The dreaded 5am wake up......

[TheSleeperandTheSpindle]

My 7.5 month old DS has dropped his night feed - hurrah!

However, he has now started waking up between 5-5.30am I bought a blackout blind thinking maybe it was the lighter mornings doing it but that hasn't made a difference. If anyone could take a look at his routine and give me some advice I would be very grateful. I'm going back to work in 4 weeks so a 6-6.30am wake up would be ok, but 5am starts will kill me

5-6am DS wakes up and I try to ignore him
6am get up
6.30am milk (6oz)
7.15am breakfast
8am nap (around 1.5 hours)
10.30am milk (6oz)
11.30am lunch
12.30 nap (1.5 hrs)
2.30pm milk
4-5pm a power nap, sometimes 30 mins, sometimes a hour.
5pm dinner
7pm milk
Sleep around 7.30pm

DS goes to sleep quite quickly but does have a few mini wake ups during the night where I need to resettle, mostly by patting his back/bum, but he doesn't want any milk until the morning. This new pattern of his has been going on for around a week since his new top teeth came in.

I also know I'm very lucky with his sleep now, especially after a horrendous few months

Can you do a dream feed at 10pm ish? At 7.5 months I'm not surprised he's waking up really early to get fed. 4 milks a day isn't a lot even if weaning is going really well.

He used to have a dreamfeed between 10-11pm and he used to wake for it but now he doesn't. If I try to feed him he clamps his mouth shut and then gets annoyed because I've woken him I then run the risk of having a screaming baby who won't go back to sleep because he didn't want to wake up so I stopped offering a dreamfeed.

The same thing happens at the 5-5.30 wake up, he isn't hungry he just wants to play and is all smiles. He isn't interested in his milk until 6-6.30am. Weaning is going very well, he is a big boy and happily packs away a lot of food.....

It's the early nap.
Try pushing it to 9am .
Early naps encourage early waking as they make up for it then

Agree with Time - if you have ruled out hunger, most likely the issue is the morning nap. I would move it to 9am and cut it to 1 hour max (40-45 minutes would be ideal). The lunch time nap can be extended to 2 hours (12 to 2pm or 12.30 to 2.30pm).

I would also make sure the late afternoon nap does not exceed 40 minutes. Something closer to 25-30 min is probably optimal.

Thanks for the replies. I didn't think of the early nap allowing him to make up for the early wake up. He did the same this morning, napped 8am-9.50am

The thing is that if he wakes at 5am, there's no way of keeping him awake until 9am. I could just about keep him going until 8am. Would it work if I stretched him by 15mins each day? So achieving a 9am nap in a few days time?

Both suggestions here are good ones and I would try both.

Assuming the daytime naps are reasonably consistant as 90 mins or so, then it will require a period of very busy early mornings to keep him going and shift that morning nap starting 9-9.30am.

Go out for an early morning walk with the dog, go feed the ducks in the early morning, plsy on the park. Whayever you like but keep him busy from 7.30-9am. Then push the second nap later as a result, more like 1-1.30pm. You may still need to keep the teatime nap and make bedtime later.

You need to allow 2 or 3 weeks of consistency to see a change in routine, it won't happen in a day or two.

While doing this trial period, I would also do a wake>resettle when you go to bed. This is to reset baby's internal body clock. I would do a full wake, nappy change to ensure baby properly wakes, milk feed and then resettle back to sleep. Say at 11pm. Again, give it 2 or 3 weeks to see an effect.

I would do both of these things.

Thanks FATE Would you just take the plunge and extend his awake
time to 9am and get the horror of it over and done with in one go or extend by a little each day?

I will try to wake and resettle at 11pm but like I said earlier when I've done that in the past I've just ended up with a very cross baby who didn't want to be woken and who isn't hungry. I'm then left having to resettle him while he screams, cursing myself for waking him up Will try it again though

Assuming you have an established resettle method, the idea of a wake>feed>resettle is that is should be no hassle to you, given you do it at a time convenient to you.

Then it helps reset baby's body clock, ensures her nappy is a little less full and uncomfortable in the morning and her tummy a little less empty.

Then once a later wake up time is established, then I'd start dropping the odd dreamfeed here and there, until it's missed completely but has served its purpose - to move the morning wake up time.

With the morning nap I'd probably have a few days/week of 11pm feed>resettle to help along later waking, during this time push it as late as you can but don't force the issue. It may get easier anyway, if wake up time gets later. If not after week, I'd bite the bullet and just extend awake time in one go.

