8 month old -early morning waking

[Ehc1989]

8 months old this week - early waking between 5-5:45am. Also still has 1 feed around 4-5am but then will only sleep till 5:40 if I’m lucky or sometimes not go back to sleep at all. Last week he slept 4 nights through till at least 5:30 but latest was 6:15 with no feed but back to waking for a feed & still up early.
Goes down to bed independently- mainly breastfed but has an 8oz formula bottle 30 mins before bed.
Nap 1 is never any earlier than 9:30, for max 1.5 hours but can occasionally be 40 minutes
Nap 2 - 2:30ish. - usually 40 minutes especially if he’s had a long morning nap.
Bedtime he falls asleep anywhere between 7-7:30pm depending on the last nap.
He will literally cry and cry if I leave him in his cot and he shares a room with my 4 year old so it’s not ideal 😓

I have a 9 month old (though quite a sleepy one) and our last nap can’t finish before 4 if we want to make a 7pm bed time, so I would say your last wake window might be too long, which can cause early waking. We’ve also been advised not to feed her after 5am because it kickstarts their metabolism so their body thinks it’s time to get up and creates a habit

Equally, it could just be a phase as it’s a difficult for sleep and hopefully passes quickly!

Leaving him in his cot to ',cry and cry' would be cruel to him, not just disruptive to his brother. I agree last wake window needs adjusting and maybe an 8pm bedtime. Some babies don't need so long overnight as others.

Sounds pretty normal. But everything is a phase, it won't last forever.

I would be happy with an 8pm bedtime but when his naps are ending between 3;15-3:45 I can’t stretch him to 8pm. I think he’s just a slow sleep needs baby, I go to bed every night by 9pm but it still doesn’t help with how tired I feel from the early waking as I don’t sleep solidly till he wakes up.

Just keep things as they are. It will change again.

Do you have a partner who can get up with the baby so you can catch up on some sleep? I do all the night feeds for my 8 months old so DH gets DS up after I've fed him and I go back to bed for a bit.

Mind used to have a mini catnap about 5:30 until 6 at that edge.

Then to bed at 8

@Oldermum84 - my husband is a pilot so works away a lot. Days like today being up from 4:45 and having both the kids & a dog to look after feels overwhelming lol. When he’s back he’s great but ultimately baby wants me at 4/5am when he wakes for his feed.

I have a 4 year old, 8 month old and (annoying) dog (who follows me around) too! I'm lucky my DH works from home and starts work at 8am. Defo let your DH help a lot when he's home. I remember with my first he went through phases of waking up early but they never lasted too long. Trying to remember that with this one. He's teething badly as well which doesn't help, he already has 6 teeth and a 7th on the way 🙈 so I'm up a lot at night and it's down to me as BF. This too shall pass, this too shall pass, this too shall pass etc etc .... 🤣

Good luck!

@Oldermum84 wow same ages kids & a dog too lol. Oh my god nearly 7 teeth, my 8 month old has none yet 😂 we’ve been thinking he’s teething since 4 months old but alas no teeth have popped yet so got all that to come to disturb his sleep too! Yes I feel you on the breastfeeding, although he does take a bottle for bedtime, a bottle in the night is near on pointless so it still feels on me.
We will come out the other side! Hope your 4 year old sleeps well now x