7 month old waking at 5.30

[Liloosmum]

My 7.5 month old DD wakes at 5.30 nearly every morning, coo-ing quite happily for about half an hour and then crying to be fed. She used to go back to sleep again until 8ish, but now plays for about 15 minutes before crying and wanting to get up. We give her her last bottle at 7pm and put her to bed around half past. My DH is convinved that it is because she is hungry, but I am not because I think she would wake up crying if that is why she is waking.

She has just started having a longish (1-2 hour) sleep at 9 and then another sleep for 45-60 minutes around 2-3. She is usually really tired and crotchy from 6.30, but we make her wait until 7 when she frequently falls asleep during her last feed and we usually wake her up to put her to bed.

I am not sure if I should just accept that she will wake up at that time and it's unreasonable to expect her to be able to sleep longer, or if she would sleep longer if I changed/cut short her naps, especially the morning one. I know she already sleeps longer than a lot of babies her age, but my nephew sleeps every night from 7.30pm to 7.30-8am religiously !

Sorry for the long post, but I am new to this and wanted to make sure I put as much info as possible!

Any thoughts?

Ds wakes at this time too. He is almost 2.5.
He mainly gets woken by next door's kids who are up screamimg about 5 ggrr!

My dd who is 7.5 m.o goes to bed happily at 7pm every night (after either 2 or 3 sleeps a day) and wakes up religiously between 4 and 5am. Then she often goes back to sleep until 6.30-7.00am although sometimes, like today she was up at 4.15am and then woke for the day at 5.30am. I managed a week of not breastfeeding her when she woke, but it took about an hour nd I was up/down up/down settling her. I have now returned to feeding her as that way I'm only up for 15mins or so. But I'm sure it's not hunger that is waking her, just habit. What do you think? Cold turkey her and just stop feeding if she wakes before 5.30am? But I can't bear to leave her to cry, and don't want her to disturb ds (2.5yrs). Or do I just continue and hope that just a phase she'll gorw out of naturally?

5.04 this morning! Argh. No crying just loud burbling (I didn't go in till 6.30am, just laid in my bed being grumpy). I'd love for her to drop her morning nap but at this rate it will never happen as she can't make it till after lunch.
I'm going to make her room pitch black tonight and see what happens.

x

mine was waking up at 5am every morning after i weaned her...and realised that after a month later and my brain fried up!!....she was hungry so just introduced another dish and she start sleeping thru again!!...i really wanted to hit myself on my head but was so half asleep!

5:15am today . I just left him grizzline but am treating anything before 6am as the middle of the night. Whadya'll think?

sorry 'grizzling'. and btw, he did go back to sleep until 6:15am

DD has teeth coming through so this morning was burbling away at 5.00am on the dot. I think there is nothing I can do until the teeth settle.
I agree cruisemum, pre 6am is the middle of the night.

cruise, that's exactly what we do!
And all we get is grizzling and grumbling - at 6am I go to her and give her the first cuddle of the day followed by changing the first nappy of the day.
Mornings are Daddy-time!

Yeah - i've been having probs with this. Of corse i'm grateful that my 10 mth old ds now sleeps from 9pm until 5.30am but it would be lovely to get him to sleep just a littl longer in the morning ( esp as we don't get much of an evening with him sleeping late)

This am I let him cry for approx 40 mins whilst going into him intermittently. My cut off to feed him is 6am and when I took him into bed to do that he fell asleep until 8am! For my ds I think he needs to cry to stop waking up - that's how we cracked the 4am wake up as well.

Do you think i'm reinforcing the wake up by feeding him at 6am ?( breast) His last night fed is just before 9pm so it' not as if he's gone 12 hrs.

so what do you do if your lo wakes around 5:45am? leave them to grizzle? I guess i should be firm aboutthe 6am thing. but then last night he went form 7pm - 6am! I feel shattered beyond belief though. When will I stop being soooooo tired. uuurgh

My DD, nearly 6 months, wakes at 5/5.30am every morning and I just feed her and bring her into bed with me and she happily burbles next to me and then goes to sleep til 7.30. I was battling with trying not to feed her until 6/6.30 but everyone got less sleep that way. Seems like SO many of them wake up at 5ish to be honest and am not sure what to do about it. Black out blinds make no difference, just seems to be her body clock. At the moment, I'm just waiting for it to change and trying to get as much sleep as I can!

Hi Cruise, not been on for a while as laptop broke... in the meantime, crazy night sleep seems to have improved. Been lurking on Sleep for Weak thread seeing how you've all been doing!

hi sydneyb - i remember you from SIFTW! glad things are better for you. i wnt through a particulary horrid time and got desperate. did some cc (very timid though) and it has worked! ds now sleeps, on average 10 - 11 hrs pernight!

Wow Cruise, that is just great. DD doing same! Holding breath...

Hey cruise, malaleche, amijee!!
If this is the support thread for parents whose los wake up before 6, sign me up..
5:30am this morning and I feel knackered..the big whinging fathead that I am!

Compared to people whose babies wake up 5 times a night, this is nothing, I know, but being woken at 5 is for some reason a real killer!

Not sure what the answer is at this point

6.22am today ! got the blackout blinds up. have draped them over his existing curtains (real classy . hoping that this has done the trick as they are a killer - uuurgh

6.04 today, it felt like a massive sleep in.
As it's the weekend tomorrow she will no doubt revert to pre 5am wakeups.

Well done cruisemum, hope it does the trick.

rislip - did you ever think you would see the day that 6am seemed like a lie in?!
i actually feel quite refreshed today!

daddyj - repeat after me "any waking prior to 6am is to be considered a middle of teh night waking and treated as such "

Hmmm, my ds is 3 years old and woke up at 4.50 this morning

Tbh and ime, a 12 hour stretch at night is fairly unsual in children under a year old. 2 or even 3 naps a day is pretty normal.

Liloosmum, why don't you put your dd to bed as soon as she becomes tired and crotchty, rather than keeping her for a bit longer? DOes she have set nap times during the day?

(btw my first child was a nightmare sleeper/waker so I do sympathise)

cruise, you are well hard

my ds - 8.5mo - was doing this, so i put his bedtime back and changed him onto the sma progress before bed. he sleeps til 7.30 now. yay!

lol.

If he wakes too early i bring him into my bed,lay down with him facing me and soothe him back to sleep, then put him back in his cot.

Stop, Ms K, and tell all, please:
What's sma progress?
What time was bedtime before and after?

Thank you!

Lol, ok.

SMA formula, Progress is the Red one for 6months of age and Up, you can buy it ready mixed, there's roughly 250ml in the carton i think.

We used to give it to him at about 7.30ish, but on a trial, we put it back to 8.30, he's usually asleep by 9 and will generally sleep through until 7-7.30am.

He was waking a lot earlier when he was just on the SMA White, and my HV suggested he was hungry, its worked, so its worth a try.

Much obliged!

Hmmm, I see, lose one hour at night, gain one in the morning - that's a toughie, that is!

She will start nursery soon so there will be formula during the day, let's see if that makes a difference.

I let her grizzle this morning until quarter to 6 but then she got cross so I dashed in with extra-special DaddyJ cuddles