How do I stop the 4am waking?!

[SherlockSays]

DD (7.5 months) is driving me to distraction. 4am every morning she's awake and doesn't want to go back to sleep, but she's also a massive grump until she has a nap an hour or so later (if I let her get up that is).

I've so far spent the last hour being scratched and having my hair pulled out.

Her routine is this:
7am - 'normal' wake up time
10am - Nap (40 minutes)
2/3pm - Nap (anywhere between 40 mins and 1.5 hours - today was 1.5hours)
7pm - bath, bottle, bed - she does this beautifully
Midnight - bottle - goes straight back to sleep

She's not hungry, she's just awake and awfully irritable. It's worse on weekdays because DH's alarm goes off at 6 and sometimes (if I've managed to get back to sleep that is) I've only been back in bed half an hour.

I try picking her up and putting her back down, she just screams. I sit in the corner and she just messes around turning over or pulling her dummy out or screams.

My son was like this. I had the same routine as you. Tried everything- blackout blind, night light, Gro Clock, white noise, massive mounts of exercise, no nap/fewer nap, earlier bed time, later bedtime, etc etc etc. Nothing worked. He was just a painfully early riser

My little boy gets terrible trapped wind and sounds very similar , could it be that ?
The only war I can shift it is to lay him on his front on my chest and really rub his back firmly .

No idea, my 2yo likes getting up at 4am and always has done. At least as a baby he'd go back to sleep after about an hour and a half so I could get a bit of a sit down before the school run. I will loiter here for suggestions, although I fear I just need to stick it out till he's dropped his naps.

Afraid my 9month old has been doing this for what feels like eternity. I thought I cracked it giving him a bit of porridge before bed to fill him up but it only brought me half hour or so 😴🧟‍♀️

I was up at 4.30am with my 3 year old this morning. Usually about 5 night a month he wakes pre-5am. This morning he also woke his sister (who is now napping!) so I got up. Normal wake up is 5-5.30am. I tried everything and have just accepted he is a lark. As am I though pre-5am is pushing it!

Sorry, no solutions but I think it’s annoyingly quite normal

Same here! Been up since 3.50am being scratched and having my hair pulled with my 6 month old.
Thought I'd sneak in a quick nap as he's now asleep but nope. Toddler now awake and we're watching the sodding Octonauts!

Wish I had some words of wisdom. I think it's just one of those things we have to ride out I'm afraid....

What happens when she first wakes up? Is she upset for milk/something or is she babbling happily?

My 14 mo woke up at 5 today - totally normal for her and nothingbhas worked so far. Sorry ! She has got better - it used to be 4 every day !

Try rousing gently sometime after the midnight feed to help reset her sleep pattern. 4am is also notorious for reflux - peak of acid production. Could it be silent reflux?

Thankyou all - I suppose there's something in not being the only one. She went back to sleep (finally) at 5.50 and was back awake at 6.30 . Cue me being irrational and DH taking her downstairs.

She doesn't want milk when she wakes - she barely wants milk ever to be honest, that's another battle of its own, the only bottle she reliably takes is her midnight one.

When she first wakes she's happy and babbling but becomes frustrated because she sleeps on her front but isn't great at getting back to her back in the confined space so that's when I go in and the struggle to get her back to sleep starts.

She used to be better when she had a dream feed at 10 but she just won't take it anymore because she has a bottle at 7pm so is still full so then didn't wake until 3am-ish and went back to sleep with a bottle.

Could be overtired. I'd try moving the 2nd nap to earlier and a 6pm bedtime. Can't hurt to try.

After a week of 4am hell, I decided to see if bringing the 10pm dream feed back helped and she slept 7-2-6!

Feeds at 10 & 2 were short and she was straight back to sleep. Fingers crossed for the same tonight.