Controlled crying & 5am wake ups

[Val2021]

Hi!

Hoping someone can offer some advice….

We are almost a week in to controlled crying with my 7mo and early signs are promising however he is consistently waking at 5am and not going back to sleep no matter how long we wait/attempt the crying. Does anyone have any solutions/advice?

Thanks

What are naps and bedtime? Also day-time solids and milk?

Is he teething at all? DD wakes at 5am for a period if she’s teething, according to the fabulous sleep consultant we used, they enter a light sleep pattern and don’t really have enough sleep pressure left to drop back off with the discomfort.

Probably needs milk and then would go back to sleep?!

CC doesn’t work in the mornings. It’s only when they’re actually tired, he will have had too much sleep to be forced back to sleep. Give him milk, get up for the day. CC is teaching him to self settle, but he doesn’t need to settle if he’s slept enough.

5am is normal wake up time with lots of babies as they've had a huge chunk of sleep by then and need feeding.

What time do they go to sleep? If it's before 8pm then that's a very long time for a 7mo baby to go without milk.

You could try milk and see if he goes back to sleep but it could also be his wake up time. Was for my two.
DH and I used to take turns to get up for the day

I’m pretty sure we used to do a bottle around then and go back to sleep. Or id leave DP and get up and go for a walk then both go back to bed at 9!

It’s not perfect but it’s a decent stretch of sleep.

Sorry, but 5am was morning for us for a very long time, lean in to it, trying to get them back to sleep won't work. Morning is 6am now so it does improve

@TeamBlondie

CC doesn’t work in the mornings. It’s only when they’re actually tired, he will have had too much sleep to be forced back to sleep. Give him milk, get up for the day. CC is teaching him to self settle, but he doesn’t need to settle if he’s slept enough.

Exactly this.

Thank you all so much for coming back - I did think this would be the case to be honest but thought no harm in asking! Once you get a taste of the good life it is a bit hard not to get carried away . I’d have bitten your hand off for a 5am wake up if he was sleeping through from 7ish till then when he was up 8-10 times a night only last week so I think I should just thank my lucky stars!

I do think he would go back to sleep when he wakes at 5ish if cuddled back to sleep or brought in with us though but reluctant to do this as wouldn’t want to confuse him at bedtime. Does anyone know if that would be the case?

P.S. Thank you @ChittyBang1987 his naps are not hugely consistent and I don’t know if this could be part of the prob? We just try to follow wake windows of 2.5-3 hours and he could nap for anytime from 25mins to 1hr 20ish. We don’t let him sleep any later than 4.15 and bedtime bottle is 6.30/6.45 and bed for 6.45/7. It is hard to make sure he isn’t falling asleep at bedtime bottle… I think there are definitely improvements we can make here but no idea what!

P.P.S. Thank you also @PanettoneMoly He definitely appears to be upset by his teeth. Bottom 2 are through and thinking its top 2 next but he has been showing signs of this for a week or so now with no sign of them. Maybe worth waiting it out to see what happens when they make an appearance and see if that helps!

Think about 7 months I was doing

9am to 10am. No longer helped with early waking with our lo.
1pm asleep for as long as needed. Usually 220pm or 230pm awake. On rare occasions she slept toll 3pm I put my lo to be at 630pm or 7pm but struggled with 4 hours awake.
445pm sleep awake 515pm.
8pm bed.

Though some Los thrive on 234 routine. Depends on what your lo can cope with. My lo couldn't cope with 4 hours awake time at that age.

He’s only 7m! Is this really a problem for him though or more for your lifestyle? 5am isn’t that early, plenty of people get up at that time. Perhaps you could go to bed an hour earlier and make use of the time in the morning?

I used to dream feed my 7mo old (bedtime around 6pm as couldnt last any longer) and would feed when awake at 4/5am (they no longer woke for comfort, only genuine need). They usually went back to sleep but I didn’t!

I forgot to say a later bedtime of 8pm will help with early wakes too. It won't be long until lo is on 2 naps which can sometimes help.

You just have to suck up the 5am wake-ups. It's not on to do controlled crying at this time of the day, especially with such a young baby. If he/she has slept for 8 or 9 hours that is as much as you can ask for in one stretch.

Normal time to wake up at this age imo. Just enjoy the solid sleep and get to bed early.

My DD has been getting up at 5am for months now, it’s clearly just her natural wake-up time. I’ve played around with bedtime and naps, but nothing changes it. I’ve just learnt to accept it, and I go to bed earlier a couple of times a week to get a bit of extra sleep. She sleeps 10 hours solid, so that’s obviously enough for her overnight

How long did you try the CC before it worked? My 7 mo wasn't having any of it. Did you do Ferber? From 5am your options are feed and see if they'll do another hour sleep or get them up. As everyone says they're not going to do any later if they've had a long stretch particularly uninterrupted.

@Val2021 how is you lo sleeping now? Are you managing to sleep past 5am? My 7mo is exactly the same, 8pm bed sleeps through till 5am. I have a 3YO as well so not my first rodeo but she always slept until 6am - lucky me