Hi all.
DS has been a relatively good night sleeper since birth, napping wasn’t great for the first 6 months and the 4 month sleep regression was hell but did pass quickly enough.
He is now 9 months old and has suddenly started waking at 5/5:30 am of a morning and I am slowly losing the will to live with these early starts.
Before he was sleeping really well. Through the night, 6:30-6:15/6:30 or 7-6:30. He was having two good naps a day, 9/9:30-10:30/11 and then another nap 13:30/1400-14:30/15:00 and then bedtime between 6:30/7pm.
Bedtime routine has stayed the same, he has a bottle before I put him down but he is always put down awake. He has a comforter and multiple dummies in the cot. He self settles with no fuss within 15/20 minutes of babbling, playing with dummy/comforter... then usually rolls onto his side and falls to sleep.
Recently, there has been occasions where when he is put down, he will roll onto his front (which he never does in the day) and then screams because he hates being on his front... so I will go up and flip him over as he won’t roll back himself (even though he can!) he eventually settles down and once he’s asleep that’s usually it for the night.
He now is for some reason waking at 5/5;30 and will not go back to sleep. I’ve tried a few nights of a later bedtime but he just gets so grumpy I feel bad keeping him up as he is so desperate to go to bed, and he still wakes early and ends up having even less sleep. He’s a happy little chap and eats really well, 3 meals a day and 3 bottles, although He is on a milk strike at the minute but I can usually get at least 17oz in him over the day. He also has a mid morning snack to replace the bottle he dropped around 7 months.
He isn’t crawling yet but trying desperately...
Is the early waking just a phase I need to grit my teeth and get through, and if so, how long should I expect it to last? Google tells me anywhere between 3-6 weeks.... but hoping it’s not as long as that! Just as he was starting to sleep through I feel like it’s been snatched away from me and I feel so down about it haha.
If you’ve reached the end - I applaud you!
Thank you for reading. Any advice? Or words of reassurance from any 9 month sleep regression survivors would be lovely! X