Baby will not sleep past 5am

[Inthehills90]

Just looking for any tips or reassurance really as I've tried everything. My five month (nearly six month) old wakes at 5am everyday no matter what. I've tried putting her down earlier/later, naps shorter/longer, feeds in the night/not, letting her chat it out, black out blinds. Her naps range about 2.5-4 hours in the day and usually down for sleep at half 7, it's totally random if she sleeps through or wakes, more often than not she's up twice for feeds but it's more the up for good at five that's starting to really get me down, I'm exhausted. Any advice or just others in the same boat would really help.

Do you feed her/give her a bottle at 5 and try and put her back to bed? I always treated any wake up before 7am at that age as still the middle of the night

My ds woke at 5 for the day, every day until he was 10. Sorry, some kids are just like that. It was hard when he was tiny, got easier once he understood “stay in bed til we say it’s time to get up!”

My dc were exactly the same!
Looking back now I don't know how I did it, especially when I went back to work. They did eventually start to sleep longer, but my youngest is nearly 9 and is still awake at 6am everyday, even if she has a late bed time. Thankfully now she is old enough to amuse herself until I wake up.
All I would say is naps seem a bit long - maybe cut back to 2 hours in the afternoon?

5am is a natural time for many kids to wake up.

It is potentially easier to roll with it than waste energy trying to change it.

Sorry, I do know it's hard work.

How many naps? I had very low sleep needs kids and they were on 2 naps by this age, but I think that's uncommon! Again, just my experience, but my kids just needed less sleep and I've always had to do later bedtimes. They never have been able to go to bed at 7pm. When making changes to bedtimes or naps it can take up to 2 weeks to see results.

I just looked at my youngest sleep log for example at 5.5 months

Wake 7:30
nap 10:15-10:35
nap 2:15-4:15
bed 8:30
2 wakes for feeds overnight.

I get you...My son woke at 5.30am until he was 2 then it became 6am. Putting him to bed later never made a difference; he'd still wake at that time but he'd be cranky due to less sleep.
Where is the baby sleeping? Could you bring her in the bed with you at 5am so you can still rest?

Some children are just early risers. My three year old has rarely ever slept past 5am. My one year old often sleeps until 7am. I haven't done anything different second time around 🤷‍♀️

One of mine did this till 18 months, another was 4.30am till aged two. Both wouldn’t go back to sleep/nap till late morning. I’ve had six children, very healthy sleep routines/bedtimes for them all but some children are like this I’m afraid.
The only tip I have is go to bed when they do as often as you can. You’re not alone, and it does stop. (When mine did stop they were then -2 hours asleep each night like their siblings for the rest of childhood.)

Thanks everyone! She's still in her bedside cot at the moment, I haven't been feeding her at that time usually as she's been up at 4 for one🤣 but I could try that. I've tried pushing her first nap to 9am but if I'm honest I haven't noticed a difference and she does get pretty cranky in the day, she really seems to need her naps still so I don't know whether to drop to two but I feel like she'd really struggling with that..oh god I don't know 🤣

One of my dts was the same, they're nearly 14 now so the early starts are but a distant memory.
He is still an early riser now which is a god send when getting him up for school.
He just has that early internal body clock

I could cope once we got to 5am, I just accepted that was my morning start time. Even now ds still gets up around 6am. Some are just early risers, I never considered it a fault that he woke at 5am. He always got enough sleep and making his bedtime later or mucking about with naps never made the slightest bit of difference.

Wrong thread sorry

tbh I think you have an exceptionally good deal there, I'd take it. Your child is sleeping far more and far better than any child I have ever looked after ( ex nanny, so that number is in the high double figures)

Ok thanks! Sounds like a run with kind of situation, thanks everyone

@Inthehills90 has this got any better for you? My son is 10 months next week (1st December baby) and consistently wakes between 4:30-5:30am and has done for months no matter what I’ve tried!

Eldest DC was like this, god we tried everything - I am very much not a morning person but thankfully DH is and took the brunt of the early ams (I did the night wakings).

Nothing worked. Gradually 5am became later but at age 11 it’s still rare for her to sleep past 6.30. From age 2.5/3 we could mostly get some extra Zs by giving her a bunch of books and toys at 5am and telling her to stay quiet till the sun on her gro clock was up.

Are her naps too long ? Also try giving a dream feed and see if that helps maybe ?

Mine did this, still does at 6yo. Thank god he will stay in his room until his gro clock lights up now. But we tried EVERYTHING, and nothing worked, he is just a lark. In bed by 7 and sleeps all night though so...swings and roundabouts.

Move bedtime later consistently? Go to 9.30 or dream feed at 10 and you might get a 7am wake up instead? An. 8.5 hour sleep is really good for a five month old, it could just be their natural wake up time!