30 is the same as my 2 year old. Sometimes better. And I think he sleeps well.

I think you're being a bit unrealistic here about how babies sleep.

Have a look at this.

Yes sorry that's what babies do. My ds woke at 5.20am for years :-(

My nearly 5yo wake up at 545. Sorry!

Gosh, I do have sympathy because you are tired, but I think you might have to adjust your expectations a little on the sleep - 7:30 to 5 is brilliant!
Perhaps it would be better to concentrate on how you can get more rest yourself rather than getting the baby to sleep more? Can your partner take feeds for a block of time in the night so that you are getting an uninterrupted stretch?

My DS woke every 2 hours for a feed until he was 10 months old. He is now 13 months and over the last 10 weeks has started sleeping from 7-5ish. We tried all sorts of things, none worked. He just started doing it.

DD is 4 and gets up between 5:30-6:30 most mornings.

Once you get over the sleep- deprivation you'll embrace the extra hours of the morning you never knew existed!

I think the issue here is your health not your baby's sleeping habits. Can you & your partner adjust things to give you a little more rest? Can you go to bed earlier, can you adjust your medication? Please talk to your health visitor and see if there's anything that can be done to support you

I don't think that is too bad tbh! My 3 month old DS goes to sleep at around 7pm, has a dream feed around 10.30, wakes for a feed around 1.30 then wakes again at 5.30. I just try & keep him sleepy and he usually falls asleep again around 6.30 and I go back to bed for a couple of hours