DS wakes up at 5am no matter what - I'm exhausted!

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My DS is 7 months old, and he wakes up at 5am without fail every morning, me and DH are really struggling now that he's back in the office.

He has 2 or 3 naps in the day, 1.5 hours around 8:30-9am and another 1.5 hour nap at around 12pm. When he wakes about 1:30ish, I try to keep him awake until bedtime routine (bath, bottle, bed) around 5pm when DH arrives home.

Occasionally he will start to show signs he's over tired and I let him nap around 4pm, for around 1 hour. When this happens, we move his bed time to around 7pm so he's been awake for at least 2 hours. Even when his bed time is later, he still wakes up at 5am! Meaning he only gets around 9-10 hours sleep at night instead of 11-12.

He usually goes down for the night around 5:30-6pm and sleeps through until around 5am. Sometimes he wakes at 3am or 4am but usually falls back to sleep when we pop his dummy in.

Everything seems so early - his bed time and his wake time, I'm really hoping I can push it back by an hour or two somehow. Can anyone help?

Anyone?

5am is an early start. Some babies just dont need as much sleep as others, but the fact that he is sleeping 9-10 hours consistently is pretty good. If you have tried making his bedtime later, or dropping the nap at 4PM and just powering through ti 7, and it hadn't worked then honestly, I would recommend just going to bed at 9pm yourself and getting your 8 hours. He will most likely just stretch to 7ish by himself in time.

7 months??I think that's Brilliant for his age. You're getting 10 hours plus a night! My 7 year old still wakes at 5:30/6 no matter what bedtime she has. The only thing I would say is he must be very wet to be going so long at night so you could try changing his nappy before you go to bed to see if it buys you another hour but you risk not getting him back to sleep so easy.

I'm afraid some of them are hard wired that way. My four year old rarely sleeps past 5.30.

I just console myself that it will end some day! Going to bed after 10 now seems very wild :)

In my experience it’s the first nap. An early nap allows them to wake up early.

I would put down to sleep at 10am and 2.30pm for 90 minutes each time. At this age I think you switch from working around them and following their cues to following more of a schedule, for mealtimes etc.

I think he does sleep a lot which is the main thing as if he was a terrible sleeper you would feel broken.
I would keep trying to tweak a little. It may take a few weeks of going down later to impact on his wake up time.
My 11 year old son was like this. He's 11 now and can sleep way past 5am. It does get better but really I think you are lucky that he is a good sleeper.

You may want to consider shifting naps a bit more. A later nap and then bedtime of around 6.30/7pm may result in a later wake time in the morning. You should try this for at least a week to see if it works and let him get into a new routine. It may be that he is just naturally awake at 5am...sorry to say! A friend of mine has an 18 month old who still wakes at 5am ready to party. Some babies just don't need as much sleep!

A 20 min nap at 4:30ish would push bedtime back, 10-11 hours is normal from bedtime.

I saw a lot of people who were stuck at a 5am wake up for ages. Every single one had dinner at 5 and the DC didn't eat after that.

At 7m you might just have to go to bed a wee bit earlier, but pushing dinner back might be an idea going forward.

You put baby in bed at 5pm-6pm, of course they will wake up 12 hours later. Put baby in bed at 7pm, they wake up 7am or 8pm and then they will wake up at 7/8am.

I think that's a pretty normal wake up time. Your child sounds like a very very good sleeper. Maybe try and drop the first nap and move bedtime back an hour.

@GGioia

You put baby in bed at 5pm-6pm, of course they will wake up 12 hours later. Put baby in bed at 7pm, they wake up 7am or 8pm and then they will wake up at 7/8am.

There's a part in my original post about how this hasn't made a difference

@MummaBear4321

5am is an early start. Some babies just dont need as much sleep as others, but the fact that he is sleeping 9-10 hours consistently is pretty good. If you have tried making his bedtime later, or dropping the nap at 4PM and just powering through ti 7, and it hadn't worked then honestly, I would recommend just going to bed at 9pm yourself and getting your 8 hours. He will most likely just stretch to 7ish by himself in time.

I think that's where we're at to be honest! I keep telling myself I'll embrace it and be an early riser with him but I don't think I'm wired that way 😂

That's bloody loads of sleep. Sleeping through at that age is amazing,

Unfortunately some kids just wake up early. My daughter is 2, she no longer naps during the day. She goes to bed between 7-7:30pm and wakes between 5am-5:30am most mornings. We have tried everything to get her to sleep in a bit - lots of exercise, staying up a bit later etc but nothing changes her wake up time.

He goes down between 05:30-6 and sleeps through until 5am at 7 months. That is absolutely AMAZING.

Sorry OP but I would consider myself lucky. Just go to sleep earlier as you do have an evening to yourself if he goes to sleep so early.

DS 3 is a natural early riser. Anytime from 4.30 is fair game and when the clocks go back we were up at 3.45. I have tried everything and it has no impact. I have faith he will grow out of it one day and all I can do, which is my advice to you, is move your day earlier- I regularly go to bed at 9/9.30 in order to get enough sleep.

But if you go to bed at 10pm you get 4/4.5 hours of an evening to yourself and then 7 hours full sleep?!

I have a 5 year old and 2 year old, haven't had that much sleep in years!!

OP I am not an early riser either, but I have a 5 week old and now see 5am nearly every morning .... and 2am .... and 11pm ....

Coffee. All the coffee. And the mantra of 'this too shall pass ..... hopefully'

It sounds like he's got himself into a routine that works for him. I'd worry about upsetting the apple cart and him not sleeping through if you start tinkering. Nice to have some time with your DH in the evenings too. He's coming up for another sleep regression window isn't he, maybe it will change then?

I hate to say this, but DS1 was exactly the same as a baby. He very rarely slept past 5:30am, and he was sometimes awake and wanting company before 5am. It wasn’t so bad when I was on maternity leave, but it was a killer when I went back to work. I accepted it, and just adjusted my own bedtime to 10pm at the latest. Ds did sleep all night though, and went to bed at 7pm so I saw it as a pretty good deal.

He is now 12yo and still an early riser, but thankfully doesn’t demand a bottle at 5am anymore!

I had one of those at that age. Gradually he started to wake later and we got to arou nd 7.30 with an 8.30 bedtime at about 22 months. However in the last 2 weeks he had reverted to early wake ups. Only 6am though!!

At 7 months DS was waking multiple times a night, even until about age 2 to 3. He didn't sleep past 5am until around the age of 4. It didn't matter what we tried, and we tried it all, it's just tbe way he was wired.