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??

Edited below

You do have to laugh - that when someone disagrees with your post they turn angry and the grammar police come out.

I am pretty sure that now you’ve corrected my typo the OP’s baby will now sleep.

Stop trying to attack me and act like the professional you claim to be. If you have some research that could help the OP I suggest you post that.

Your behaviour, for a professional is embarrassing. I have nothing further left to say to you.

A doctor should know that there is some science to baby sleep and that good sleep habits can be learned….this applies to adult sleep also of course.

I am sorry if you think I am angry- I can assure you I am very much not! I am aware this is an emotive issue and I’m sorry if this has triggered anyone in any way.

I fail to see how my ‘behaviour’ is ‘embarrassing’. But again, understand there’s lots of emotions flying around in relation to this.

My concern was around your original post

’Learning to sleep, like any skill takes practise. If he woke and I went in and lifted him out he’d never learn to go back to sleep’

Implying to the OP that babies won’t sleep unless you intervene is just not true- they will, it just takes time- hence why I wrote about my personal experience and the difference between my 2 children.

Sleep training is a choice, I don’t want anyone to feel it’s the only option. It’s a personal choice and needs to be informed. Equally my way of being ‘responsive’ is a choice, it’s not easy and may not be right for everyone. But each individual family needs to make that judgement themselves based on the information out there.

sigh again, missed the point and taken it personally.

good luck OP with whatever you decide to do ❤️

@Themumdoc i didn’t take it personally at all. I’m just stating some facts.

In terms of research. I’m not going to link articles biased towards my own view I’m afraid, that’s not balanced

Go to ‘pub med’ (the home page for all medical research articles. Search ‘sleep training infant’ and have a peruse. There’s lots of trials and studies, many of which are a little unreliable and contain bias that should have been removed. If you bear this in mind you can have a read of the research and make an informed choice x

I used a sleep consultant at 10 months and she was AMAZING!!! Her package was £100 so do PM me if you want her details.

With her help we got our son into a lovely, regular routine and sleeping 11 hours overnight (7pm - 6am).

Before using her, his sleeping pattern was so erratic. He was much worse than your baby though as he would be up many times during the night for hours at a time.

But anyway, she was fab.

She advised we do two naps a day, each lasting 1hr 15m. His first one was about three hours after waking (9am) and his next one would be 2pm).

Whilst we putting the new routines into place we treated early morning wake-ups in the same way we would treat night time wake-ups : leave him alone unless he started getting upset, and then go into his room, lie him back down with no eye contact, tell him it was “sleepy time” and then leave the room again. We didn’t interact with him any more than that and would go in at 2, 4 and 8 minutes but only if he was upset/crying.

It took about a week before all the changes worked but it was £100 very well spent.

I was once on your shoes drove myaelf bonkers. It isnt anything you did. It os normal for kids to have funny moments with sleep as they learn and grown.

I knew 1 mum in my group who just allowed baby yo stay in cot realised it was boring and they enetually started to sleep through. Another was finding baby unhappy so bought to bed for the last 2 hours and eventually that phased out.

You have to do what you need to do. Rested is best rather then trying to follow the unrealistic standards of sleep consultsnts.

I had a friend who used one and it worked for 6 weeks then stopped working. It isn't as amazing and miraculous as they claim. It can have the opposite affect.

@Themumdoc agreed I looked into psychologists view and child develipment experts and they all day the same thing. No Bueno.

Even a Pediatrician Dr Bill Spears - fantastic Dr. His wife is a child nurse specialist he is a paediatriciam they have 8 children and 1 child they had to night parent as they call it due to their temperament. They are against sleep training and happily tended to their child all night as and when needed.

I agree these sleep "consultant's" dont understand the long term damage. Cortisol levels at that young age for long periods of time. Just look at adults who are stressed not only organ damage but also mentally to.

It is a choice every parent must make. Just as with anything they choose for their child. I went to school with a mix of kids some parents allowed their under 16 year olds to drink, to smoke, to have sex etc etc. All illegal and bad foe them but the parents made that choice. So sleep training is the same. Each parent must decide.

I thought I could do it but after research and seeing my child. Just rejecting his natural instincts and mine made me feel disgused with myself.

Once I accepted what was natural I was happier and healthier and nurtured the bond 24hr parenting is a real job. Not a 7am-7pm kinda thing. You can't spoil a baby who needs comfort.

Sounds like LO sleeps amazing! When she wakes you say she falls asleep in your arms why don’t you take her into your bed I’m sure she’ll snooze for at least another hour there, and you’ll both get some sleep! Then you can gradually shift her day later