Well the 11pm wake up did exactly what I thought it would - led to a screaming baby who wondered why the hell I'd woken him up He was peacefully asleep at 11pm and had been from 7.30pm. He resisted me waking him up and wouldn't open his eyes. I decided to try and feed him anyway and he only took 3oz before realising he was being fed when he wasn't hungry. Cue screaming for 45 mins. He then has woken up every hour doing his horrible whinge that he does when he is tired and massaging his ear.

I know not to try this again. I'd take a 5.30am wake up over being screamed at all night

When did he drop his night feed? I'd feed more milk during the day and avoid a morning nap earlier than 2 hours after waking, apart from that, I'd give it a few weeks to see if he sleeps longer of his own accord. DS1 did the same when he stopped feeding during the night, but gradually started sleeping longer. It took him about a month or so. I never started the day before 6 am though, I just left him in his cot or he came into bed with us if unhappy.

Sleeping 7.30 to 5.30 at under a year is incredible! I'd be over the moon with that (bad sleepers) and just go to bed a bit earlier and start the day a bit earlier! It all changes as they drip naps and need more at night etc.

scrumptious he dropped the night feed about a week ago and just clamps his mouth shut if I offer any during one of his wake ups. Don't want to sound negative but I've also tried offering milk more oftem during the day and he just refuses or takes 1-2oz. Will try again though because he has just got over his top teeth coming in so that might have affected it

country I wish it was 7.30pm-5.30am without any wake ups I still have to resettle him a couple of times but he is going 7.30-5.30 without a feed. I've been going to bed early, sometimes 8pm , to cope with the 5am starts.

Today DS woke at 6am, which is easier to handle, so will try pushing the first nap back. Thanks for all the advice and allowing me to ramble. I think DH might leave me if I talk about DSs sleep anymore

I still have to resettle him a couple of times

I'd missed this fact in your OP.

Playing around with an 11pm wake>resettle can only be effective if it's the only wake up. I had assumed baby was sleeping through. With other wake ups, there are other wake>resettles already happening.

It's not that the 11pm resettle isn't effective at moving early mornings, it's that your baby isn't ready yet. More calories will help though. If not an extra feed at 11pm, then try to get an extra milk feed in during the day.

If you have broken nights and early morning, I'd also not push that mirning nap too far. The broken nights are significant - it's likely to be a symptom of over tiredness. So the answer is more sleep, not less.

Stretching mirning naps may lead to being more over tired and more restless sleep. 2h awake time max in the morning.

What are middle of the night settling methods? Make them increasingly hands-off so less and less intervention is needed from you.

FATE We've ended up cosleeping, something I never intended to do, and I started it because he was really suffering with his teeth so it allowed us all to get some sleep. This means most resettles involve him holding my hand and me patting his side. He used to sleep well in his cot and would resettle with me doing a similar thing but with him in his own space. We have the side off his cot and it butted up against our bed however now if I lay him down on his mattress he wakes up

I'm a teacher and go back to work in 4 weeks. I'm then doing full time until the summer holidays so I was going to wait until I have 6 weeks to tackle getting him in his cot. I didn't want do too much at once and what with his teeth, a cold, weaning etc having him in with me was just the easiest solution. He is also rocked to sleep for naps and at bedtime

He naps for around 3.5-4hours a day but I suppose if his nighttime sleep is disturbed then this is causing him to still be overtired.....

My ds is 18mths and has periods which vary from waking at 5am or 6am. Currently in a 5am period. It's tiring but there's nothing I can do really. We don't go in to him until 6am but we're still awake as he sits in his cot chatting to himself.
I know this isn't exactly helpful but just wanted to let you know you're not alone!

Thanks Vanilla always good to know others are in the same boat and in the grand scheme of things it's all 'normal' and part of the joy of parenthood

Sorry if I'm using this thread as my own personal blog () but last night I didn't wake DS at 11pm and we had a much more normal night again for him. Sleep at 7.30pm, woke at 12.30am for milk, awake for the day at 5.20am and we got up at 6am. So he did a 5 hour stretch followed by another 5 hr stretch, can't complain tbh. Thanks again for all the advice, they are things to keep in mind for when DSs sleep inevitably changes again. For now I'll just embrace going to bed when it's still light outside

I'm having really similar problems to you sleeper. I posted a couple of weeks back about another issue and mentioned I was getting the occasional 5am wake up and was worried it would become a regular thing - it unfortunately has become a daily occurrence :(

She is also 7.5 months, I put her down around 7pm and she sleeps until 2-3am, has a feed then goes back to sleep. She then wakes just before 5 and whinges on and off until we get her up between 6.30 and 7 (has some catnaps in that period). Based on advice from some lovely ladies on here, we are loosely following a 2-3-4 routine (previously had shorter gap between first and second sleep so I couldn't keep her up until 7). She sleeps for 40 mins for her first nap and around 2 hours for the second one, waking from that just after 3pm. She is generally very happy and not grumpy from overtiredness but the pre-5am wake ups are killing me!

