Really struggling with 7 month old 5am wake up

[Positivethoughts92]

My LO is 7 and a half months and for the past 8 weeks has been waking up consistently at 5am (it’s actually been before this around 4.30am a few mornings this week). I feel like I’ve tried everything so any tips would be greatly appreciated.
She has white noise playing all night, the room is pitch black all night, I have the heating on an app on my phone and it’s consistant the same temperature. It doesn’t seem to be hunger as she doesn’t take a bottle to 6.46-7am and is happy with this (she takes 3 meals and 4 bottles a day). She goes to bed around 7pm - 7.30pm (either of these times she still wakes up like clock work at 5am) and I can’t push this any later because from 6pm she’s so tired and cranky. She self soothes and gets herself to sleep.
At 5am I give her the chance to self soothe, then go in a comfort her but usually she’s too wide awake and has no interest. She bes smiling and kicking about but if I lift her and hold her back to sleep she snuggles in and sleeps immediately in my arms which makes me think she is still tired. I usually end up holding her back to sleep (because she has absolutely no interest in getting herself back over) then setting her back in cot and she will sleep for 15 minutes then I’ll continue this cycle until after 6am. I never lift her out of the cot to start the day to 6.30am as I don’t want to encourage her with the 5am wake. My husband does help but because she doesn’t be crying in the morning just making fed up noises or cooing and screaming away to herself he’s happy to leave her but then she bes totally exhausted all day. I stretch out her first nap of the day to 8.30 and she is exhausted by this stage. She has 3 naps a day first could be an hour an a half then 2 45 min naps in the afternoon - I stick to the 2.5 - 3 hour wake windows.
I was going to go to a sleep consultant but when I checked the tips they were putting up on instagram they seemed to be everything I was already doing so reluctant to spend over £200. She is happy in her own room since Christmas so I don’t want to regress to cosleeping.
Sorry for the long post. What am I doing wrong??

If she's not crying or making a fuss I'd try and ignore the early morning noises. Are you going in to her quite quickly when you hear her?

I suppose I maybe am going in too quick. I usually go in after 5 minutes or so. How long should I leave her? My worry is I leave her to 6am and she has lay there awake the whole time and then is exhausted and needs a nap by 7am 🙈

I had this issue with my 8 month old recently.
What worked for us was her going to sleep slightly later around 8pm and her two (usually 1.5 hours) naps shifting to later in the day. First nap is usually 11/11:30am and second is 4pm.
I was able to move her naps/bed time quite easily as when she woke around 5am, she was tired and would go back down around 6:30am. So the change in naps just followed from that.
I also put her in her own room recently and since we've been on this new sleep schedule (only a few days), she's been sleeping 8pm-8am without waking (she stirs and self settles), I still can't believe it and praying it's not a fluke!

I would say you're not doing anything wrong apart from overthinking and thinking it's about what you do.

Babies' sleep changes constantly. If you look at a group of five year olds you really can't tell which parents tried sleep routines and which just rolled with the chaos.

If she's awake, just keep it quiet if she's not upset and if she needs a nap at 7, let it happen. If she is upset give her some care.

My youngest dd who is now 7 was like this from an even earlier age. I’m afraid to say that she has never diverted from this 😆. I can count on 1, possibly 2 hands how many times she’s slept post 7am but it’s rare. She is, however, more of a 6am riser now, which is a bit better. 4.30 - 6am is just her norm. It’s been a killer.

That’s amazing, I hope it’s not a fluke for you either @MBM18. Did you leave her at 5am or did you get her up and changed nappy fed etc and then put her back down at 6.30am. Also how long did you let her sleep for at that time? I feel if I done that she would easily sleep an hour. My lo first nap of the day is always the one she sleeps longest.

Thanks for your response @LightSwerve Tomorrow morning I’m going to leave her to see.
This is my fear @Blabla81 i am not a morning person so I want to try anything to avoid this happening lol

You could just have an early riser. I would say don't distress yourself too much with the 5am thing. I had to accept that 5am was my morning for a good few years. Their sleep can fluctuate. She has no idea what time of morning it is so not getting her up won't make any difference. Mine was almost 5 before they shifted to 6am and as a PP said rarely sleep past 7 these days.
I'd also say if she sounds content then to just let her be in the cot. It may only be a blip, or she may be shifting sleep patterns a bit.

This is me but 7 years later. My child is an early riser and we have tried everything.

He now can entertain himself in his room and I think he falls back to sleep if he wakes up about 4.30/5 for another hour or so.

You need to tweak the naps.

A long morning nap compensates for and reinforces early morning waking.

You should have max 45 mins morning nap, 2 - 2.5 hrs lunch nap, no afternoon nap.

