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Sleep

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Original poster

To feed or not at 5am? 9 month old

11 replies

rooibosh · 27/02/2008 05:27

Our ds wakes about 5am, awake far more than hungry, we have tried lots to discourage him, mainly ignoring him as well as tinkering with daytime sleeps. Is he likely to grow out of this? Our instinct now is to get up with him, but not feed him until 6/6.30am if possible. Does anyonehave experience of whether this would make any difference to when he wakes in the long run, or am I just making life harder for myself, when I could take him into bed and bf him for a while first (dh and i are planning to alternate the early mornings)?

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PuppyDogTails · 27/02/2008 06:49

I'm going through the same thing with my 9 month old at the moment. I did the following

got rid of his morning nap and put him down after lunch (a challenge to keep him awake!)
tried to get as much food as I could in him during the day
gave him a bottle top up at bed time (as well as a BF)
brought back a dreamfeed at 11:00pm

and something worked! He was still waking at 5:00am but going back to sleep in a few minutes.

Then, DP decided to be clever and didn't give him his dreamfeed the night before last and, guess what, he woke at 5:00am starving, he would only settle with food. Knock on effect - didn't want breakfast, hungry mid morning, didn't want dinner, only settled for a half hour nap, woke again at 5am this morning . I managed to settle him again without food and he's still asleep. I'm going to try and go back to the routine that worked and gradually reduce the dreamfeed over time.

Sorry, bit of a ramble but HTH!

PuppyDogTails · 27/02/2008 06:52

Sorry, to actually answer your question, I try my hardest not to feed at 5am, I'm worried it will encourage him to keep waking. By doing the 11pm feed I'm hoping to eliminate hunger as his possible reason for waking.

Flllightattendant · 27/02/2008 06:54

Not sure - i'm reluctant ever to try anything in terms of 'training' them to do things at a certain time, as I am of the lazy school of thought that says it is far easier just to fit in around them

Mine still feeds a lot in the night, when he needs it he needs it, I just get it over with iyswim.

Mind you I am not feeding him enough food I think, he has been ill so lost appetite but now wants solids again and my boobs are leaking! Argh...

Flllightattendant · 27/02/2008 06:55

Btw he wakes daily at about 5, then drifts off again after a feed sometimes.

They do grow out of it gradually I think. We go to bed at 7-8pm to compensate!

PuppyDogTails · 27/02/2008 07:08

I agree with Flllightattendant, I don't think I'd be trying to train him if I wasn't about to go back to work. I don't want him to be knackered when he arrives at nursery in the morning but also I'm keen to get as much sleep as I can! I'm going to bed at 9pm as it is.

Swaliswan · 27/02/2008 08:53

Does he go back to sleep after he is fed? If he does there is a relatively gentle approach to dropping the feed that you could try in the millpond sleep clinic book. You would need to keep a sleep diary for a week first and then you can look at whether daytime naps or food intake seem to be adversely affecting nighttime sleep. You can then start to gradually reduce the amount of milk he is having either by reducing the amount of time you feed him by a minute a day if BFing him or reduce the amount of milk you give him from a bottle. This helps his body to slowly get used to not feeding at this time so it gradually breaks the habit.

jelliebelly · 27/02/2008 08:59

Have you considered that he might be waking up out of habit rather than due to hunger? Our ds did this at around that age but was waking around 3.30am - far too early to get up! We tried a tip from a friend where you deliberatly wake him up before his usual habitual waking up time (meant setting our alarm clock for 3am for a couple of nights though!) then settle him back to sleep - after a couple of nights he didn't wake up at all. Might be worth a try.

jekyllandhyde · 27/02/2008 19:19

you are not alone, my dd always wakes up at around 5/5.30am, and in her case it has nothing to do with being hungry as she never wants a feed until at least 6.30am. she just wakes up because she's had enough sleep, and i've seriously tried everything to get her to sleep in later to no avail, so i've given up and accepted that i have to be in bed by 10pm every night! I've tried to avoid bringing her into my bed in the morning, despite how tempting it is, as i think that could add an incentive to waking at that time. So tend to get up with her when she wakes, and then hand her over to dp at 7am so i can crawl back into bed for an hour before he goes to work. i am definitely looking forward to the day she grows out of this...

moodlesoup · 27/02/2008 19:32

not, you're not alone, my 18month old is the same as jekyllandhyde - the only difference is i go to bed at 9pm as i'm just rubbish at getting at 5am! its deeply disturbing being up so early, and i don't think you ever get used to it.

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rooibosh · 27/02/2008 21:13

Thanks for all the help, I am trying some of PDT suggestions, moved nap to 11.30 today and he slept 2 hours and had a bit of formula after bf at bedtime, so we shall see. I don't want to wake him in the night as he sleeps well but is very difficult to settle if I go to him. And thanks for the reassurance that I'm not crazy to resist feeding him in bed at 5 when he is more energetic than hungry.

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rooibosh · 28/02/2008 07:24

Ds, who is now sharing with dd, was woken by her screaming at 4.30am, so we'll try again tonight!

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