6 month old can’t get into deep sleep after 4am

[H44123]

Hi

looking for some help. Baby is 6 months and have slowly got into a bit of a routine. Aim to wake for 7am but if we don’t I keep baby in dark room white noise etc til then

nap 9-10
nap 12.15 - 1.15
nap 4-5
Bed around 7.30/8

just started this this week and have seen improvements where less waking during the night. Eg bed last night around 7.30/8 slept til 4am fed

problem is since 4am he can’t get back into a deep sleep. He’s light sleeping on me and every time I put him in his cot he wakes. It was 4am today but mostly it’s been an issue at 5am onwards probably since he was born. So before it was many wakings up before 5am but I knew come 5am I would struggle putting him in his cot to stay asleep. Now it seems whenever he has had his feed onwards. Other night it was 3am onwards

I feel like we have sorted the hourly wakings at night and I’m happy with 1/2 wakings but I have been awake since 4am today

Normal ime. Things health visitor and nanny friend recommended: weaning if you haven’t already started, later bedtime, earlier bedtime (helpful I know), cosleeping, sleep training, dream feed, night weaning, comfort item.

Could you put him in bed with you after the 4am feed? Sleep does get lighter after 4am.

I’d be inclined to tweak his nap times so that last one is just a catnap of half an hour, 4-4.30, gradually cutting it shorter til it’s gone by 8-9 months.

It's normal. Sleep pressure is low, the sun is up by then in summer etc. I would bring into my bed and try to feed them back to sleep for a bit, but you're unlikely to be able to tweak anything enough to get them sleeping until 7. It'll just naturally change as they get bigger.

Mine was the same at that age. Every time I put him back in his cot after 4am he’d be up and down so I just ended up bringing him into bed with us from about 5am (not before as didn’t want it to get earlier and earlier til he was with us all night) and he’d snooze with us til 7ish. Eventually he started sleeping longer and now at 15 months sleeps through til 6:30/7am and absolutely wouldn’t fall back to sleep with me as he’d be too busy playing, so enjoy the snuggles whilst you can and don’t be too worried about it becoming a habit. I don’t even remember how/when he stopped having his morning snoozes with us, just naturally and gradually phased out.

Normal
Anytime after 4.30 ish I didn't even bother trying to spend ages getting him back to sleep in his cot just brought him straight into our bed to snooze.

My dd was the same. In fact both of them were. They just didn't need consistent long runs of sleep. It worked better for bed time to be later but you might have to juggle the other naps