Early wakings

[MishMashMummy]

Does anyone have any advice on how to address very early wakings?

My baby is 5.5 months old. He sleeps pretty well - goes down between half past 6 and 7, and will sleep fairly well until 4am (he stirs now and then but settles quickly with a pat or a cuddle).

From 4am though, it’s like he’s ready to start the day. He wakes, sometimes wanting fed and sometimes just wanting to chat. It’s sometimes possible to settle him back to sleep, but even if he falls asleep he will keep waking every 20 minutes or so until we get up.

He’s often tired during the day, and his awake windows are barely 1.5 hours. I assume that’s because he’s not sleeping enough at night.

I have tried pushing back bedtime but he is always absolutely shattered by 6, and if I don’t start his bedtime routine then he gets overtired and is very hard to settle for sleep.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get him to sleep just a couple of hours later in the morning? Needless to say I am exhausted and struggling to cope with starting every day at 4am!

In case it’s relevant, my baby is exclusively breastfed.

Is baby sleeping through from 6.30pm - 4am without waking and without being fed?

He’s not being fed in that time, but he stirs and needs resettled every so often - usually a shoogle or a few seconds sucking a little finger sets him back off again. When he wakes at 4, sometimes he needs fed, sometimes he’s just awake without being hungry.

@MishMashMummy could be he is waking up early as he is hungry. You could feed him middle of night whilst he is asleep and see if it stops him waking up at 4.
Another thing could be he is too tired when he is going to bed. As I experienced, I used to put my lo to sleep late at 7.30pm I would find she would wake up early hours 5am. But if I got her to bed at 5.45pm she would sleep till 7.30am latest.

@SnappyMcSnapface

He’s not being fed in that time, but he stirs and needs resettled every so often - usually a shoogle or a few seconds sucking a little finger sets him back off again. When he wakes at 4, sometimes he needs fed, sometimes he’s just awake without being hungry.

In that case I'd suggest a wake-reset at 11pm (or whenever you go to bed).

So this isn't a "dream" feed whereby you keep baby asleep. Aim to wake baby fully, take a full feed and do a complete nappy change. Wind well, offer top up feed and wind again. Then put down and settle to sleep. The idea is to reset the biggest sleep of the night, so the clock restarts.