Feed at 5.30am?

Sleepbabysleeppls · 2022-08-08T20:09:48+00:00

DS is 11m and has STTN for a while months now. He was sleeping 7pm-6.30am ish which was amazing. However over the past few months he has started waking earlier and is now up most days at 5.30am. We leave him in his cot until 6am as he’s not crying (although is making it very clear he’s awake and ready for his day!). The problem is he’s then tired again by 8am. I try and stretch the first nap to as close to 9am as possible but he then probably ends up overtired. Anyway, I digress, I’m in a conundrum as to whether to just feed him a bottle in his dark room at 5.30am and see if it lulls him back to sleep, or will this reinforce the waking? What do others do, just accept 5.30am is morning and hope that it will get later in time?!

ItsDangerousInKingsmarkham · 08/08/2022 21:45

I'd try it and see if it works.

DD (10m) is kind of similar, she was sleeping until 6.45 or so but has started waking just after 5 and chatting away in her bed, or sometimes (like last night) waking at 4.30 and crying.

If crying I'd give a bottle for sure and try to resettle. Last night it was about 5.45 by the time DD resettled but I did then get half an hour's rest before my 4 year old got me up 😂

If just chattering away in his bed I'd just leave him I think, but you could try a feed and see if he can have another wee snooze.

At about 18 months all of mine have gone through a phase of REALLY getting up for the day at 5am and it's a bit different. They definitely wouldn't resettle at that stage, whereas I find my DD is quite calm and sometimes just has a little snooze in between her chattering.

Rowen32 · 08/08/2022 22:10

Might he need a later bedtime? Or shorter/different timed naps?

7 - 5:30 is 10 and a half hours which is a lot if he's getting good naps too.

It sounds like he's got all the sleep he needs hence the waking.

Youcancallmeirrelevant · 08/08/2022 22:11

If it was before 6:30am i fed as if it was still night, no way i was starting my day at 5:30am!

Original poster

Sleepbabysleeppls · 09/08/2022 05:41

@Rowen32 he has around 2.5 hours of day sleep. 1hr15 at 9-10.15am and 1hr15 at 1.30-2.45pm. Sometimes the second nap can be 2 hours in which case he would be having over 3 hours in the day which probably is a bit much, but it’s rare he does this.

If he’s up at 2.45-3pm I can’t really stretch bedtime later. I have tried too and it didn’t make a difference to wake up although I have read you need to do it for a few weeks, which I didn’t.

OP posts:

Rowen32 · 09/08/2022 10:45

Sleepbabysleeppls · 09/08/2022 05:41

@Rowen32 he has around 2.5 hours of day sleep. 1hr15 at 9-10.15am and 1hr15 at 1.30-2.45pm. Sometimes the second nap can be 2 hours in which case he would be having over 3 hours in the day which probably is a bit much, but it’s rare he does this.

If he’s up at 2.45-3pm I can’t really stretch bedtime later. I have tried too and it didn’t make a difference to wake up although I have read you need to do it for a few weeks, which I didn’t.

It sounds like he's getting plenty of sleep in total then..
My baby was getting two forty minute naps at that age but the first one was much later, circa 11:40..
You could try adjust the nap times as it sounds like he's getting enough sleep just not at the times that you want...
I would treat the wakeup as being during the night and don't get him up for the day.
Is it possible he could be hungry? Is he well established on solids?

Original poster

Sleepbabysleeppls · 09/08/2022 12:01

@Rowen32 I read sleep needs for this age are 12-16 hours, so mostly he’s getting around 12-13, which is at the very low end?

The nap timings are fine for me I just wish he’d sleep until 6-6.30am in the morning. I guess once he drops his morning nap that might happen as it will add onto his night sleep instead?

He could be hungry, he is not a good eater despite me offering him a whole range of foods (both finger foods and purees). He only has 1 tooth so makes finger foods hard but he does prefer to feed himself. Currently has 3x 7oz bottles a day. The thing that makes me wonder if it is hunger though is that I hold off giving him his bottle until as close to 7am as possible and he’s fine and doesn’t always finish it. Breakfast is then offered 7.45-8am.

OP posts:

Rowen32 · 09/08/2022 12:14

Sleepbabysleeppls · 09/08/2022 12:01

@Rowen32 I read sleep needs for this age are 12-16 hours, so mostly he’s getting around 12-13, which is at the very low end?

The nap timings are fine for me I just wish he’d sleep until 6-6.30am in the morning. I guess once he drops his morning nap that might happen as it will add onto his night sleep instead?