Approx timings
9.15am morning nap up by 10

12.30 - 2.30 or 3 lunchtime nap

6.30pm bed

@LapinR0se I agree these nap times would be perfect and I do think she is at the age she’s ready to drop to 2 naps but I can’t get her to stay awake to half 9 when she’s been up on and off from 5 🙈

You will need to do the first nap at 8.30 for a while and push it back gradually. But no longer than 45 mins

Your seven and a half month old has unbroken sleep from at least 7.30pm to 4.30am? This is fabulous! That’s nine whole hours, at least, and they are not even a year old. My much, much older children have very rarely ever achieved that.

Sleep changes all the time, especially at that age, but I really don’t think you are doing badly. Children tend to wake early. If she can’t flex to a later wake up can you flex to an earlier bedtime for you so you get enough sleep?

Most nights @Troglo so I am very lucky in that way. It’s took (what feels like) a long time getting to this stage. She was waking every 20 mins all night before going in to her own room but can’t help compare to friends babies that sleep 7-7 from 12 weeks old 🫣 but I know I shouldn't compare!! I would be happy with even 6am lol

Very few sleep 12 hours straight on a regular basis.

A few do, but don't underestimate the bullshitting that goes on.

I didn't change her nappy but I'd bring her into bed with me and breastfeed her and rock her until she went back to sleep, no lights on etc, which could take around an hour. Then when she went back to sleep she'd wake up herself after 1.5 hours roughly.
But this is how I got her first nap of the day to be later (still classing that 1.5 hour of sleep as part of her night sleep), as she'd then wake up around 8ish and go down for her first nap around 11.
Now her night schedule is pretty much 8-8.

Oh man it’s hard.
I have a 2 yo but the only common theme I have found around parents is that they seem to want their child to go to bed early plus get up at an acceptable time. I think she sounds like she’s ready for 2 naps.
bare in mind 7-5 is 10 hours overnight so with naps as well it’s a lot of sleep! She probably simply can’t sleep anymore!
What has worked for me is DONT follow wake ‘windows’ (I’ve read these are made up for the sleep industry to get parents to spend hundreds on kids sleep), follow sleepy CUES which is grouchiness/red eyebrows/rubbing eyes etc. you might find you can push sleep back and get to 2 naps xx

PS - ignore people who say their baby sleeps 7-7. Most of them aren’t telling the full truth (I.e what they mean is no bottles, but they’ve had to help settle once or twice)

5 am isn't too bad, she's probably an early riser. It's the time me and my husband wake for work, so it'd be fine in our house. At least it's not 12, 1am, 2am, 3am etc!!!
When mine were that age they'd wake about 7ish but then they went down for their night sleep about 10pm when we went to bed. Can you fight through the crankiness and put her to bed later?

Hi there
I’d agree with others that it just may be their way, but you could perhaps try a dream feed when you go to bed, see if that knocks them out a bit longer….

Hopefully The Baby has opportunity for nap during the day.
Just remember Babies are just Human body clocks.
If you would like this to continue: ( After babys been checked during other time during the night)
GO TO BABY , open curtains, sing to baby , change diaper, give drink. Massage baby. Get other family members involved in interaction.
Do ALL these things to continue.
If you DO NOT want it to continue. Descreetly check baby and make sure baby is warm .
Or not too warm. * Maybe HEATING Erupts and it gets too warm . Is there ventilation. Black out curtain. Absolutely No Chatting or interaction. Gradually lengthen the period of time which interaction begins from when baby first wakes. First wait fifteen minutes, first day.
Half hour next day. And do on Its training your babys Body Clock on when The Day starts.
Body Clock is the key. If you give Milk and Diaper attention at a certain time- babys bidy clock expects it every day.

What happened OP? Did you manage to leave her?
I found putting a couple of small safe toys in the cot before I went to bed bought me quite a bit of time in the morning when DC weren’t waking hungry and creating a big fuss! If you rotate them and when mobile enough put at other end of the cot, they get used to entertaining themselves for a while when they first wake. (This assumes they are decent at settling themselves in general). Sometimes they might be awake for half an hour or 40mins before dropping back off to sleep, sometimes they might not go back to sleep at all. Just remember re daytime naps that, as they get older, eventually ALL daytime naps will fall away but you will ALWAYS want them to sleep well at night (and you’ll never want them waking habitually at 5am). So if you have to wiggle daytime naps about to facilitate the baby sleeping or staying calmly in cot for a bit longer in the mornings it’s probably worth it. Personally, if you have a baby that will settle for a 7pm bedtime I wouldn’t push bedtime later unless an absolute last resort as it may well not make a difference to morning waking but could well make a difference to how easy their bedtimes (and your evenings) are now and in future.
Essentially - if the baby isn’t crying for you, leave them to it. They will soon let you know if they need you🙈

The Gina ford contented baby book is really good with ideas about how to get your baby into a routine and what can be done if baby wakes too early etc. I used this book to guide me with my LO. Try not to worry though- sounds like your doing a great job x

Put her to bed later.

Some children are just earlier risers, my eldest was up at 5 until he was in high school. I tried everything and nothing worked so I just had to adapt my routine and get an early night.