Baby has started waking at 4am to talk!

[Flower20166]

Hi,
My baby has always been a pretty good sleeper and usually has slept until at least 5.30, but the last couple of weeks he has been waking at 4am and just talking to himself.

He can do this for up to 45 minutes before I try and put his dummy in, but he will then just play with his dummy etc. He might eventually drop back off after 5am but only for 30 minutes or so.

I know he’s tired as he’s wanting to go back to bed for a nap about 7.30.
So how can I stop the 4am wakings??
I was thinking of setting my alarm around 3 to move him to make him stir a little and hopefully go into another stage of sleep. If I did this what time would you recommend I do it at? And has anyone done this and it’s worked??

Thanks everyone

Forgot to add he is almost 8months old

No advice as my 10mo does the same, drives me potty!!

That's hilarious! Babies are so funny. No advice. I use to just pull the baby into bed with me and let them get on with it.

a pretty good sleeper yet he wakes at 5.30? Bloody hell! He is young, he will get there, but is there really any difference between 4 and 5.30? Especially as the clocks just changed.

My next door neighbours baby does this. I hear her about 3am having a chat with herself. She babbles away for about 20 minutes and then it goes quiet so I assume she goes back to sleep.

In having the exact same thing with my 8.5 month old. I've been giving him a bottle and he absolutely downs it and then put him back to bed where he can talk to himself for another twenty minutes or so before falling asleep.

Last night he woke up three times just talking to himself and I fed him the third time at 4ish

I'm guessing a regression, growth spurt or he's just daft.

I'm try to focus on being lucky he wakes up happy and not crying.

Unicyclethief yes because he is obviously still tired as he is cranky when he gets up and needs to go back to bed not long after.
There’s always one!

Thanks to everyone else, it sounds common! I will try tonight to stir him around 3ish and see if that helps at all x

My son was waking early and I started to cut back his morning nap so he would have a good lunchtime nap. He started sleeping later in the morning as he was starting to realise he couldn’t make up for it at the morning nap.

My son is 13 months and he’s done this a few times and playing around with his naps always does the trick.

Iwillbemummy yes, he has started to take a 1 hr 30 minutes nap on a morning, so I will shorten that and hopefully he will take a longer lunch time one. Thankyou!

I’ve always gone for the if he is happy chatting to himself approach just leave them to it. It was my third before one night I said to exh that he was going to be walking/crawling/talking soon. It usually happened around a developmental leap time then stopped as soon as they started doing whatever it was that was coming. It’s tiring but so will waking yourself up at 3am to stir him and you run the risk of him waking up and thinking it’s time to get up. I’d be inclined to just go with it just now.

To be fair unicycle makes a good point the clock has just gone back but nobody told your baby that he is just waking up around the time he always has. God I’m still waking up around the time I always did I haven’t adjusted yet and I’m a lot older than 8 months old.

Have you got really decent black out blinds? Sounds like he's waking at the crack of a sparrows fart. No way I'd be able to cope with 5, never mind 4:30. It's totally normal for babies to need a morning nap within an hour of waking, all mine have done until about aged 1, even though they woke between 8 and 9. So not an indicator that he is too tired, but he IS waking too early. Try taping up bin bags to the windows to see if it makes a difference before investing in black out blinds. I like the gro-anywhere one. Much better than curtains that leave a gap.

My son has 15 in the morning and then 90 in the afternoon. It makes sure he's not over tired before bed which leads to early waking

Looksbetterwithafilter - yea he is happy for a while but then becomes crabby but won’t go back to sleep. Hopefully like you said it will be a developmental phase and pass.
He actually slept an hour later when the clocks went back (typical lol) and then stayed at his normal wake up t8me for days before the 4am wakings started so I don’t think it’s the clocks

Slappinthebass - yes got blackout curtains but it is literally still pitch black outside at 4am. You’re right it’s definitely to early...for both of us lol