He could be hungry, he is not a good eater despite me offering him a whole range of foods (both finger foods and purees). He only has 1 tooth so makes finger foods hard but he does prefer to feed himself. Currently has 3x 7oz bottles a day. The thing that makes me wonder if it is hunger though is that I hold off giving him his bottle until as close to 7am as possible and he’s fine and doesn’t always finish it. Breakfast is then offered 7.45-8am.

It could be that he doesn't need anymore sleep. When my baby was newborn the wake windows were 45 minutes apparently, he didn't know that! We've never been at the higher end of the sleep levels here, I think they're helpful as a guide but also feel some babies don't need as much asleep as others and they'll let you know!

I've found any time we had trouble with night sleep, adjusting the naps times made a huge difference even if it was only by ten or twenty minutes.. So I really would recommend playing around with those especially if you're only looking for him to sleep half an hour longer then you just need to adjust one by that half an hour..

Dropping to one nap made no difference to night sleep here, he actually gets more day sleep now than he ever did when he was on two naps! So again, we play around with that nap time if he's waking too early..

It probably wouldn't do any harm to offer the bottle and see if it makes a difference, if it doesn't then just drop it.

I do think sometimes it's harder for them to go into another sleep cycle at that time of the night because they've got so much sleep their body just isn't tired enough to go into another one.

Rowen32 · 09/08/2022 12:16

What I meant by the day nap now is that both naps are consolidated into one and because he's very active now and walking he'll sleep 2/3 hours which is more than he used to sleep with the two separate naps so night sleep hasn't changed, if anything he might get a bit less if he's had a really long day nap..

octoberfarm · 09/08/2022 12:23

I had this exact issue with my youngest and did what you're thinking of - fed him in the dark and hoped for the best. From what I remember it worked, so worth a try!

Original poster

Sleepbabysleeppls · 09/08/2022 13:05

@Rowen32 so do you think cut the morning nap or move it later? It’s currently at 9am or at the very earliest 8.45am. So if waking at 5.30am that’s already 3.5 hour wake window. He could definitely go to sleep earlier as is yawning by 8am but I have read that putting them down too early can also perpetuate an early wake 😩so I try and keep him going.

I don’t think realistically I can put him down much later than 9am as just think he would then be really overtired (which again I’ve read can cause early starts?!). I could cut it though to an hour or 45mins (it’s currently 1hr 15).

I agree about the sleep needs varying. DS was an AWFUL napper until about six months. Before then he would only catnap so was having 4x 30 mins a day. So is actually having more nap time now that he has consolidated his naps… maybe that is the issue. It doesn’t seem excessive though for his age.

OP posts:

unicornpower · 09/08/2022 13:37

I would love to know the answer to this! My 11mo has started waking at 5.30 or sometimes earlier for no good reason lol I think she’s on the cusp of crawling and has started pulling herself up which I read can interfere with sleep. I’ve tried capping her naps, moving her bedtime later, moving her nap times but nothing seems to help! I tried the bottle but to be honest it just seemed to wake her up more 😂

Rowen32 · 09/08/2022 17:17

Sleepbabysleeppls · 09/08/2022 13:05

@Rowen32 so do you think cut the morning nap or move it later? It’s currently at 9am or at the very earliest 8.45am. So if waking at 5.30am that’s already 3.5 hour wake window. He could definitely go to sleep earlier as is yawning by 8am but I have read that putting them down too early can also perpetuate an early wake 😩so I try and keep him going.

I don’t think realistically I can put him down much later than 9am as just think he would then be really overtired (which again I’ve read can cause early starts?!). I could cut it though to an hour or 45mins (it’s currently 1hr 15).

I agree about the sleep needs varying. DS was an AWFUL napper until about six months. Before then he would only catnap so was having 4x 30 mins a day. So is actually having more nap time now that he has consolidated his naps… maybe that is the issue. It doesn’t seem excessive though for his age.

I don't think cut the nap if they're yawning at 8am, they wouldn't be ready for it. Can you play with their awake windows? So maybe have both naps a bit earlier? Or have the second one shorter?
I know you don't want to risk overtiredness but I think that comes more with being hours past a nap rather than a half hour which is what you're looking for..
They might be getting too much sleep in the afternoon and then aren't tired enough for bed, or not tired enough to sleep as long as you want them to..
Do you wake them up or let them wake naturally?
I found letting them wake naturally was best as I felt like their body was regulating the sleep to what they needed whereas any time we had to wake him or he got woken (unexpected noise) it seemed to totally mess everything up but I know some people happily wake them, I just always found it made a mess of things..