Wish I could offer some advice but right now, I am just trying to sleep early or catch up when she naps in the afternoon. Holding out hope it will end soon..!

Checking in! My 5.5 month old DS is in a very similar pattern. I'm heading back to work in a month or so and dreading it solely due to this issue. He goes to bed really well, wakes for a feed at around 11pm (after months of trying to introduce a dream feed, FINALLY I can get some milk into him) and then...wide awake anywhere between 4 and 530am. Feeding him tends to get him back to sleep but am worried that he'll get used to milk at that time - plus if he feeds then he obv isn't hungry at 7am and the whole day is thrown out. But if I don't feed him he is awake until 730ish, when he decides to fall fast asleep again.

So no helpful suggestions for you, just a bit of solidarity.

Thanks for the solidarity, it's so hard isn't it?

I thought we'd got back to normal with DS but last night was a nightmare.

He went to sleep at 7.30pm, went to take him up with me at 8pm. He woke up as soon as I laid him down and then screamed until around 10pm. He then woke at 1am for milk, woke at 3.40am screaming until 4am and then up for the day at 5.30am.

I know we have some bad habits, like him being rocked to sleep, but I don't know how to undo it all and I feel very down about it all today

I've just said on another sleep thread that my 7mth old DS is exactly the same. I wondered if we'd all been given a malfunctioning batch of babies.....

No idea how to help you but you're not alone. I feel like I've majorly messed up. I'm hoping it's just a phase. 45 year olds don't cosleep with their mum, do they??

Oh no sleeper, the early starts are hard enough, then when they throw one of those nights at you, it really feels like there is no hope 😕. I had a night like that earlier this week and it just kills what little hope you have left of fixing things.

I watched a webinar and read a couple of articles on early morning wake ups on baby sleep science yesterday - from what I can tell, the cause is most likely to be that we need to reset her circadian rhythm to wake later. They advise to do it by allowing more daytime naps for a few days with later bedtime so the drive to sleep is greater in early morning. I am a little nervous to change things as she is sleep trained and our routine works nicely (early morning wake up aside!) but something definitely needs to be done

Nights like that are hard when they seem to come out of nowhere. We were having some bad nights when his top teeth were cutting but as soon as they were through it all calmed down. I ended up crying to my DH about how I no longer have a life He then made me tea and took DS.

Thank you for the suggestion of a later bedtime. Looking back at my app where I log DSs naps and feeds (I'm a bit anal...) I can see that when we had an 8pm bedtime we had 6am-7am wake ups. Which makes sense, if they need 10-12 hrs per night, 10 hours after 7pm is 5am We ended up with 7pm bedtimes because of the early wake ups and now we're in a vicious circle.

Going to try cutting his first nap, as sometimes he has 2 hrs and I think he is making up for the early wake up, and trying a bit later bedtime. Today is another day!

My problem is that my daughter resists sleep so I can delay her naps or even miss them out all together (!) and she still won't fall asleep from tiredness so an earlier morning nap doesn't reward the early wake up as she doesn't go to sleep without me actively putting her down anyway (if that makes sense). So by delaying her morning nap she is just that bit more cranky and harder to put down.

Like you, I also religiously track all feeds and sleeps so I can see patterns and make changes. We had a 7.15pm bedtime yesterday with a 5.45am wake up this morning but she was exhausted at 7.15.

As we have only got her napping through sleep training with a sleep consultant, we follow a short nap then long nap routine so her 2 hour sleep is in the afternoon - I pushed this from 12.30-1pm by following advice from some ladies on here so I could push her bedtime to 7pm from 6.30 (which is what the consultant got us doing). If I'm going to follow what I read yesterday, I will probably need to make it earlier again so I can fit in a 3rd nap and a later bedtime for a few days

If I'm going to follow what I read yesterday, I will probably need to make it earlier again so I can fit in a 3rd nap and a later bedtime for a few days

Or, in the short term, allow a longer morning nap which will allow for a later afternoon nap. This can then mean a later bedtime. I'd say that would be a better change than reintroducing a 3rd nap in a 2-nap routine that is working well, on the whole.

I don't know what your routine currently is, but a typical sleep consulant routine would be 9-9.45am nap and 12-30-2.30pm nap. This could be changed to 9-11am and 2-4pm - which would work with a 8-8.30pm bedtime. If this moves your wake up to 7am, it gives you the ideal 234 awake time pattern.