Why does my baby wake so early?

[Gorl]

My baby is 9 months old and has always been a very bad sleeper. He used to wake hourly through the night, but we did a lot of work to get him to fall asleep on his own in the cot, and that improved things significantly.

However, try as I may I cannot consistently get him to sleep past 4;00 / 4:30 am. He wakes most days at around this time. He used to go back to sleep as long as I held him, but now I can’t get him to fall back asleep whatever I do.

He goes down for the night at around 7pm. He falls asleep on his own in the cot. He will then sleep through til 4 / 4:30.

We have a blackout blind, dim nightlight and white noise machine. He’s breastfed but has been night weaned for a couple of months and eats three solid meals per day. He’s a brilliant eater. Feeding him at the 4am wake up doesn’t send him back to sleep.

His naps are from 9 / 9:30 to 11, and 2:30 to 3:30.

Every couple of weeks we get a magic night where he sleeps til 6, but there’s no obvious reason for these nights.

Does anyone have any magic solutions? I’m totallt stumped and I’m about to back to work

I don't know OP. I have a 3 month old and he has quite specific timings every day snd I don't know what they are dictated by!

I think it’s just a phase unfortunately . Some children are just early risers? If he’s sleeping through from 7 until 4 at that age I’d say that actually really good and at least you are getting an evening. If he is able to go until 9 before a nap (5ish hours from morning wake up) then it doesn’t sound like he’s super tired with the wake up either and must be getting enough sleep. It’s hard but it won’t last. Go to bed as early as you can and take turns with your partner to do get ups on the weekend so you get a lie

I definitely appreciate him doing 7-4, you’re right that it’s not bad. Until a few weeks ago he would literally wake every hour of the night or more and I thought I might die from the exhaustion, so things are definitely loads better!

Hopefully it is just a phase and he’ll grow out of it. I don’t think he’s ever going to be one of those unicorn babies who sleeps til 7, but if I could even get him to make it to 5 it would be a help.

I think he is tired, because he always dropping by the time it’s his first nap and he could easily go down from 7:30 / 8 onwards most days. I just keep him up because I’d read that if you let them nap too early it can reinforce early waking.

Can you move bedtime to 9/10pm? Late afternoon/evening nap if he’s tired before. Could he be hungry when he wakes up at 4am? If he hasn’t eaten since say 6pm, he might simply need some milk or food because he’s hungry. He’s still tiny.

I don’t think he’s hungry - he isn’t giving hunger cues (he can do the baby sign motion for milk, but doesn’t do this at night) and on the occasions when I have fed him to see if it helps it doesn’t send him back to sleep.

I am considering a later bedtime. I think it would be tricky though - he is so ready for bed at 7, I think it would be hard to keep him up any later. It might just take a few days of adjustment, I suppose!

My LO was the same. Over time he gradually started to wake a bit later. Now at 22 months he wakes at 5.30 which is marginally better. I think loosing the 9.30 nap is meant to help but it will probably be a few months before he will be able to cope with this.

Get some sleep in yourself when he goes down. That's actually a very good stretch for a 9 month old. All mine were still breastfed through the night at this age.

Ooft, that is very early! I would definitely struggle with that. Could you move his second nap a bit earlier so he has more of a wake window between that and bedtime? DD usually had to be finished with her middle of day nap by no later than 2.30 or it would have repercussions overnight. It was usually 12/12.30 - 2/2.30 ish and her morning nap was shorter, maybe 30 mins by that age.

DD still fed once overnight till she was 1, but I'd take a 15-min feed overnight over getting up for the day at 4, so you have my sympathies!

Is he awake from 4am - 9am without a nap? That's quite a long time for his age IMO.

And I'd try moving his morning nap earlier so you can get the second nap in earlier. At this point, he's waking up at 4 anyway so I wouldn't be worried about experimenting a bit with nap times for a week or two.

Hey OP! My daughter went through a phase around this age where she woke at 4 on the dot and would only resettle in our bed! But sounds like you've tried everything. I was advised by a sleep consultant that early wakes are caused by overtiredness-could he have an extra nap or go to bed earlier? X

Try the wake to sleep method if he's still tired on waking at 4am.

Alternatively start pushing back his bedtime by 15 minutes every third night

I agree this sounds like over tiredness. What is she doing when she wakes? Full crying or just noisy? I had a similar situation with my baby and the only thing that worked (on advice of sleep consultant) when she woke at 4/4.30 was leaving her. She wasn't distressed, just loud - shouty etc, not really crying.
Personally I found tweaking the naps too much of a headf*ck as my baby never did what she was 'supposed' to do re naps. But she did learn to wake a bit later.