Waking up at 5am every morning

[deathofastrawberry]

Hi everyone, hoping someone could give me some advice. My 6.5 month old has got into a habit of waking up at 4:30-5am every morning which is killing me I really would like for him to wake up earliest 6:30-7, for my own sanity!

I've seen a lot of stuff online about them having too much sleep or too little sleep but I really don't know which it is. I put him to bed in his own room at 7:15 ish after 3 usually short naps (30-60min) in his bouncy chair during the day, and he has a dream feed around 11pm. He also currently has one meal of solid food a day around 1-2pm.

Oh and I should mention that the reason he wakes is not hunger, sometimes when I give him milk it takes even longer to get him back to sleep and usually doesn't want a feed in the morning till around 9am anyway. It's also warm enough as the heating automatically comes on if temp drops below 19.5 degrees. When he wakes he's alert and happy, not crying.. as though he wants to wake up naturally at that time. He will not go back to sleep on his own in his cot at that time, even with a dummy or comforter which does work in the evening if he briefly wakes. He'll only go back to sleep if I rock him for a solid half hour but I have to hold him as he's not in a deep enough sleep for me to put him down, if I do he'll only sleep for 20-30 mins longer.

Not sure whether to try and work on more or less sleep during the day, or an earlier or later bedtime? It's so confusing.. any advice or words of wisdom?

I find worrying about why these things happen is more stressful than just going with the flow. By the time youve worked out a new routine to combat it it'll probably have changed anyway as they develop so quickly. Go to bed earlier, embrace the sunrises.

I agree with PP, everything is so transient at this age!

FWIW my 6 month old sometimes wakes at 4/5. I give her a dummy, cuddle then if that doesn't work stick her in bed with me. Nice 9am wake up today - result!

@Woodlandwater completely agree with you and that's what I'm worried about, by the time it's sorted out there will be another reason for him waking anyway. I'd just love it if there was an easy solution but there probably isn't! We do tend to go with the flow with no set routine.. It's just that I'm a zombie at that time and 1.5-2 hours would make all the difference!! And my DH is even worse 😂

@SouthParkCovid I would love it if that worked for us.. I think being in our bed is too distracting for him so makes him even more awake and alert.. I might keep trying it though!

What's Los naps like?

@Fancyties

What's Los naps like?

Usually 3 naps a day 30-60 mins at a time, doesn't usually wake up from the last nap later than 4:30 then bed around 7:15

What time is first nap?

@Fancyties If we get him back to sleep by rocking and he wakes at 6:30-7 then the 1st nap is around 9-9:30, 2nd one somewhere between 12 and 1 then last one between 3:30 and 4. And that's with me following his sleepy cues

That's good. What solved the early waking for me. Is even if lo woke. My lo wouldn't go for first nap till 9am and then capped at an hour, but ur lo doesn't sleep longer then 30 mins.

Also at 530am I don't get lo up. I do everything to get lo to asleep. Even if I have to hold them in Cot or arms. T

Thanks @Fancyties for the advice, I'm quite stubborn with not getting him up at that time too, so I usually just hold him until it's time to get up as I'm thinking that in the long run he'll eventually realise it's not time to get up yet. Glad to hear that worked for you. I'm just worried that maybe either the first or last nap could be linking to his night sleep as it's about 12 hours after his last nap that he wakes up in the morning. Hopefully it's just a phase! I still try and tell myself I'm lucky that he's not waking up every hour or 2 and he does do a good long stretch of sleep for a 6 month old baby

This question comes up so often on MN. The best advice is instead of trying to fix your DC is just take yourself away to bed an hour or two earlier a few times a week to catch up on rest. It's easier to change your routine than messing about with your DC that will probably change again in a week anyway.

Some of them are just like that, I had one that thought the day started at 4am for about 2 years. Things that helped are getting the coffee pot loaded before bed so it could go straight on when I stumbled into the kitchen, dressing the little bugger in really cute pjs so they are more adorable and knowing that for know at least you can watch what you like on the TV while they are so little. It was cold though, having the heating on would wake the bigger one.

@Skullycup45 I have thought about doing this, me and DH are very stubborn about going to bed early as we cherish our evenings together that we've finally got back but it's probably a sensible idea. I often end up falling asleep on the sofa anyway!

Haha @Thissucksmonkeynuts love the advice about the pjs. For some reason they aren't as cute when they wake up at 5am 🤣 but that's good advice, I should probably just suck it up and get up. I just thought in the long run it might help to keep him asleep until our ideal waking time.

You could (controversially) try dropping the dream feed at 11pm.

He may then wake at about 2am for a feed, but you’d hopefully then get him back down easier and sleeping longer in the morning.

Does he self settle to sleep at bedtime? If not he might be struggling with little long sleep cycles during the day, at this age mine would both have a longer nap at the second nap, eliminating the last nap completely or just having literally 5 mins

Also agree with skipping the dream feed

Another consideration is that you may have already started weaning/ he's getting to the stage where he needs food so as the pp said this may well change by itself in the next month or two as you go on the weaning journey

I would keep it dark and do what you are doing with getting up only at 7ish or whenever and not bribing him down at 5am

-* linking sleep cycles

@onwardsandupwards22 no he doesn't, he falls asleep after finishing his bottle but I've seen him begin to self settle recently during the evening when he wakes up briefly.. and nap time he usually falls asleep on the bottle, which I know isn't ideal! Or by rocking/bouncing in bouncy chair.

We started weaning recently which hasn't affected it as this started happening before that.

I might not do the dream feed tonight and see how we go! Thanks for your advice 👍

So are you saying that your six month old baby sleeps solidly from 1915 until 0430-0500, other than a dream feed at 2300?! And he doesn’t get hungry until 0900?! Seriously, why is this not good enough for you?
If YOU’RE not getting enough sleep then perhaps you and your partner can work out a different routine for yourselves but I really don’t think your baby could do much better than they are!

@SweetBabyCheeses99 I know and I really appreciate that he's a good sleeper at night, I was just wondering out of interest if there was anything I could do about the early rising that's all.. but yeah as I said I know I'm lucky that he does those long stretches at night.

It is a hard slug from 530am till 9am. But my lo soon got the idea. As she was still tired at 530am in end, it was easier to gey her to sleep. think at that age I did roughly. 9 till 10 nap. 1230 or 1 till she wanted nap usually 2 or 230pm. 430 or 445pm ish only till 5 or 515pm so 30 mins, sometimes 45mins.

Then 8pm bed. Having a later bedtime helped us too. Took a little while to kick in but it worked

I know it Cuts into your evening but before long it be 2 naps and about a 7pm or 730pm bedtime.

Does your little one have a full nappy when they wake up? Sometimes my little girl wakes up because she's just done a big wee. Maybe you could try changing it a bit earlier and putting him back down?

@Fancyties thank you for your advice that's really helpful ☺️ I might make bedtime slightly later then and see if it helps

@bcc89 I never would have thought it could be that but yes his nappy is full (just wee) in the morning so I'll give that a try, thanks 😊

No harm in trying and lo will be grumpy for few days..... took about a week to start her sleeping later. But I read can take up to 3 weeks. With the dream feed I used to change nappy at this point too so when lo wakes will be less full.